(2011-06-22) Maurya Pre Customer Development Conversations

Ash Maurya notes that useful conversations with advisors are a good idea before Customer Discovery (Customer Development) interviews. Rather than jumping into customer interviews, which can take about 4-10 weeks to complete, I now spend a little more time brainstorming and prioritizing the best “possible models” with advisors first – a process I’ll fittingly call “BusinessModel Discovery”... Unlike Customer Discovery, where you systematically start testing parts of the business model – notably Problems and Customer Segments, Business Model Discovery is about tackling the entire business model... The first objective is taking a reality check on your possible models... After documenting your Plan A, Step 2 is identifying the riskiest parts of the model. This is what you need to learn at this stage. We are good at identifying technical risk but need help doing the same with other components of the business model. The key is not taking this feedback as “judgement or validation” but as a way to identify and prioritize risk. Then move on to Step 3 and tackle that risk through experiments.

Aug12 update: While what is riskiest on your model will vary by the type of product you’re building, I’ve found some risks to be universal. Whenever I’m evaluating a new product idea or advising another startup, I always start by evaluating their business model against these three risks: Problem; Channels; Revenue Stream-s.