The forty-eight hours

Twelve is enough to distinguish a strong signal from a dead one, and few enough to do in a weekend. Fewer than eight tells you nothing; more than twenty is procrastination wearing a lab coat.

Build the list before you contact anybody

Twelve named people or businesses who have the problem — not twelve people who might find it interesting. If you cannot name twelve, that is your first finding, and it is about the market rather than about your list-building.

Exclude friends and family entirely. Their politeness bias is unmeasurable and it will be the thing that misleads you.

Ask all twelve, and write down the noes

Contact each one, have the conversation, and make the ask. Whatever happens, record: what they said, and — for refusals — the specific reason.

The refusals are the deliverable. "Too expensive" is a different finding from "we already have something", which is different again from "that isn't actually a problem for us". The first is a pricing result, the second is competitive, the third means stop.

How many said yes to the costly ask

The count out of twelve who did the thing that cost them something — paid, committed, or booked a real slot.

The most common reason for no

In a few words. This is the sentence that decides what you do next, and it is usually not the one you expected.

Zero out of twelve

Nobody committed. Eight of them said some version of "we just deal with it".