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 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
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process:
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Customer Discovery: validate your hypotheses about problem and solution (Scientific Method)
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how much will customer pay to solve problem?
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does customer agree your product would solve the problem? how much will they pay for that solution?
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draw before-and-after day-in-the-life for Persona
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draw org chart for buyer, users
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repeatable sales process, org chart, influence map
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understanding of Sales Cycle, Life Time Value, etc.
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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)
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Vary process based on which of 3 Market Type-s
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Company Building: re-build Mission, strategy, management
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management needs to change as company grows: development-centric -> mission-centric -> process-centric
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sales growth needs to match Market Type
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the goal for release1.0 is the minimum feature set for Early Vangelist-s (Minimum Viable Product)
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use Agile Software Development
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but with faster releases, almost Continuous Delivery
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A-B Test (to validate feature value?)
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Just In Time architecture and Infrastructure
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automated Unit Test and Acceptance Test systems
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immune system: reduce odds of deploying defects, automated identify/alert when it happens
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seeking funding
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do the learning first
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present the learnings during presentation
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