What category does Customer Discovery belong to?

Customer Discovery belongs to the "Methods" category in personal knowledge management and productivity.

What are the key topics related to Customer Discovery?

Key topics related to Customer Discovery include: entrepreneurship, startups, product-development, research, methodology.

Customer Discovery

Q: What are alternative names for Customer Discovery?

Customer Discovery is also known as: Customer development, Customer research, Market validation.

The process of validating business hypotheses by talking directly with potential customers.

Also known as: Customer development, Customer research, Market validation

Category: Methods

Tags: entrepreneurship, startups, product-development, research, methodology

Explanation

Customer discovery is a systematic approach to understanding your market by engaging directly with potential customers before and during product development. Developed by Steve Blank as part of the Customer Development methodology, it's foundational to the Lean Startup approach.

**The Core Principle:**

No business plan survives first contact with customers. Customer discovery replaces assumptions with evidence by getting out of the building and talking to real people.

**The Four Steps:**

1. **State your hypotheses**: Document assumptions about customers, problems, and solutions
2. **Design experiments**: Plan how to test each hypothesis
3. **Get out of the building**: Conduct customer interviews and observations
4. **Analyze and iterate**: Update hypotheses based on what you learn

**What to Discover:**

- Who are your customers? (Demographics, roles, behaviors)
- What problems do they have? (Pain points, current solutions)
- How do they currently solve these problems?
- What would make them switch to your solution?
- How do they make buying decisions?
- What would they pay?

**The Mom Test (Rob Fitzpatrick):**

Effective customer discovery avoids leading questions and compliments. Instead:

- Ask about their life, not your idea
- Ask about specifics in the past, not generics about the future
- Talk less and listen more
- Seek facts, not opinions
- Bad news is good news (early)

**Common Mistakes:**

- Asking leading questions ("Wouldn't it be great if...")
- Pitching instead of listening
- Only talking to friends and family
- Stopping too early
- Ignoring contradictory evidence
- Confusing enthusiasm with commitment

**When to Do Customer Discovery:**

- Before building anything
- When pivoting direction
- Before major feature development
- When entering new markets
- Continuously, as markets evolve

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