Customer Development Methodology

The document discusses tools and processes for designing and testing value propositions for businesses. It describes using the Value Proposition Canvas tool to iteratively search for value propositions that customers want through designing, testing, and evolving propositions. It emphasizes managing the non-linear process of value proposition design by systematically applying tools like the Canvas to reduce risk.

The document summarizes the key concepts from the Lean LaunchPad course, including business models, customer development, and pivoting. It explains that a business model describes all parts of a company necessary to make money. It then discusses customer development as a process involving customer discovery, validation, and creation to iteratively build a business model through pivoting based on customer feedback. The goal is to identify a repeatable and scalable business model in the search for a startup idea.

This document discusses value proposition design and using a canvas to design, test, and build a company's value proposition. It describes key elements of a value proposition canvas including understanding customer pains and gains, developing products and services to relieve pains and create gains, and testing assumptions with customers. The goal is to design a product or service that creates value for the customer by achieving a good fit between customer needs and what the company offers.

A talk I gave at Google on Strategy and Product Discovery We discussed: Discovering Features and Products (Product Strategy) Discovering Products and Product Lines (Product Line / Company Strategy) Marty Cagan: Using High Fidelity Prototypes for Product Discovery

The lecture on Value Proposition Canvas Part A explains why the concept is of so much importance especially to first time entrepreneurs. Startups sustainability requires in-depth understanding of the target customers. Failing at this stage will have costly repercussions for the entrepreneur and his business. Part A discuss the Value Proposition Canvas definition, value proposition examples, and how Value Proposition Canvas is different than Business Slogans.

1. The document introduces the Lean Canvas template for startups, which helps outline key elements of a business like customer problems, solution, unique value proposition, key metrics, and unfair advantage. 2. It emphasizes the importance of understanding customer jobs and problems rather than focusing on solutions, having a clear path to reach customers to prevent failure, and iterating business plans until finding one that works. 3. Resources like websites and blogs on the Lean Startup methodology and Lean Canvas tool are provided for additional information on validating business ideas quickly through a continuous cycle of building, measuring, and learning.

The document summarizes key principles from Eric Ries' book on building successful startups using a "Lean" approach. It discusses 5 principles: (1) entrepreneurs are everywhere, (2) entrepreneurship is management, (3) startups exist to learn how to build a sustainable business through validated learning, (4) the build-measure-learn cycle allows for rapid iteration, and (5) innovation accounting helps prioritize work. It emphasizes the importance of rapid prototyping to validate assumptions and learn quickly from customers through metrics. Pivoting the business model based on learnings, rather than stubbornly sticking to initial ideas, is also highlighted as critical to the Lean approach for building enduring businesses.

This document provides an overview and sample pages from a book about testing business ideas. It discusses designing a team to test ideas, aligning team members, shaping ideas using a business model canvas, and selecting experiments for discovery and validation. The goal is to help reduce risk and uncertainty for new business ideas through systematic experimentation and learning.

Keynote address by Eric Ries at RailsConf 2011 in Baltimore on May 17, 2011. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVBVZGfzkVM

The document outlines the Business Model Canvas template, which is used to describe the various components of a business model. It provides Taobao as an example and walks through each element of the canvas: value propositions, customer segments, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, cost structure. It then instructs the reader to fill out their own blank canvas using their own business information.

Steve Blank and Eric Ries at Startup2Startup Customer Development Presentation 30 April 2009, Palo Alto California

The document summarizes Steve Blank's presentation on the startup path and customer development process. It provides an overview of Blank's background and books that influenced his work. It then outlines the four steps of the customer development process - customer discovery, validation, creation, and growth. The presentation concludes by discussing how Blank teaches entrepreneurs to test hypotheses about their business model in his Lean LaunchPad class over 8 weeks.

Every startup begins with an idea. This is a talk on how to come up with startup ideas and how to use validation to pick the ones worth working on. It's based on the book "Hello, Startup" (http://www.hello-startup.net/). You can find the video of the talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkmiE8d_5Pw

Lecture at the University of Turku Topic: Customer development - an introduction 20th January, 2016 Customer development is a form of market research for startups.

The document discusses different types of businesses - small businesses, scalable startups, and large companies - and how they differ. It notes that small businesses serve known customers with known products, while scalable startups aim to solve unknown customer needs and unknown product features through iteration. Startups search for a business model through customer development and pivoting, while companies focus on executing a known business model through metrics, sales, product management, and planning. The document advocates for searching for a business model using customer development rather than relying on traditional business plans.

This document provides steps to create a minimum viable product (MVP): 1. Build a prototype (e.g. landing page, video, basic app) to test hypotheses and ideas with minimal effort. Tools include Google Forms, Balsamiq, LaunchRock, WordPress. 2. Expose the prototype to customers and measure behaviors and data using tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, KissMetrics. Track metrics regularly to determine if the idea is worth pursuing. 3. Analyze customer data and behaviors to develop new hypotheses and ideas. Prioritize next steps and features using tools like Google Sheets and Trello. Determine if raising money to build the next iteration is needed.

This document discusses business models and the business model canvas. It defines invention as a novel idea and innovation as the commercialization of that idea. The four main types of innovation are described as technology, process, product/service, and business model innovation. The business model canvas is introduced as a tool consisting of nine building blocks: customer segments, value proposition, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure. The document provides examples and questions to consider for each block to help outline a business model.

mission model, mission model canvas, customer development, Hacking for Defense, lean startup, stanford, startup, steve blank, Pete Newell, Joe Felter, minimum viable product

mission model, mission model canvas, customer development, Hacking for Defense, lean startup, stanford, startup, steve blank, Pete Newell, Joe Felter, minimum viable product

mission model, mission model canvas, customer development, Hacking for Defense, lean startup, stanford, startup, steve blank, Pete Newell, Joe Felter, minimum viable product

The team has identified a breakthrough opportunity to partner with the Maritime and Port Security Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (MPS-ISAO) to develop a port cybersecurity assessment framework. This would allow the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) to evaluate cyber resilience at strategic US seaports through aggregated data from commercial port authorities. Key activities would include defining critical infrastructure, providing framework guidelines, and establishing a partnership between USTRANSCOM and MPS-ISAO for valuable data sharing. The framework aims to provide a standard for evaluating ports and incentivizing improved cyber readiness for both military and commercial beneficiaries.

mission model, mission model canvas, customer development, Hacking for Defense, lean startup, stanford, startup, steve blank, Pete Newell, Joe Felter, minimum viable product

mission model, mission model canvas, customer development, Hacking for Defense, lean startup, stanford, startup, steve blank, Pete Newell, Joe Felter, minimum viable product

This document summarizes an approach taken to introduce Lean Startup principles to large Japanese enterprises. It describes establishing a Lean Startup Accelerator Department detached from existing business units to develop minimum viable products. Early successes attracted "defense departments" like Quality Assurance and Legal to form a Lean Enterprise Cell to support future efforts. The approach aims to train existing business units on Lean Startup and spill these principles throughout the organization to promote new business creation.

The document contrasts the differences between startups and small businesses, and between the roles of founders and later-stage management. It discusses how startups focus on searching for a scalable business model through customer development and hypothesis testing, rather than on accounting or execution. As companies transition from startups to established businesses, founders typically leave to be replaced by professional managers, and the focus shifts from searching to executing the found business model.

This document summarizes the business model development process of a team creating an app to manage dog walking services. It describes how the team pivoted their business model several times based on customer interviews. Their initial ideas focused on providing general pet care guidance and consolidating vet/insurance information, but interviews revealed customers already had these resources. They then explored an on-demand dog walking app but learned regular walkers were typically used. Their final pivot was to a software platform that helps dog walking businesses manage schedules, payments and customer communications, which interviews suggested was a needed solution.

The goal is to give entrepreneurs hands-on experience with customer discovery techniques like generating hypotheses about customer needs, designing experiments to test hypotheses, and analyzing customer insights.

I gave this presentation about the Lean Analytics book at the Lean Startup Meetup in Karlsruhe. Follow my blog for updates: http://jan-koenig.com/blog/ Or Twitter: https://twitter.com/einkoenig

CRM involves developing and maintaining long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with strategically important customers. It is based on trust and value and aims to deliver superior customer value over time. Customer relationships develop through different stages from initial interactions to long-term partnerships. Salespeople play a key role in building and promoting customer relationships by understanding customer needs and adding value at each stage of development. The goal of CRM is turning prospects into loyal, profitable customers through effective relationship management.

Here is an Action Plan I wrote for managers to go after large opportunities. I am using NorhTec as the company doing the plan.

The 30-60 day action plan for Wells Fargo has the primary goals of increasing sales through referrals and meeting service goals to ensure customers' financial needs are met. The 30 day plan includes meeting with managers and teammates to establish expectations and goals, identifying target accounts, and developing a prospect list from referrals. The 60 day plan reviews previous month's goals, tracks performance and bonuses, and schedules follow ups with sales referrals. The overall goal is to enhance sales, service, and relationships to increase profitability.

Every sales manager knows that 80% of business comes from 20% of customers... than why is your company not on the right spot... is it so easy to lock-in a customer or to ward-off the competitors efforts to snatch away your key customers

Download the Sales Strategy Template fourquadrant.com/product/strategic-account-plan-template/ Sales Strategy Template - The outline for s sales strategy plan should include an assessment of the customer’s business, opportunities that are prioritized, a summary of the team’s capabilities, an evaluation of relationships and a sales action plan. Strategic Market Planning - Assessing a customer’s business is a fundamental element of strategic market planning. Start with a basic SWOT and then drill down to develop value statements that specific to specific business initiatives. Sales Strategy Plan - The sales strategy plan should be centered around the opportunity area that provides high value to both the account and the vendor. Other opportunities may exist but win / win’s are the best possible outcome. Marketing & Sales Strategy - Document the sales strategies and capabilities required to penetrate and or expand into the account. Sales Tactics - The identification of key customer contacts required to advance the strategic and tactical aspects of the sales are key sales tactics. Formalize the collection of this information for the entire account team to leverage. Market Development Strategy - The market development strategy must document the tangible, objective, quantitative measures of success. These sales metrics are typically expressed as subscription, bookings or revenue. Download the Sales Strategy Template fourquadrant.com/product/strategic-account-plan-template/

The document discusses customer development and the search for a business model in startups. It emphasizes testing hypotheses with customers to validate problems and solutions. There are three types of markets - existing, resegmented, and new - that require different sales, marketing and business development approaches. The key ideas are to parallel customer development with product development using measurable checkpoints tied to customer milestones rather than just product shipments. The goal is to prove a repeatable and scalable business model before scaling the company.

Key account management is a strategic business approach that ensures long-term partnerships with important customers. It is an integrative element of business strategy, not an isolated process. For KAM to achieve its full potential, it must be positioned as core to the business. Developing internal capabilities through knowledge, structures, systems and tools is also required for long-term success. The objectives of KAM include maximizing sales velocity, increasing average deal size and customer loyalty to drive down costs and create value for customers.

Illustrating Customer Segments & Value Propositions with Ridiculous Toys. Based on the Business Model Canvas and three years of experience teaching interactive workshops throughout Chile. Originally presented in Chile in 2011, this presentation has been incredibly popular here on SlideShare and I've just updated it with cleaner design and more details about how it can be used to run memorable and fun workshops. Enjoy!

The document provides guidance for developing a business model canvas over three days at a startup workshop. Day 1 focuses on defining customer segments, validating problems, and sketching initial business model ideas. Day 2 involves further developing the business model canvas, designing surveys and questionnaires, and planning customer acquisition. Day 3 consists of finalizing the business model, preparing a pitch, and presenting to judges for feedback. The overall goal is to create a minimum viable product or prototype to demonstrate the business concept.

Extending knowledge in developing customer and certain steps to follow in creating customer that leads to sustainable increasing profit.

This document discusses the Agile development process for startups. It emphasizes the importance of customer development over product development to avoid building something customers don't want. The customer development process involves customer discovery to validate problems, customer creation to build early customers, and scaling the business. It recommends starting with minimum viable products and continuous deployment to rapidly iterate based on customer feedback. Pivoting the business idea is common for most successful startups based on learnings from customers.

This document provides an introduction to running lean startups using agile and lean principles. It discusses how startups can fail if they don't get customer feedback through minimum viable products (MVPs). The key is to iteratively build, measure, and learn from customers to reduce risks. Startups should conduct customer interviews to understand problems and validate solutions before building MVPs. They should then measure metrics to determine which features to add or whether to pivot the product based on what customers say, not what founders think customers want. The overall goal is to accelerate sustainable growth through sticky, viral, or paid customer acquisition.

Learn the steps involved in going from having a great idea, to building a successful startup around it, from an entrepreneur who has sold two internet companies in the last four years.

The document discusses how applying customer development principles can help improve agile projects. It suggests focusing on validating hypotheses about customers, problems, and solutions through experiments like minimum viable products and customer interviews before fully developing features. This helps minimize costs and risks until learning what customers really want. Product owners and developers are encouraged to prioritize learning over building by finding the fastest way to test hypotheses through the build-measure-learn process.

Slides David Shoenberger recently used in his discussion w/ mentees of The Product Mentor. The Product Mentor is a program designed to pair Product Mentors and Mentees from around the World, across all industries, from start-up to enterprise, guided by the fundamental goals…Better Decisions. Better Products. Better Product People. Throughout the program, each mentor leads a conversation in an area of their expertise that is live streamed and available to both mentee and the broader product community.

Main Takeaways: - How you can identify and validate problems to solve and scope a market opportunity - How to pitch to your internal investors (your GMs & VPs) - How to take your idea to market and validate product-market fit

In this talk, we will understand the challenges & risks associated with new product development. We will also learn the concept of a discovery process to minimize these risks in a systematic way. During the talk we will build a fictious product using the discovery process to understand this methodology.

The document discusses innovation as a business strategy and provides tactics for developing an innovation strategy with minimal risk. It recommends (1) documenting the initial plan, (2) identifying the riskiest parts, and (3) systematically testing the plan. Specific tactics discussed include defining the minimum viable product and business model through customer conversations, using a customer development process of iterative experiments and pivots, and focusing on speed of learning rather than premature optimization. The overall message is that a successful product and strategy involves minimizing risks through hypothesis-driven and customer-validated tactics.

This document summarizes the differences between startups and large companies. It explains that startups are focused on searching for a business model through customer development and validating hypotheses, while large companies focus on executing an established business model. Startups use agile development and metrics to guide their search, rather than traditional accounting and planning used by large companies. The transition between startup and large company occurs when a startup finds product/market fit and a repeatable sales process.

The document provides an overview of Customer Development, which is the process startups use to search for a business model. It discusses how startups should test hypotheses about their problem, customer, product, and other business model components by getting out of the building and talking to customers. The Lean LaunchPad process of building a minimum viable product and continuously pivoting based on customer feedback is highlighted. An example is given of a team that conducted customer interviews over 8 weeks and pivoted from an autonomous mowing idea to focus on weeding for organic farmers after determining a bigger problem and opportunity.

This document discusses customer development and business models for startups. It defines different types of startups, including small businesses, social startups, sustaining/disruptive innovation within large companies, and scalable startups. The key aspects of a business model are defined using the business model canvas framework. Customer development is presented as the process startups use to search for an unknown business model, involving customer discovery, validation, and pivoting if needed based on feedback. The minimum viable product and agile development are discussed as ways to test hypotheses. An example pivot from a robotic weeding startup is provided.

Main Takeaways: -How you can identify and validate problems to solve and scope a market opportunity -How to pitch to your internal investors (your GMs & VPs) -How to take your idea to market and validate product market fit

In this session Marko will explain the essential building blocks of any kind of business and how one should go about validating the business.

This document discusses building the right product by focusing on problem/solution fit, business model/market fit, hypothesis/experiment fit, and user needs/service fit. It emphasizes the importance of validating your concepts by talking to customers and measuring results rather than assuming you know requirements. The key steps outlined are drawing a business model canvas, stating hypotheses to test, and getting customer feedback through discovery and validation. Pivoting based on learnings is important rather than prematurely scaling execution without verifying the business model. Overall the message is to interface business, design and engineering to create successful businesses by making the business the driver.

An overview of the first two stages of Steve Blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany: Customer Discovery and Customer Validation. Includes in depth advice on the customer development interview as well. I'm writing a book on How to Build Customer Driven Products based on tactics like the ones in this presentation. You can sign up to learn more here: http://eepurl.com/RZoO9

The document discusses six ways startups can fail and provides tips for success. It begins by outlining traditional models that implicitly assume the customer problem and product features are already known. However, the document argues startups should not assume they know these things and should instead search for an unknown business model. It recommends using customer development to test hypotheses about the problem, customer, and solution through interviews and iteration. The document advocates developing minimum viable products and being willing to pivot based on what is learned from customers.

The document outlines six common ways startups can fail and provides advice on how to succeed instead. It discusses how startups should not try to operate like large companies by following traditional models. Startups need to search for an unknown business model rather than execute a known one. The key is getting out of the building to test hypotheses through customer development, building minimal viable products, and pivoting based on feedback.

As business owners and execs, as product managers and sales people, we are surrounded by big data. Yet, we have big questions about our customers that we still don't have the answers to. We know a lot about what people are doing but not really the underlying reasons why. To get at that why you need to leverage the power of SMALL data.

The document discusses using customer development to build a SaaS product. It recommends validating hypotheses by talking directly to customers to understand problems rather than assuming ideas. Customer development should happen early at the idea stage and ongoing to prioritize features. When doing customer development, meet with users in person, take notes, and ask questions about their companies, problems, and current solutions to understand their needs. Customer development is important for finding the right problems to solve rather than just building proposed solutions.