Downloaded 23 times
Uploaded bySalim Virani
Leanspark Sofia 2011 - Rob Fitzpatrick on Customer Development
Customer development is a process that helps startups avoid building products that nobody wants to pay for. It involves talking to potential customers to deeply understand their needs and problems. This helps companies learn if they are building the wrong thing or how to find customers before launch. There are different stages of customer development - discovery to learn about customers, validation to prove customers will buy, and efficiency to scale sales. The key is to avoid sales pitches and instead have casual conversations to learn from potential customers as experts. Following the customer development process can help startups create successful products that solve real problems.
More Related Content
Similar to Leanspark Sofia 2011 - Rob Fitzpatrick on Customer Development
Leanspark Sofia 2011 - Rob Fitzpatrick on Customer Development
- 1. Customer development (and howit's going to save you money) robftz@gmail.com
- 2. Lean is abouteliminating waste
- 3. The biggest wasteis building a product nobody wants to pay for
- 4. Very few startupshave trouble building their product
- 5. The most commonproblem is an absence of customers
- 6. Customer development helpsin 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
- 7. It's very simple 1.Talk to lots of customers 2. Deeply understand their needs 3. Write down what you learn
- 8. But it's notsales
- 9. It's about learning Thereare lots of possible ways to learn what your customers want
- 10. What you needto learn depends on the stage of your company Illustration from custdev.com
- 11.
- 12. Who is yourcustomer? How do they work? How do they spend money?
- 13. What are theirbiggest problems? How do they solve those problems? How much are the problems worth?
- 14. Would your ideasolve their problems?
- 15.
- 16. But they mightbe lying to you!
- 17. Build a simpleversion of the product Prove they were telling the truth by getting them to buy it
- 18. 3. Efficiency &scale
- 19. Figure out thesales channel Start finding lots of customers
- 20. But companies whoskip to this step perform much worse Create a solid foundation before scaling
- 21.
- 22. Understand how theyspend 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?
- 23. "Would you buythis product?"
- 24. "Would you buythis product?" Avoid questions that make them feel guilty about answering honestly.
- 25. You want findways the business won't work
- 26. Write down whatyou learn
- 32. You get interviewsby asking and wanting to learn
- 33. Not everyone isworth talking to
- 34. It's a casualconversation, not a sales pitch
- 35. You're offering themthe chance to be an expert and learn what you're working on
- 36. The founders andproduct owners should do the interviews themselves
- 37. To summarize: Who isyour customer? What is their big problem? How do they spend money? What else matters to them?
- 38. When you findsomething won't work, update the business and keep learning. Illustration from custdev.com
- 39.