Lean Startup Machine

Customer Development in the Trenches
Giff Constable
Co-Founder & CEO, Aprizi
July 23, 2010

Who am I?
Startups
Trilogy
Envive
Ithority*, acq by Opus360
Electric Sheep Company
Aprizi*
I blog here giffconstable.com
*co-founder

The Context

The first rule of lean startup

There are no rules

Idea Validation
Is it stupid?
Surveys, discussions
Market and competitive research

Customer Development
Cast a wide net
Paper mockups
1 on 1 meetings

Our Alpha(do they give a damn)(say vs do)

Open Beta
(high velocity learning)
(in-person and phone best)
(don’t make snap decisions)
(don’t optimize for the wrong things)

The first rule of lean startup

But here is some advice*
*worth the paper it is printed on, maybe

Doing a Customer Interview
Work to their schedule
Get psyched to hear things you don’t want to hear
Disarm “politeness” training
Start with behavior, not feedback
Ask open ended questions
Listen, don’t talk
Encourage but don’t influence
Follow your nose and drill down
Parrot back to confirm
Thank them
Ask for introductions
Write up your notes as quickly as possible

Learning Comes in Waves

Strip Out Everything But the Core Value Proposition

vs
Pre-PM Fit, It’s All About People

Questions?
Contact Info
giff.constable@gmail.com
http://giffconstable.com
http://www.aprizi.com

Lean Startup Machine

by Giff Constable on Jul 27, 2010

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Lean Startup Machine — Presentation Transcript