Customer Development

Steve Blank model of Start Up success

• key aspect of Eric Ries' Lean Startup model

http://steveblank.com/2009/02/23/theres-a-pattern-here/

In hindsight it appeared clear that startups that survive the first few tough years do not follow the traditional product-centric (product-driven) launch model espoused by product managers or the venture capital community. Through trial and error, hiring and firing, successful startups all invented a parallel process to Product Development. In particular, the winners invent and live by a process of customer Learning and discovery. It's a process that doesn't exist in large companies with existing customers and markets. But it is life and death for a new venture. I call this process "Customer Development," a sibling to "Product Development," and each and every startup that succeeds recapitulates it, knowingly or not.

his presentation

• process:
  • Customer Discovery: validate your hypotheses about problem and solution (Scientific Method)
    • how much will customer pay to solve problem?
    • does customer agree your product would solve the problem? how much will they pay for that solution?
    • draw before-and-after day-in-the-life for Persona
    • draw org chart for buyer, users
  • Customer Validation
    • repeatable sales process, org chart, influence map
    • understanding of Sales Cycle, Life Time Value, etc.
    • set of orders validating the Product Roadmap (he says you show the roadmap to potential customers, and that it includes release schedule for 12mo (?) - I'm not sure I agree with that)
  • Customer Creation
    • Crossing The Chasm
    • Vary process based on which of 3 Market Type-s
  • Company Building: re-build Mission, strategy, management
    • management needs to change as company grows: development-centric -> mission-centric -> process-centric
    • sales growth needs to match Market Type
• the goal for release1.0 is the minimum feature set for Early Vangelist-s (Minimum Viable Product)
  • use Agile Software Development
    • but with faster releases, almost Continuous Delivery
    • A-B Test (to validate feature value?)
    • Just In Time architecture and Infrastructure
    • automated Unit Test and Acceptance Test systems
    • immune system: reduce odds of deploying defects, automated identify/alert when it happens
• seeking funding
  • do the learning first
  • present the learnings during presentation