Market Research for Start-ups
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This workshop slide deck describes the tools and methods for conducting market research for new products and services, including market sizing, forecasting, concept testing, demand estimates, price tests. Learn how to identify potential customers, answer key questions such as: their interest in your products/services, how much they are willing to pay, what they value, how to reach them and deliver that value.
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Market Research for Start-ups
- 1. Market Research for the Start-up For the Venture Greenhouse 10.23.14, San Rafael, CA By: Chris Yalonis, President, Communique chris.yalonis@communiquepartners.com 415-309-0331 Listen. Learn. Lead
- 2. Content About Communique Why do Market Research? Types of research-purpose The role of MR in the Customer Development process Customer Identification/Discovery Customer Validation Customer interviews Resources and tools 2
- 3. 3 About Communique Partners • Based in San Francisco Bay area • Specializes in eResearch and ePanels for Tech, B-B, Professional and Low Incidence Consumer Markets • Over 50 years of collective experience in offline and online market intelligence • Built 55+ ePanels and executed over 1000 online research projects • Uses “Best in Class” Technology for panel management and survey execution • Clients include:F1000, SME’s, other MR Partners, agencies – Virtual Test Labs for concepts, in home usage tests, product, pricing, and marketing – Market research, market and brand trackers – Customer satisfaction measurement and affinity building – Online/offline focus group recruiting
- 4. About Chris Yalonis • Over 25 years in tech marketing and sales line management, publishing, market research and sustainability consulting • Founder/early team in 7 start-ups, advisor to hundreds of others in mobile tech, software, healthcare, CPG, financial services, SaaS/Cloud, wireless, sustainability. • Former Chief Research Officer at MarketTools, $100M market research software and services firm • VP-Consulting at International Data Corporation (IDC), market strategy consulting for Global IT and telecomm industries • Author of seven books on the computer industry, business planning, and market strategy. • B.A. from Miami University (Ohio) and his M.B.A. from Indiana University, Presidio Graduate School post grad • Teaches at SSU, Presidio Graduate School, Miami University (OH), U of Vermont: Green Entrepreneurship, Leading Sustainable Enterprises, Sustainability Performance Metrics and reporting 4
- 5. 5 A Selected Listing of Clients Hundreds of SMB’s and start-ups
- 6. 6 Services for Clients • Full Service questionnaire design, programming, hosting, fielding, data tables, online reporting/downloads • Analysis and management reports, presentations as needed • Hosting and management of online focus groups, bulletin boards and blogs • ePanel Design, Set-up, Recruiting and Management • Set up and management of online customer multi-channel, multi-touch point feedback programs
- 7. 7 Types of Studies Executed: • Concept Feedback and Creative Testing • Product and Service Evaluation • Awareness and Perception surveys • Competitive Analysis • Ad and Promotion tests, pre-post awareness/perception • Home Product Placement and IHUT’s • Usage and Attitude • Company, Product, Brand Awareness, Attitudes, Trial and Usage • Customer and Client Satisfaction Surveys • Website Usability • Public Policy, Attitudes and Perception Studies • Employee Surveys and Assessments
- 8. Why do Research as a start-up? • Test concept for demand and value before development, expensive ramp-up and launch • Lower risk of dud product • Identify most attractive customer segments • Identify features, price, packaging, promotion that optimizes demand and profitability • Identify competition, their value and how you can compete against them • Audiences: team, partners, investors
- 10. 3 Key Questions For Research to Answer in Pre-Launch • Who is our customer? (the more narrow and specific the better) • What is our value Proposition? (make it compelling and unique) • How do we sell it at a price and level to meet our financial goals?
- 11. Types of Research • Concept tests • Customer needs discovery/pain points • Product feature and pricing tests • Marketing tests (ad and promotion testing, awareness and perception) • Customer satisfaction and experience measures • Awareness and perception tracking • Competitive trackers • Competitive audits/profiles
- 13. Methods • Secondary (studies, syndicated, third party) Market sizing/forecasts) • Primary – Qualitative (one on one interviews, focus group, etc.) – Quantitative (surveys, polls, crowdsourcing, social media) – New methods • AB tests of product web page and subsequent feature and options page, pricing page, shopping cart page • Online focus groups/forums, crowdsourcing • Social media pools, ID of early product testers and influencers
- 14. Helping you map it: The Lean Canvas
- 15. 1: Customer Segments For whom are we creating value? Who are our most important customers?
- 16. 1: Customer Segments For whom are we creating value? Who are our most important customers? There are different types of Customer Segments. Here are some examples: Mass market Niche market Segmented Diversified Multi-sided platforms (or multi-sided markets)
- 17. 2: Value Propositions The Value Propositions Building Block describes the bundle of products and services that create value for a specific Customer Segment
- 18. What value do we deliver to the customer? Which one of our customer’s problems are we helping to solve? Which customer needs are we satisfying? What bundles of products and services are we offering to each Customer Segment? 2: Value Propositions
- 19. Newness Performances Customization ‘Getting the job done’ Design Brand/status 2: Value Propositions What value do we deliver to the customer? Which one of our customer’s problems are we helping to solve? Which customer needs are we satisfying? What bundles of products and services are we offering to each Customer Segment? Price Cost reduction Risk reduction Accessibility Convenience/usability A Value Proposition creates value for a Customer Segment through a distinct mix of elements catering to that segment’s needs.
- 20. The First 2 Steps to the Epiphany
- 21. Why Customer Development? • Move faster • Reduce risk • Bring process to chaos • Stay in tune with customers • Replace HiPPO & opinions with data • Discover the best market opportunities
- 23. Who is Your Customer? Phase 1: State Hypothesis Phase 4: Verify Phase 3: Test Product Concept Phase 2: Test Problem Hypothesis
- 24. The Hypothesis : C-P-S • Customer –Who is using your product? • Problem –What problem do they have? • Solution –How will you solve the problem? Be Specific. It’s better to be wrong than vague.
- 25. Map Your Ecosystem • Who are the entities in your business? • Connect the entities based on the flow of $$ • How does the product move through channels to meet users?
- 26. The Intermediate Minimal Viable Product • Map out the basics of your MVP based on the solutions from C-P-S • Identify the riskiest parts & test them • This is before you build anything…just map out what you think is the solution BUILD
- 27. Why all this work?!? • Save Time and Money by discovering early on if something won’t work. • Make course adjustments before you build a large product.
- 28. Tools/Resources
- 29. AYTM • 1. AYTM AYTM (Ask Your Target Market) – enables you to create surveys on the fly and send them to your own lists or to the AYTM panel of more than 4.5 million people. – You can choose targeting criteria, such as gender or geographic region, and include a variety of closed and open-ended questions, as well as images and videos. – Pricing, which starts at 95 cents per completed survey, depends on the number and types of questions and the targeting criteria. – Most consumer panel surveys are completed within 24 hours, and you can watch your results as they come in. – Results can be cross-tabulated and shared through your website, blog or other online medium. – AYTM also offers qualitative research through one-on-one online video interviews; the cost depends on the size of the project.
- 30. Gutcheck • GutCheck is a qualitative market research tool that enables you to conduct 30-minute one- on-one online video interviews with some of the 3.5 million members of its U.S. consumer panel. You can target respondents through a variety of criteria, such as age and income, to ensure you're talking to the right audience.
- 31. uSamp • uSamp With 6.5 million global panel members, uSamp provides custom targeting, as well as pre- defined consumer lists you can survey using its SurveyBuilder tool. Targets could include a specific country, a business-to-business audience, or an industry panel, such as food, automotive and travel. You also can survey your own lists. • Results are provided in real time, so you can see the data coming in. You must contact uSamp to obtain price quotes, which will depend on the range and focus of your study.
- 32. SurveyMonkey • SurveyMonkey SurveyMonkey is best known for enabling you to send online surveys to your own lists. But it also offers a consumer panel that includes hundreds of thousands of survey respondents. • You can create and send custom surveys to the SurveyMonkey consumer panel using the targeting criteria of your choice. Results are provided within seven days for $3 per completed survey, or in 3 days for $5 per completed survey.
- 33. Itracks • Online focus groups and discussion forums, online panels and surveys • Qualitative tools for distant in depth group interviews • Enhanced Web conferencing platform optimized for focus groups
- 34. The Customer Development Interview
- 35. The Structure 3. Solution 2. Problem 1. Person The MVP House
- 36. The Structure – 1. Person • Who are they? What’s their role? • How is your budget handled? • How do you find new products? • How much time do you spend on [Task X]? Goal: Get a baseline background of the person you’re talking to. Be broad. Learn about them and their role in your industry.
- 37. The Structure – 2. Problems • NOT about the problems you think they have. • What are your top 3 challenges you face in your job or life related to [industry X]? • If you could wave a magic wand…what would the solution be? Goal: Get them to say the problem you want to solve is a problem they have (prefer unprompted) Learn about the problems they recognize first.
- 38. The Structure – 3. Solution • “That’s interesting” = Kiss of Death. • If they’re not anxious to use right away, they’re not a key target. • Read body language, voice inflection and energy level for signals of interest. • Best reaction is actually following through after the meeting or calls. Now you tell them about your product concept. Goal: Discover if they’re interested in your solution and gather feedback.
- 40. Tips for making the most of Interviews 1. Take good notes. 2. Involve other team members. 3. Be conversational. 4. Go off script. 5. Ask to see any MVPs they’ve made/use. 6. If they’re excited about something, ask if they’ll pay for it. 7. Show them mockups or early concepts if you have them and pay attention to their reactions/feedback. 8. Always Follow up. 9. End with an ask. 10. Be open to new problems and opportunities! 11. Summarize and review your notes with your team.
- 41. Where do you find people to interview?
- 42. The Best Place to Find Candidates:
- 43. Help not Sales
- 44. Now what? • Interview in groups of 8-10 people per customer type. • Summarize notes and review with others. • Look for common patterns matching C-P-S (Customer – Problem – Solution). • Compare to your high level metrics to see if anecdotes match data. • Iterate if there’s no match.
- 45. Customer Discovery Wrap Up To Exit means you’ve: • You’ve identified a problem a customer wants solved. • Your product solve the customer’s needs. • You believe you have a viable and profitable business model. • You feel you’ve learned enough to go out and sell.
- 46. Step II of Customer Development: Customer Validation/Acquisition
- 47. Can You Sell It? Phase 1: Get Ready to Sell Phase 4: Verify Phase 3: Develop Positioning Phase 2: Sell to Visionary Customers
- 48. Break Down Your Sales Road Map • Who influences a sale? • Who recommends a sale? • Who is the decision maker? • Who is the economic buyer? • Who is the saboteur? • What is the budget for purchasing your type of product? • How many calls does it take to make a sale • What is the profile of an early customer?
- 49. The Word According to Blank – Phase 1 : Get Ready to Sell Articulate a Value Prop Prelim Sales & Collateral Materials Prelim Distribution Channel Plan Prelim Sales Roadmap Hire a Sales Closer Formalize Advisory Board Goal: Take what you learned from Customer Discovery and apply to development of Sales Process
- 50. Map out the Food Chain of your Sale
- 51. Find out how to (reliably) get your foot in the door… • At what level do you want to enter? • How many people on the org chart need to say yes? • Does each department perceive the problem the same way? • In what order do you need to call on people? • Who can derail the sale?
- 52. The Word According to Blank – Phase 2: Sell to Visionary Customers Contact Early- vangelists Sell to Early- vangelists Refine Sales Roadmap Sell to Channel Partners Refine Channel Roadmap Goal: Get someone to Pay for your product and learn how to repeat the process.
- 54. Build Your Sales Roadmap Get Lead Send initial outreach Qualify a lead Validate the lead Preliminary Sales Call Win over the CIO Second PitchWin over IT Formal Proposal Negotiate & Close
- 55. The Word According to Blank – Phase 3: Develop Positioning Product Positioning Company Positioning Present to Analysts & Influencers Goal: Based on problem and sales lessons, optimize positioning for your product & company.
- 56. Positioning • Speak the language of your customer • Written by those that interact directly with the customer • Verify with Product team to ensure what’s built meets expectations set
- 57. The Word According to Blank – Phase 4: Verify Verify the Product Verify the Sales Roadmap Verify the Channel Roadmap Verify the Business Model Iterate or Exit Goal: Verify all the work you’ve put into Customer Validation to iterate or move onto Customer Creation.
- 58. Questions to Ask… Product: - Are you repeatedly losing any deals? Why? - Are customers satisfied? What else do they expect? - Are you building the right features? - Were there any pricing issues? Did you lose customers on pricing? Sales: - Can you verify the sales process and accurately project its success rate? - Can you realistically map your sales pipeline? - Are you closing deals?
- 59. More Questions to Ask… Channel: -Did you factor in the channel costs to the overall costs of your product? -How do various channels affect the sales time? -What does your sales force look like? Business Model: -Based on known factors, how profitable is the business? -Will costs be the same as you grow? -How much funding do you need to reach profitability?
- 60. Customer Validation Wrap Up To Exit means you’ve - Proven you found a Customer Problem - Found early evangelists that will pay you - Found a repeatable and scalable sales process - Demonstrated a viable business model
- 61. Common Sense + Diligent Process + Thought =
Editor's Notes
- Early on, the core is all about C-P-S but you should still be thinking about the other segments to understand the big picture of what you’re doing. Is the market big enough? Who will pay money for this? Will they pay what we want them to? Can we acquire customers where we think they are? Are they actually there? Does our value prop resonate with our customer? 2 Places to get this tool: www.LeanCanvas.com www.LeanLaunchLab.com Both allow you to track evolution/iteration of the product
- HiPPO = Highest Paid Person in the Organization “In God we trust, all others bring data.” – W Edwards Deming
- This is the complete process for a Lean Startup. The first step is Customer Discovery which is all about iterating around customer problems. The next step, Customer Validation, which I’ll also talk about. The last two steps, Company Creation and Company Building won’t be covered as that’s really more conventional, MBA-Style scaling of a validated business. The true goal of lean is to take some of the mystery out of getting to the stage where you have Product-Market fit and can scale.
- The core question of the first stage is verifying you’re solving a problem for a customer. You’re laying out what you think the Customer, Problem and Solution are and then testing it in the wild talking to customers. You exit this cycle when you feel you have a customer determined that wants the product as you’ve mapped it out.
- Example: Backupify Customer Who is using your product? Medium to large size IT Departments that have moved to cloud based email and google apps. Problem What problem do they have? IT needs a way to back up and manage cloud based email with tools like that had on premise outside what the email provider (Google) offers. Restoration of accidentally lost documents and handling departed employees are problematic. Solution How will you solve the problem? Backupify provides cloud based backup on Google Apps with tools to restore data and backup departed employees.
- Who are the entities in your business? Anyone who provides value or receives value from your product. Users, customers, channel partners, technical partners, strategic partners, advertisers, your customer’s customers, etc Connect the entities based on the flow of $$ How does the product move through channels to meet users?
- By mapping out exactly what you think you need, you crystallize your ideas and give you a basis for specifically invalidating your idea Map out the basics of your MVP based on the solutions from C-P-S Identify the riskiest parts & test them one by one This is before you build anything…just map out what you think is the solution
- This is a trade of HOURS and DAYS for WEEKS AND MONTHS of building and pushing product. The goal of the Customer Development team during this time is to Validate the Product Spec.
- Learn in detail here: http://greenhornconnect.com/blog/how-structure-and-get-most-out-customer-development-interviews
- 1) People - Aka - Who Are You? Before you get into anything about problems or your solution, you need to figure out who you're actually talking to. This both warms up your interviewee with some softball questions and gives you an opportunity to build some rapport with them. Some example questions you could ask: What is your name and role at your company? How do you fit into your company's department structure? Overall in the company? What is your budget like? Who has to approve your purchases? How do you discover new products for work? Do you need any approval to try them? Have you tried anything new recently? What is a typical day like on your job? How much time do you spend doing [task X]? (Task X being anything they mentioned in their typical day that stood out) Do not shortchange this opening section of questions! You don't need a novel on their daily life, but you *do need* enough to be able to understand their role within their company, who key players are and a general baseline of their sophistication. All of this will help you later pattern match who the user type that is most receptive to the problem you're solving and the solution you offer. -> The More prep you do to reseach the person, the more efficient and deeper you can probe on this; you’ll be pattern matching later. Goal: Get a baseline background of the person you’re talking to. Be broad.
- 1) People - Aka - Who Are You? Before you get into anything about problems or your solution, you need to figure out who you're actually talking to. This both warms up your interviewee with some softball questions and gives you an opportunity to build some rapport with them. Some example questions you could ask: What is your name and role at your company? How do you fit into your company's department structure? Overall in the company? What is your budget like? Who has to approve your purchases? How do you discover new products for work? Do you need any approval to try them? Have you tried anything new recently? What is a typical day like on your job? How much time do you spend doing [task X]? (Task X being anything they mentioned in their typical day that stood out) Do not shortchange this opening section of questions! You don't need a novel on their daily life, but you *do need* enough to be able to understand their role within their company, who key players are and a general baseline of their sophistication. All of this will help you later pattern match who the user type that is most receptive to the problem you're solving and the solution you offer. -> The More prep you do to reseach the person, the more efficient and deeper you can probe on this; you’ll be pattern matching later. Goal: Get a baseline background of the person you’re talking to. Be broad.
- 2) Problems - Aka - What are your greatest pains? This section is where you try to find out whether the person has the problem you believe you're solving. Your goal is to not lead them to your problem. The less you lead them while still hearing your problem being mentioned the more validation you have! Some sample questions you could ask: What are your top 3 challenges you face in your job? What are your top 3 challenges you face in your job related to [industry X]? (Industry X being the one your startup is in) If you could wave a magic wand and instantly have a solution to any of those problems...what would the solution be? Dig deeper into their typical day on anything that sounds painful or expensive. (You can add some hyperbole here to get them to rant a bit by saying things like "that sounds inefficient..." or "that sounds expensive...") How have you dealt with or solved [Problem X]? (You're looking to find out if they've hacked a solution together themselves. If they have...ask for a copy of it!) People love to talk about themselves, so let them go nuts here and really rant about their problems (i.e.- Shut up and listen!). Generally, people are terrible at proposing solutions, but you want to hear generally what they envision as solutions or see what they've cobbled together themselves. Notice, you haven't mentioned your solution or problem yet. If they don't mention your problem specifically, then as you finish this section of questioning, you should directly ask them if what you think is a problem is a problem for them. Whether they agree it's a problem or not, you want to then probe why it wasn't one of their top problems.
- 3) Your Solution - Aka - See if your idea survives customer interaction If in your discussions in part 2 your problem you think you're solving comes up naturally from your interviewee you're on the right track! Bonus points if the way they describe solving it with their "magic wand" remotely resembles what you're doing. No matter what happens in part 2 you should discuss with them what you thought the problem was and what your solution is. Getting validation that they wouldn't be interested in the idea is just as helpful as finding out they love it; either they're not a customer or you are learning what your customers want instead of it. Some sample questions you could ask: Walk them through the problems you believe your solution solves. Do they agree? Does [your solution] solve any of their problems? Would you be willing to pay for our solution? How much? (Don't be afraid to probe for the pricing you know you want..."Would [X] be reasonable?") If they're willing to pay your price and like the idea then..."Would you be willing to start right away?" If all goes well and you really are solving a pain, then your customer should want access to the product right away. More likely, you're going to learn a ton about what they do and do not want and your idea will begin evolving. This basic structure can carry you a long way towards some great validated learning about your idea and the market's desire for it.
- 1) Take Good Notes or Record Everything! - Once you've interviewed 8-10 people, you should be going back over all of your notes and look for patterns. This includes especially looking for patterns in the Part 1 section to see what all the people that agree you are solving their problem have in common. You should summarize your notes then and share with your team. 2) Have other team members sit in on some interviews - A good customer development focused company will have everyone involved in the process. Performable, pre-HubSpot acquisition, had their engineers spending 30% of their time on the phone with customers. Nothing helps someone do their job better like understanding who they're building/selling/marketing for. 3) Be conversational - It shouldn't feel like an interview! They should feel like they're just having a conversation with a friend about their problems at work. The more comfortable they feel with you, the more they will open up. 4) Go off script - The best stuff comes when you dig a little deeper on something that strikes a chord in the discussion. The script is there to be your roadmap, but there's no reason you can't return to it after a 5 minute digression about a specific pain or discovery about how the company operates. 5) If they've made an MVP...ask to see it! - Nothing gives you more insight to a customer than what they've hacked together themselves to solve a problem. The best thing you can do is ask to see it, which will give you an idea of what they're hoping a solution will provide. These people are also the strongest candidates to be great, helpful early adopters of your product. 6) Always follow up - It's just common courtesy to thank people for their time and help, but it also opens the door to follow up with them in the future if your product changes and is a fit for them or to invite them to your beta. 7) End with an ask - Always end your interviews by thanking them and asking them for something. It may be to get a copy of their MVP or even better, ask for an intro to someone they know that might be interested in what you're working on. In my experience, these intros have an 80-90% success rate in becoming new customer development interviews, whereas cold emails only have a 10% success rate. 8) Be open to new problems! That's how great products are born. - As Steve Blank has said, "No idea survives first interaction with a customer." Don't be afraid to shift your focus from your first idea to what you're actually hearing customers want. If you probe in part 2 and find a burning problem...find out how they currently solve it and what they'd pay to solve it. ---
- You have to think like your customer. Where are they already? What groups do they join? What events or locations do they go to? Also ask yourself: What might they tweet about related to your product/problem? Where else might they talk about it? Finally, don’t forget your own network; everyone has cousins, uncles, and old classmates in other industries. Use your social graph to get introductions.
- Landing pages, existing customers, blog visitors, twitter followers, contacts from coworkers. All of them are instant, awesome sources for people to talk to. Yes, you need to be concerned about bias because they already know who you are, but they’re also a great source to test new ideas to ensure your existing base is interested. Your goal should be a balance between who knows your company and who you find randomly.
- Emphasize that any outreach is about having a conversation, not that you’re trying to sell them anything. Everyone likes to help, especially when you’re only asking for 20 minutes of their time. Giving off the vibe you’re trying to sell something will always turn people off.
- Interview in groups of 8-10 people per customer type. Summarize notes and review with others. Look for common patterns matching C-P-S. This is why you ask so many questions before you get to your solution Compare to your high level metrics to see if anecdotes match data.
- Stages: Has a problem Is aware of having the problem Has been actively looking for a solution Has put together a solution of piece parts Has or can acquire a budget >>Dream is all of these
- Interview in groups of 8-10 people per customer type. Summarize notes and review with others. Look for common patterns matching C-P-S. This is why you ask so many questions before you get to your solution Compare to your high level metrics to see if anecdotes match data.
- The Customer Validation is all about proving you can sell your product and refining it efficiently as a small team. It is NOT about building a huge sales team; you’re not ready for that yet. The idea is to try a lot of things and map out the process well before scaling up a team.
- The process is all about removing the guesswork of sales. You want to discover these at the executive level…not hiring a sales team to answer these questions. There are likely multiple people involved in any purchase. The goal of the roadmap is to understand all the players.
- This is the Phase 1 process as Steve Blank’s Four Steps explains it. Each step is about gelling what you already learned and applying it to now trying to tailor to the customer you think you have. It’s like refining those raw ideas you learned about the problem and figuring out how they apply to people. What problems resonate with whom? It’s not the same for every player. Who are the gatekeepers and who are the early buyers? Probably need different angles for each. Things like Backupify’s whitepaper on common losses of data being employee error is exactly what you need.
- Think about the people involved in the sales process: Who is the end user? Who is controls the budget? Who is the person who is initially looking for your solution? What other channels are they reachable by?
- Once you know your food chain you have to think about how to prioritize access to those people to start to build that repeatable model for getting your foot in the door…then you’ll optimize for working through the process once inside.
- This is the Phase 2 goals. Now you’re trying to get people to PAY MONEY for your product.
- You can only truly learn from PAYING customers. When you don’t pay for something, it doesn’t enter your mind the same way. Talk about Followup.cc story. Until you are invested financially you aren’t motivated. You won’t commit to what really bothers you or you love about the product.
- As you sell to your first customers, you’re not just adapting the pitch, but actually learning the process of making the sale…what steps are involved? What steps can you eliminate?
- This is the Phase 3 goals. Pretty simple. Pretty damn important and much easier and accurate after all the work you’ve already put in. In each of these steps…you’re building on what you did in the step before. By this point, you should have talked to so many customers, the language they use is second nature to you. Speak it back to them in your marketing materials (aka- positioning)
- Customer Discovery team should be writing this stuff because they know how the customers are thinking about the problem.
- This is the Phase 4 is all about CYA: Making sure you’ve got it right before you pour the gasoline on the fire and try to scale the business up. Once you raise $10-$50M it’s REALLY hard to turn back and iterate…you need to be in execution only mode after this step.
- You haven’t finished Customer Validation until ALL of these are complete.
- If you’ve read through all of this it probably sounds pretty easy and straightforward. Yes, none of this is hard from a brain power sense. What is hard is having the discipline and putting in the effort to stick to this. Lean Startups are harder than blind startups that go just on gut feel and winging it. Lean Startups just have a better chance of success.