Customer Development Is Not Just For Startups
Customer development is not just for startups. We have Fortune 500 clients launching new products who rely on customer development methods.
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Customer Development
Pictures Are to Words as Conversations are to Surveys
You waste time and reputation using these methods for B2B customer discovery: surveys, landing pages, and asking for endorsement before product experience.
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Customer Interviews: Allow Yourself to Be Surprised
A few thoughts on customer interviews and why their capacity to surprise us makes them preferable to surveys and landing pages for early market exploration.
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Business Model Representations
A quick overview of business model representations in active use in 2011. More of a time capsule now.
Business Model Representations Read More »
Tips for B2B Customer Development Interviews
This post on customer development interviews is one of my most popular. If you would like help preparing for customer development interviews or reviewing results from recent interviews please sign up for a no cost no obligation office hours session and I will be happy to help you rehearse or de-brief. Here are my lessons learned from taking
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Malcolm Gladwell Suggests Appreciative Inquiry Into Inner-City Schools
Malcom Gladwell suggests appreciative inquiry into inner-city schools. We can apply lessons from effective sports programs to the classroom.
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Appreciative Inquiry Mindset Essential to Customer Discovery
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a mindset that is essential in customer discovery. It encourages you to look for what’s working in an potential customer’s organization and “work with the grain of the wood.” It enables you to build on demonstrated strengths and accomplishments in framing your solution to a critical business problem.
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Customer Development Conversations With Busy Prospects
Always assume you are targeting busy prospects for you customer development conversations.
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It’s the Picture on the Box that Sells the LEGO Set
It’s the Picture on the Box that Sells the LEGO Set: provide specific examples of how your product can be used to solve problems.
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Selling to a Business Requires Conversations that Build Trust
Selling to a businesses requires conversations that build trust. Trust is built over time from predictability and meeting commitments.
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SKMurphy, Inc. 8 Years In: What We Are Working On Now
Steve Blank: “Sean Murphy adds tremendous value for startups in setting them up “getting out of the building” and how to make sense of the data they’ve gathered. He’s one consultant I personally know (I’m sure there are others) who doesn’t confuse his role with the founders. I think of his consulting firm as a
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Buying a Map vs. Learning to Explore
Learning to explore is a key skill for entrepreneurs. Ask questions you don’t know the answer to–where the answer would have an impact on your ability to assess the risk in your venture or would help you to define a key aspect of your business.
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A Scientific Approach to Startups Won’t Create “A Science of Startups”
Taking a scientific approach to startups by formulating and testing critical hypotheses is a great idea, but it won’t create a “Science of Startups.”
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Crucial Customer Development Concepts At GITPRO Sat-Jun-18
A talk on “Crucial Customer Development Concepts” that covers the basis for conventional wisdom on customer development in Silicon Valley.
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Technology Changes Fast, People, Not So Much
Technology changes fast: you need continually renew your technical skills and those of your team. Soft skills–people skills–have a much longer lifetime.
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How To Determine Your Competition During Customer Discovery
Want a simple way to determine your competition during customer discovery: consider what your prospects would have to give up to buy and use your product or service. The time and money you want prospects to spend on your offering have to come from somewhere: prospects will normally choose to take it from what they
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Treat Prospects Well–Allow For Another Conversation
It’s always a good idea to treat prospects well: you don’t want to foreclose the possibility of another conversation or a referral.
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Giving Up Too Soon, Persisting Too Long
Distinguishing between where you are giving up too soon or are persisting too long is a hard problem. Here are some tips.
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Interview Prospects To Find Unmet Needs, Persistent Problems, and Goals at Risk
Customer understand when they have unmet needs, persistent problems, and goals and risk. They are normally very good at describing their problems and constraints on a solution but less accurate in fully specifying a solution.
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We Use a Wiki to Organize Customer Interviews
Tips for using a wiki to organize customer interviews for customer discovery and to assess perspectives on their offering after purchase.
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