Practicing Customer Development (for Lean Startup Circle Copenhagen)

Lean Customer DevelopmentCindy Alvarez

YESNO

Let’s start

with a

hypothesis

(guess)…

I believe

[type of person]

needs to solve

[problem]

which happens when

[performing task].

time to pivot

What are your assumptions?

• Motivations

• Current behaviors

• Ability to change

• Decision-making criteria

• Problem frequency

• Problem severity

So, where am I

going to find

customers…?

And why would

random people

be willing to

talk to me?

Social psychology is on

our side

• Most customers are

“unrecognized experts”

• We love to sound smart

• We love to be helpful

• We love to feel in control of

our destiny (make things

better in our lives)

People do not care about

• Your credentials

• Your personal history

• Your product (don’t sell me

#@*%!)

My name is

[name]

and I’m trying to solve

[problem]

and I’d love to learn

from you because

[reason].

Could you talk with me

for 20 minutes?

Getting people to talk (a

lot):

• Thank you!

• I’m going to talk as little as

possible

• Nothing you say will be boring

Getting people to talk (a

lot):

• Tell me about the last time…

• 60 seconds of silence

• No “yes/no” questions

• Who / What / When / How / Why

But what if I

ask the wrong

questions?

Tell me about how you do

_________ today…

Do you use any

[tools/products/apps/tricks] to

help you get ________ done?

Last time you did ___________,

what were you doing right before

you got started?

Once you finished, what did you

do after?

If you could wave a magic wand

and be able to do anything that

you can’t do today, what would

it be?

(Don’t worry about if it’s

possible)

Is there anything else about

_________ that I should have

asked about?

Who do you know that I should

also be talking with? Who else

cares a lot/is affected by

______?

And then can I

show them my

product?

NO

I’ve learned so much from you!

I think we’ll have some

ideas/prototype/demo ready in a

week or two.

Can I get back in touch then and

show you something?

OK, great. But

what do I do

with all these

notes?

Making sense of what you

hear:

• Validates

• Invalidates

• Emotion

• Surprises

Live

Customer

Development

Advice

Time!

Customer Development

‘Ask’ Templates:

http://bit.ly/16K4mhM

Customer Development

Tools:

http://bit.ly/14a30PQ

(feel free to add to

this!)

You can ask questions anytime!

cindy@cindyalvarez.com or @cindyalvarez