Question

Expanding on one of the rules of the customer development manifesto. ● Why does this particular rule help develop a startup idea? ● What practical implications does this rule have for founders going through the Customer Development process?

Answer 1

Rule No. 1: There are no facts inside your building, so get outside. A startup is a faith-based enterprise built on its founders’ vision and a notable absence of facts. The founders’ job is to translate this vision and these hypotheses into facts. Facts live outside the building, where prospective customers live and work, so that’s where you need to go. Nothing is more fundamental to Customer Development, and nothing is harder to do. It’s much easier to write code, have meetings and build hardware than it is to find and listen to potential customers. But that’s what separates the winners.

For Customer Development to succeed, everyone on the team –founders, investors, engineers, marketers, accountants – needs to realize that this process is vastly different from executing a plan, all the way to its core. If the engineering VP is talking waterfall development of the board demands a rigid timetable, then it is destined for disaster. Everyone must accept the process, recognizing that this is a fluid, nonlinear search for a business model that sometimes can last for years. Customer Development reinvents the business model on the fly, iterating often and pivoting whenever indicated. Founders need to have the commitment of the team and board before embarking on this process. Comments like “we can’t change the features since development is underway” or “we need to launch to make the plan numbers” are all red flags. To succeed, the company must commit to this process, stressing learning, discovery, failure, and iteration in the search for a successful business model.