Customer Discovery Pros

The Power of
Customer Discovery

  • Home
  • About
    • Our Difference
    • Team
    • Services
    • FAQ
    • E-Books. Courses & Workshops
    • Publications
    • Community
    • Resources
  • Case Studies
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Contact
Curated resources to learn about customer development / discovery.
​
The Power of Curiosity and Empathy for Customer Discovery.
​
​Read the following articles to learn why Customer Discovery / Product-Market Fit is very important for Entrepreneurs:

1. How Slack Grew from 0 to $17 Billion in Only 5 Years, Richard Liu, Yought Blog / Medium
​

2. I Wasted $40,000 on a Fantastic Startup Idea: When Good Ideas Make for Bad Business, Tom Cleveland, Medium
​
  • ​Customer Development (aka customer discovery)
  • Product/Market Fit, Wikipedia
  • What is Product/Market Fit, MailChimp
  • The SuperHuman Product/Market Fit Engine, Rahul Votra
  • 12 Things About Product/Market Fit, Andreesen Horowitz
  • 10 Questions Product Managers Should Ask Customers
  • Customer Discovery: Best Practices (Videos)
  • E-Commerce Customer Interviews: How to Collect Actionable Feedback
  • Steve Blank - Stanford Prof. and serial entrepreneur
  • The Path to Epiphany, by Steve Blank (Book, 45 pp.)
  • The Path to Epiphany: The Customer Development Model (Chapter 2, 10 pp.) - from the Four Steps to Epiphany, Steve Blank, Cafe Press, 2005
  • The New Mindset for Product/Market Fit, Gigi Levy-Weiss, NfX- very good!
steve_blank_4_steps_to_the_epiphany.pdf
File Size: 305 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

steve_blank_chapter_2-customer-development.pdf
File Size: 126 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

  • Pivots: Why Most Startups Fail at Finding Product-Market Fit, MaRS Library
  • Pivoting: Case Studies (PayPal, Flickr and YouTube, MaRS Library
  • The Top 10 Pivots of All Time​
  • Go To Market-Fit: The Missing Link to Scaling and Enterprise Growth
  • Startup Founders - Put on Your (Discovery, Listening) and Sales Hat, Michael Alter, Univ. of Chicago-Booth
  • Talking to Humans (PDF), Giff Constable​
  • Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything, Steve Blank, Harvard Business Review, 2013

The "Gist" - Why is CD Useful + Important?

Picture
Screenshot of Innovation Within's Discovery Platform, using Alex Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas.
Picture
A Business Model Canvas is a series of guesses / ideas / hypotheses
Until you actually talk to a Customer (or, a representative group of customers), the business / marketing / financial plan are simply 'words on the page' - not proven. These words are forecasts - of what you believe / hope will happen.  They are guesses / ideas / hypotheses that need to be validated or tested. 

Through 1-1 interviews with Customers (i.e., qualitative research), entrepreneurs get "Insights", and the Evidence required to develop confidence in the results - to support a Go / No Go Decision; an investment; iterating or pivoting their business model.

Steve Blank says - that, 'BEFORE one develops a website, invests any money or even a prototype, they need to do "customer development / discovery" - because this will help them UNDERSTAND what the customer truly needs, wants and desires; his/her needs; and is willing to pay for. This last point is also important: Is the market size Big Enough to make it Worth Pursuing.

This is typically a Big Gap / Missing Link in many entrepreneurship education programs and activities. It's an important skill to be taught - but rarely is. That's why programs like the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps (I-Corps) below are so useful (see below).

Our Customer Discovery Coaching is based on the I-Corps program and Randy Fisher's 20+ years of experience working with innovative leaders, startups and entrepreneurs. 
Picture

NSF Innovation I-Corps Program

  • National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program - nodes & sites
  • Rutgers University I-Corps Program (Office of Economic Development)
  • Stanford Engineering Class (ENG 245) - Lean LaunchPad Video
  • VentureWell.org
  • Innovator Spotlight: Marcely Ramirez Hernandez, BurnFlex (1st place winner, VentureWell's OPEN Minds Showcase, 2019)

Starter Questions

  • What are your Top 3 Challenges / Pain Points you face in your job?
  • How have you dealt with / solved Problem X?
  • Dig deeper into your Customers' typical day - anything that sounds painful, time-consuming or expensive.
  • After asking these questions, make sure to go deeper, probing and listening for answers and insights.
  • If you had a magic wand for a solution to any of these problems - what would it be?
  • Can you introduce / refer me to someone else?
  • May I keep in touch?

Innovation

  • Here's What's Wrong with Your Great Idea, Inc. Magazine 
  • When Bigger Organizations Want to Innovate (internally or acquire startups) 
  • Transforming Legacy Organizations: Turn Your Established Business into an Innovation Champion
  • Innovation @ 50x in Companies and Government Agencies (Steve Blank)
  • Why Digital Health Startups Keep Failing, Fast Company

Raising Money from Investors

Visit: Raising Money / Investment & Pitching (separate page on this website)

Picture
The New Mindset for Product/Market Fit, NfX

Go-To-Market

  • In Bangladesh, Everything is Bought and Sold Through Facebook (Thanks John A. Fraser!)
  • High Value Sales Enablement
  • Why Advertising on Social Media is No Nirvana (Unicorn, an Electric Scooter from Tile co-founder Shuts Down, Offers No Refunds)
  • 3 Marketing Funnel Examples, Elizabeth Yin
  • PitchBook's 50+ Tech Industry Verticals (for investment)
  • SaaS Metrics 2.0: A Guide to Improving and Measuring What Matters (very good)
  • Customer Churn and the 3-Year Death Spiral in SaaS Companies
  • Yes, Freemium Businesses Need Salespeople, HBR 
  • The Step-By-Step Guide to Sales-Marketing Alignment for B2B
  • The New Mindset for Product/Market Fit, Gigi Levy-Weiss, Nfx- very good!
  • Should your SaaS startup embrace a bottom-up GTM strategy?, TechCrunch
  • To measure sales efficiency SaaS startups should use the 4x2, TechCrunch

Also of Interest


  • 12 Voice of the Customer (VoC) Methodologies
  • 17 Templates to Help You Put the Customer First
  • A Complete Guide to Startup Advisors and Mentors
  • Holloway Guide to Equity Compensation
  • Startups Don't Have to Fail, Irwin Stein
  • Case Study in Lean Philanthropy, Eric Ries
  • How to Sell Value in a Transactional Relationship
  • 5 People Who Can Help Strengthen Your Empathy Muscle, New York Times
  • Building Brand Intimacy: How to Emotionally Connect with Customers
  • Understanding the Emotional Drivers Behind Customer Experience
  • The New Science of Customer Emotions, HBR
  • Taking Myself Off AutoPilot: Jordan Dutchak
  • Startup Advisors: How Much Compensation / Equity to Give
  • Alignment - Why Startups Need Guiding Principles & How to Make Them Work
  • Prepare for Your Google Interview (YouTube)
  • Elizabeth Yin blog, Hustle VC Co-Founder​
  • The Hidden Patterns of Startup Failure, NfX - very good!
  • NfX Founder Library - Excellent!
Book a Free QuickChat
Website by DigiWise Digital Solutions LLC
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Difference
    • Team
    • Services
    • FAQ
    • E-Books. Courses & Workshops
    • Publications
    • Community
    • Resources
  • Case Studies
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Contact