Where Product Ideas Begin (And How to Catch Them Before They Float Away)

You’re three-fourths of the way through mowing the lawn when the thought sneaks in: “What if we…?”

Not the frantic brainstorm kind. The real kind—the quiet spark that shows up when your brain finally has space to breathe. No meetings. No notifications. Just the hum of the mower and the kind of clarity that only shows up when you're a little sweaty, a little tired, and not looking at a screen.

This is where good product ideas are born. And when one lands, the real question is: does this thing have legs? Is it even possible to do? 

If you’re a Validic client, you’re already sitting on a powerful toolkit. Let’s talk about how to turn your next spark into something real, quickly, and without rebuilding half your stack.

Build Mode, No Setup Required

Your Validic stack wasn’t just built for compliance and connection. It was built for momentum.

You already have access to:

• A standardized, human-readable data model

• A Marketplace to connect real-world devices in minutes

• A live sandbox to test flows before dinner's on the table

Let’s talk about that human-readable bit for a second

You likely already know what that means, and if you don’t, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Validic’s API is designed to be readable by humans. Not just machines. That means developers and product managers can actually look at a response and understand what it says without decoding an acronym salad or chasing documentation rabbit holes. 

We packed the data model with context: where the metric came from, how it was generated, what kind of device was used, and whether it was entered manually. So within seconds, you can see that a patient weighed themselves and manually entered “130.2 KG.” 

So what does this mean for you?

It means that with just a few API calls, you can connect a device, fetch real-world data, and start seeing how your users, devices, and designs will interact in the wild. You’ll know how a source behaves. You’ll understand the data formats. And you’ll be able to design around it, all before engineering writes a single story.

Practical Magic

Let’s say you run a program that helps people eat healthier. Your users make the effort, but they drop off if they can’t see progress.

You wonder: what if we could show how better food improves health markers, like blood pressure?

That spark? Before we spend days creating a prototype, let’s find out if it has legs.

Here’s how fast you could go from lawnmower idea to napkin diagrams you can trust:

1. Provision a user in your sandbox.
   1. You already have access. Use the API Explorer (see our API Docs!) or your own tooling. It takes seconds.
2. Grab the Marketplace URL from the response.
   1. This is your launch point for connecting a device like Withings, Omron, or iHealth.
3. Connect the source via the Standard Marketplace.
   1. You’re validating an idea, not building a custom flow just yet.
4. Call the Measurements resource.
   1. You’ll get systolic and diastolic. All labeled. All in mmHg. All with clear source info.
5. Test the device.
   1. Keep testing and see what’s possible with the data you can generate. How does the device behave? Is there a delay between when the reading is taken and when it is received by Validic? Cloud sources not cutting it? Perhaps pairing a BLE device using our SDK would provide a better experience? Good news, we can help you test that too, but that is a little more involved. 

Is That Smoke We See?

So, does it have legs? Do we see the glorious transition from spark to smoke to flame?

If yes, it's time to dig deeper and build that rapid prototype. And good news: you've just done most of the research your dev team will need to start writing stories to build your proof of concept. If you’re lucky, your team is already streaming data from those resources, and a support ticket is all you need to start the process to enable new data sources. 

Alone or With Friends

One of the best parts of working with Validic is that you can test something without opening a new project or begging for resourcing.

Your sandbox is always on. Your tools are always available. Your time-to-feedback is as fast as you make it.

You can:

• Test a new metric (like adding temp or oxygen saturation)
• Try out intraday data (if enabled)
• Switch from REST polling to streaming for real-time insight
• Try a new data source or resource

No extra contracts. No new vendors. No 18-month roadmap slotting. Just try it and see.

And if your sandbox is missing a data source, reach out to Support and we can help. Think BLE devices might be a better fit? We also have a sample SDK and app that you can use for testing.

Without Validic vs. With Validic

Let’s keep it honest.

You didn’t buy Validic just to collect data. You bought it to move. From “What If” to “Let’s Go”

The beauty of innovation isn’t always in the big build. Sometimes it’s in how fast you can test the small stuff.

Maybe that next idea becomes a new program. Maybe it just becomes a better UI decision. Either way, your job isn’t to have every answer. It’s to explore. To innovate and dream.

And if your tools let you explore faster than your competition? That’s not just helpful.

That’s leverage.

Where to Start (Today)

You already have what you need:

• Provision a user

• Connect a source

• Fetch measurements

• Stream and replay events

Still not sure what’s turned on for your org? Ping Validic Support. We’ll set you up.