Community Formula Validation Loop
Iterate a product across varied users until feedback supports launch
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
This loop turns an initial product conviction into a tested launch candidate. Begin with a clear hypothesis about the benefit and experience, then recruit community members across the skin types, tones, age groups, and concerns the product is intended to serve. Use focus groups and controlled sample trials to gather feedback, make small changes with the formulation partner, and repeat the cycle rather than assuming one positive round is enough. Glow Recipe spent at least a year and a half on this process for its first product, with Lee describing hundreds of tweaks before final approval. Only then did the founders take a lab sample in a plain white jar and an iPad concept slide to Sephora, separating formula readiness from finished retail packaging.
Origin
Lee and Chang developed Glow Recipe's first proprietary formula through extensive community testing and repeated work with their chemist partner. Extracted from The Foundr Podcast.
Core principles
- 01Founder conviction begins a test but does not finish it
- 02A product should be tested across the people it intends to serve
- 03Small formulation changes deserve fresh user feedback
- 04Retail presentation follows product validation, not the reverse
How to run it
- 1
Define the product hypothesis
Specify the intended user, benefit, format, and experience before testing. Treat founder intuition as the reason to investigate, not as proof that the product is ready.
Pro tip Include both functional performance and how the product should feel to use.
Watch out A compelling origin story cannot substitute for product evidence.
- 2
Recruit varied testers
Invite people from the intended community across relevant user characteristics and needs. Use clear confidentiality and testing terms where prototypes require them.
Pro tip Recruit beyond the founders' closest friends and most enthusiastic fans.
Watch out A narrow tester group can hide failures that appear in the wider market.
- 3
Run structured trials
Use focus groups and take-home samples to gather feedback on the formula and user experience. Ask the same core questions across rounds so changes can be compared.
Pro tip Separate comments about efficacy, texture, scent, packaging, and routine fit.
Watch out Unstructured praise is difficult to turn into a formulation decision.
- 4
Iterate with the maker
Translate recurring feedback into controlled adjustments with the chemist or manufacturer. Retest each meaningful change rather than stacking unverified tweaks.
Pro tip Keep a decision log linking each change to the evidence behind it.
Watch out Endless refinement can become delay unless approval criteria are explicit.
- 5
Approve and pitch
Freeze the formula when testing supports the intended benefit and experience. Present the validated sample with a concise concept that helps a retail partner understand the final product.
Pro tip A clear prototype and concept can be enough before final packaging exists.
Watch out Do not let retail enthusiasm erase unresolved product concerns.
In the wild
Glow Recipe recruited community members through social media, brought testers into its office, ran focus groups, and sent samples under NDA. Lee says the founders worked through hundreds of tweaks with their chemist over at least a year and a half. They then pitched Sephora's chief merchandising officer using a lab sample in a white jar and a concept slide on an iPad.
→ According to Lee, Sephora agreed to launch the product across its US stores.
Common mistakes
Treating instinct as validation
The founders believed in the concept but still tested it repeatedly across different prospective users.
Testing only the average user
A physical product can perform differently across relevant user types, ages, and concerns, so variation belongs in the test design.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for a high-stakes physical product whose performance and experience vary across customer groups.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for low-risk digital experiments where a reversible live release can produce faster and more representative evidence.
From the transcript
“we wanted to validate it over and over and over again”
“we did a lot of focus groups”
“it ended up being hundreds of tweaks”
From the episode
629: $50K to $300M+: How Two L'Oréal Employees Built Glow Recipe
Sarah Lee