Leanspark Sofia 2011 - Rob Fitzpatrick on Customer Development

Customer development

(and how it's going to save you money)

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Lean is about eliminating waste

The biggest waste is building a product nobody wants to pay for

Very few startups have trouble building their product

The most common problem is an absence of customers

Customer development helps in 2 ways

1. If you're building the wrong thing, it helps you learn that sooner

2. Once you're building the correct thing, it helps you find customers before you launch

It's very simple

1. Talk to lots of customers2. Deeply understand their needs3. Write down what you learn

But it's not sales

It's about learning

There are lots of possible ways to learn what your customers want

What you need to learn depends on the stage of your company

Illustration from custdev.com

1. Discovery

Who is your customer?

How do they work?

How do they spend money?

What are their biggest problems?

How do they solve those problems?

How much are the problems worth?

Would your idea solve their problems?

2. Validation

But they might be lying to you!

Build a simple version of the product

Prove they were telling the truth by getting them to buy it

3. Efficiency & scale

Figure out the sales channel

Start finding lots of customers

But companies who skip to this step perform much worse

Create a solid foundation before scaling

Tricky questions:

Money and ego

Understand how they spend money

Which budget does this type of purchase come from?

What do you already buy that is similar?

Who would be most excited to buy this?

"Would you buy this product?"

"Would you buy this product?"

Avoid questions that make them feel guilty about answering honestly.

You want find ways the business won't work

Write down what you learn

You get interviews by asking and wanting to learn

Not everyone is worth talking to

It's a casual conversation, not a sales pitch

You're offering them the chance to be an expert and learn what you're working on

The founders and product owners should do the interviews themselves

To summarize:

Who is your customer?

What is their big problem?

How do they spend money?

What else matters to them?

When you find something won't work, update the business and keep learning.

Illustration from custdev.com

Thanks!

[email protected]

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