Hans van Gent - @jcvangent
Doing Customer Development (and stop wasting your time)

Why bother talking to people
(when you could be building) image by xensin

’Most startups fail due not
to the failure of product development but due to the lack of customers’ Steve Blank - @sgblank

So do you know what
the most dangerous word in startups is?

With this word You are
making decisions in a vacuum.

With this word You can
take action for years, and end up nowhere.

The most dangerous word in
startups

Assumptions

about potential customers, about potential
problems, about potential solutions. Assumptions

Assumptions about potential customers image
by epsos

Personas are fictional characters created
to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/or behaviour set that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way.

Personas A persona is a
kind of an imaginary person with a name, history, and story who has a way of doing things.

Personas A persona should have
enough psychological detail to allow you to conveniently step over to the persona’s view and see your products and services from her perspective.

Personas A persona can function
almost like another person in the room when making a decision—It is “Magnus.” He looks at what you’re doing from his particular and very specific vantage point, and points out flaws and benefits for him.

about potential customers Describe a
stereotypical customer as detailed as possible Facts & demographics • Name, Gender, Age, Education, Occupation… Behaviours • What books does he/she read? What's he/she already doing to solve the problem you want to solve for him/her? Problem & needs • What are her points of pain as HE/SHE thinks about them? What product or service, similar to yours, is he/she using but unsatisfied with? Then, what problem is he/she trying to solve with that? What challenges keeps him/her up at night trying to google the answer? Goals & dreams • What is he/she trying to accomplish? What is most important to him/her? icon by Paulo Sá Ferreira

about potential customers Places •
Where (online and offline) can you find him/her? Forums? Comment sections of which blogs? Social networks? Meetups? LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Groups? Key influencers • Who does he/she trust as a thought leader? Who knows a lot of your customers and can introduce you to them? icon by Paulo Sá Ferreira Describe a stereotypical customer as detailed as possible

Check out http://personapp.io/

Questions to ask when developing
personas #1 What is their demographic information?

Questions to ask when developing
personas #1 What is their demographic information? #2 What kind of job do they have?

Questions to ask when developing
personas #1 What is their demographic information? #2 What kind of job do they have? #3 What does a day in their life look like?

Questions to ask when developing
personas #1 What is their demographic information? #2 What kind of job do they have? #3 What does a day in their life look like? #4 What do they value most? What are their goals?

Questions to ask when developing
personas #1 What is their demographic information? #2 What kind of job do they have? #3 What does a day in their life look like? #4 What do they value most? What are their goals? #5 Where do they get their information?

Assumptions about potential problems /
solutions image by edouardv66

Paul Graham - @paulg “Build
something people want!”

By talking to people you
can find out about their problems.

But it’s super easy to
screw up these conversations. icon by Stefano Vetere

Henry Ford ’If I had
asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.’

Anybody will say your idea
is great if you annoy them for long enough.

A man wakes up, turns
on the radio, goes upstairs, turns on the lights, and kills himself. Why? image by Spirit_of_69 (Note: this slide, and several other, are accompanied by a mini-workshop which is really hard to replicate without being in the room. If you want to bring me in-house and hear the punchline, ping @jcvangent)

image by wstryder (Note: this
slide, and several other, are accompanied by a mini-workshop which is really hard to replicate without being in the room. If you want to bring me in-house and hear the punchline, ping @jcvangent)

#1 Use a script or
survey Three ways to horrible screw up customer development

Always know your big 3
questions Don’t stress to much about choosing the “right” important questions. They will change. Just choose the 3 questions which seem murkiest or most important right now. Doing so will give you a firmer footing and a better sense of direction for your next 3. Knowing your list allows you to take better advantage of serendipitous encounters.

Questions to dig into feature
requests # Why do you want that? # What would that let you do? # How are you coping without it? #Do you think we should push back the launch date, add that feature, or is it something we can add later? # How would that fit into your day?

Questions to dig into emotional
signals # Tell me more about that. # That seems to really bug you - I bet there’s a story here. # What makes it so awful? # Why haven’t you been able to fix this already? # You seem pretty excited about that - it’s a big deal? # Why so happy? # Go on.

Softball and anchor questions How’s
it going with..? Interesting: tell me more about that.. Can we go back to what you were saying about..?

#1 Use a script or
survey #2 Talk about your idea Three ways to horrible screw up customer development

Dear mom, Don’t you
think my idea is great? Love, your son.

Not just your mom lies.
People want to be helpful, so they tell you what they think you want to hear.

The mom test www.momtestbook.com Rob
Fitzpatrick- @robfitz

The mom test • Never
ask their opinion, especially about your idea • Ask about their life • Ask about specifics in the past (“talk me through the last time you…”) • Talk less and listen more

Good or bad questions Inspiration:
the mom test

“Do you think it’s a
good idea?” Me

“Do you think it’s a
good idea?”

“Would you buy a product
which solved this problem?” Me

“Would you buy a product
which solved this problem?”

“How do you currently deal
with this problem?” Me

“How do you currently deal
with this problem?”

“When does this problem pop-up?”
Me

“When does this problem
pop-up?”

“What makes this time consuming
and go off track?” Me

“What makes this time consuming
and go off track?”

“Has this ever been more
time consuming or gone of track more than normal?”

“Please show me how..”
Me

“Please show me how..”

“Please tell me how…I’m trying
to learn from you..” Me

“Please tell me how…I’m trying
to learn from you..”

“Talk me through the last
time you had this problem”

“What did you try to
do about it?” Me

“What did you try to
do about it?”

“How much would you pay
for this?" Me

“How much would you pay
for this?"

“How much money does this
problem cost you?”

So we just had a
meeting

So we just had a
meeting But did we make progress?

“Sound great. I love it!”
Emma

“Sound great. I love it!”

“Brilliant — let me know
when it launches!” Jeremy

“Brilliant — let me know
when it launches!”

Compliment + Stalling tactic They
don’t care

“There are a couple people
I can intro you to, when you’re ready” Jeremy

“There are a couple people
I can intro you to, when you’re ready”

Partial commitment (is there a
valid reason he can’t connect you now)

“I would definitely buy that!”
Emma

Danger!!! (a promising signal, but
people can’t predict their own behaviour)

#1 Use a script or
survey #2 Talk about your idea #3 Sell Three ways to horrible screw up customer development

Be an apprentice, not a
sales person.

Recording interviews #1 Write in
their words, not yours #2 One phrase per card / sticky note #3 Pair. One interviewer, one note keeper

Slide by: http://www.foundercentric.com/

Check out http://www.custdevcards.com/

Running the process (Note: these
are another set of workshop slides as taught during Evolv Weekend, ping @jcvangent for more info)

Customer Hypotheses Problem / Pain
Hypotheses Riskiest Asumptions Minimum Success Criteria Experiments Results Solution Hypotheses Get out of the building and test Define riskiest assumptions and experiments Progress Report Board team: Progress Report Board v1.2 Progress Report Board team: First validate that your customer has a problem Then, state what your assumption is of the ideal soluotion, and build your experiments to validate those assumptions Fill in your persona sheets and refer to those, you can give them names to match their personality Of all the assumptions you have, state the one, which if proved wrong, will invalidate the whole business Design an experiment which will (in)validate the riskiest assumption most efficiently Call the criteria the results need to meet for the assumption to be validated State the results of the experiment compared to the criteria, and thus if it’s validated or invalidated, and if you’re going to pivot, iterate or persevere Inform us on the problems your customer or persona is having and how severe those pains are according to you

Who is your customer? Be
as specific as possible. (time limit: 5 minutes) Customer Hypothesis

What is the problem? Phrase
it from your customers perspective. (time limit: 5 minutes) Problem / Pain Hypothesis

Define a solution only after
you have validated a problem worth solving. (time limit: 5 minutes) Solution Hypothesis

List the assumptions which must
hold true, for your hypothesis to be true (time limit: 10 minutes) Riskiest assumptions

What are your 3 big
questions? . (time limit: 5 minutes per interview) Experiments

Call the criteria the results
need to meet for the assumption to be validated. Minimum Success Criteria

State the results of the
experiment compared to the criteria, and thus if it’s validated or invalidated, and if you’re going to pivot, iterate or persevere. Result

And remember..

There are no facts inside
the building..

Let’s talk http://www.jcvangent.com/ by Hans
van Gent / @jcvangent