@andreasklinger Actionable Customer Development for
Startups Workshop Outline

#emminvest – @andreasklinger @andreasklinger “Startup
Founder”, “Product Guy” “Done lots of customer interviews”

#emminvest – @andreasklinger What we
will cover - Basics of Customer Development - Dos and Don’ts of Customer Interviews - Custdev Process for Teams This is a short version of a 5h product development workshop i usually run with startups. @andreasklinger “Startup Founder”, “Product Guy” “Done lots of customer interviews”

@andreasklinger Part I: Customer Development
Basics

Startups have ideas. Build it.
Customers don’t buy it. The startup dies. Promote it. @andreasklinger

traction time We want this.
@andreasklinger

traction time We get this.
@andreasklinger

#emminvest – @andreasklinger The Biggest
Risk of a Startup?

#emminvest – @andreasklinger The Biggest
Risk of a Startup? Time/Money? No You will learn a lot + huge network gain.

#emminvest – @andreasklinger Wasting your
talent & opportunity by building the wrong thing close to the right thing. The Biggest Risk of a Startup?

Market Your Solution Customer Job/Problem
Willing to pay To miss your opportunity. By focusing on the wrong thing. @andreasklinger

Market Customer Job/Problem Willing to
pay competitor competitor competitor competitor Your Solution Other Market Customer Job/Problem Willing to pay Or by looking at the wrong customer. @andreasklinger

“Startups don’t fail because they
lack a product; they fail because they lack customers and a profitable business model” Steve Blank And it might have been where you didn’t look. @andreasklinger

#emminvest – @andreasklinger Customer Development
- Startups have stages.

#emminvest – @andreasklinger Customer Development
- Startups have stages.

Discovery traction time Validation Efficiency
Scale Let’s simplify this @andreasklinger

Discovery traction time Validation Efficiency
Scale Product/Market Fit Find a product the market wants. @andreasklinger

Discovery traction time Validation Efficiency
Scale Product/Market Fit Find a product the market wants. Scale a company around that product @andreasklinger

Discovery traction time Validation Efficiency
Scale Product/Market Fit Find a product the market wants. Scale a company around that product We will focus on this part @andreasklinger

Discovery Validation Here be dragons
Try again. “Pivot” @andreasklinger

Learn Confirm Try again. “Pivot”
@andreasklinger

Learn Confirm Find a problem
worth solving. Find a potential solution. Validate that this solution works. Validate a business model. @andreasklinger

“The hard part is finding
the problem to solve.” Kevin Systrom http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2738 @andreasklinger

When i say problems i
mean Jobs to be Done Watch: http://bit.ly/cc-jtbd “Job to Be Done” Products are bought because they solve a “job to be done”. Therefore not every “problem” is “negative”. @andreasklinger

Question - I am generation
digital - I never read paper newspapers - I would never buy a tabloid Still: I take a metro newspaper in the London subway and read it begin to end while traveling. Why? @andreasklinger

Question - I am generation
digital - I never read paper newspapers - I would never buy a tabloid Still: I take a metro newspaper in the London subway and read it begin to end while traveling. Why? No reception. Travel of 20 minutes.

Customers have a “Job to
be done” in mind before they see your product. @andreasklinger

Customers have a “Job to
be done” in mind before they see your product. @andreasklinger Understanding that job enables product niching.

Learn Confirm Find a problem
worth solving. Find a potential solution. Validate that this solution works. Validate a business model. @andreasklinger

Validating Problem Validating Solution We
do this in two steps. Do they care? Do they need it? Do they have budget for it? Who really is “they”? Does our solution solve their problem? Do they understand our solution? Would they pay for it? @andreasklinger

How to know what customers
want? “Just go and ask them.” @andreasklinger

“If i had asked my
customers what they wanted, they would have said 'a faster horse'” Henry Ford Henry Ford asked wrong. @andreasklinger

@andreasklinger
Part II:
Customer Interviews

The hardest things in customer
interviews: Knowing who is your customer. Ask them the right way. Understand their feedback. Iterate or Kill your idea. @andreasklinger

Good or bad questions?
@andreasklinger

…from Europe’s #1 Custdev Expert
@robfitz. Watch Rob’s talk: http://bit.ly/rf-custdev I only took the liberty to make them worse by adding clutter and changing his face to mine. THE FOLLOWING SLIDES ARE ALL STOLEN. D ISC LA IM ER @andreasklinger

❝ ❞ Us Do you
have a problem with X?

❝ ❞ Us Do you
have a problem with X?

“You are young and got
an oscar. Are you worried about peaking your career too soon?” “Uuh. Well now I am!” - Jennifer Lawrence @andreasklinger

❝ ❞ Us Tell me
about X.

❝ ❞ Us Tell me
about X.

❝ ❞ Us Do you
think it’s a good idea?

❝ ❞ Us Do you
think it’s a good idea?

❝ ❞ Us Would you
buy a product which solved this problem?

❝ ❞ Us Would you
buy a product which solved this problem?

❝ ❞ Us How do
you currently deal with this problem?

❝ ❞ Us How do
you currently deal with this problem?

❝ ❞ Us Talk me
through the last time you had this problem

❝ ❞ Us Talk me
through the last time you had this problem

❝ ❞ Us How much
would you pay for this?

❝ ❞ Us How much
would you pay for this?

❝ ❞ Us How much
money does this problem cost you?

❝ ❞ Us How much
money does this problem cost you?

❝ ❞ Us Is there
a budget for it?

❝ ❞ Us Is there
a budget for it?

❝ ❞ Us Who else
should I talk to?

❝ ❞ Us Who else
should I talk to?

Good questions: - Did or
Do - NEVER Would - Don’t assume preset (e.g. problems) - Don’t ask for opinions but let them speak about real examples/experiences.

The Perfect Question “The Mother
Test” - (c) @robfitz Ask in a way that your mother could tell you that your product is useless. Without her knowing.

So we had a meeting
Understanding Feedback

❝ ❞ Claudia Sounds great.
I love it!

❝ ❞ Claudia Sounds great.
I love it! Only validates she is human.

❝ ❞ Jeremy Brilliant --
let me know when it launches!

❝ ❞ Jeremy Brilliant --
let me know when it launches! Compliment + Stalling tactic They don’t care

❝ ❞ Jeremy 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. WHY NOT NOW?

❝ ❞ Claudia I would
definitely buy that!

❝ ❞ Claudia I would
definitely buy that! DANGEROUS! PEOPLE CANNOT PREDICT THEIR OWN BEHAVIOUR.

❝ ❞ Jeremy We are
spending 500$ per month on this :(

❝ ❞ Jeremy We are
spending 500$ per month on this :( Awesome feedback! Proofs it is a problem, they kind of solved it, and shows their budget availability.

Opinions are worthless. We look
for: - facts about their life/work - and commitments - “Think VS Do” @andreasklinger

@andreasklinger Part III: Process of
Customer Interviews

First: Know what you want
to learn (riskiest assumptions) @andreasklinger Process: Find customers > Validate Problem > Validate Solution > Learn & Iterate

Finding Customers Define customer segments
- as focused as possible - as few as possible Find 5-10 customers in each segment.

Finding Customers Experts Advisors Advocates
Prospects Customers Your relationship with them changes over time:

Validate Problem Define Assumptions about
their Problem Define Assumptions about current solutions @andreasklinger Split in different customer segments if needed

Validate Problem #emminvest – @andreasklinger
Create Topic Maps Group your assumptions to Topics. Define non-leading Questions: Eg. “people want to connect with fashion labels” How do you ask that? “Do you want to connect” is leading. “Which fashion brands do you know?” “Why do you like them?” “Oh that’s interesting. How did you find out about that?” “Ah via facebook?...” etc.

Action. Get in groups and
create topic maps, customer segments and non leading questions @andreasklinger

Validate Problem The Interviews Don’t
be awkward: - “We are looking for Expert Feedback” or “Doing a Survey” - not: “We do Customer Development” - Ask open questions. - Let them speak. - Let them be the expert. (Ask naive) - In person. No skype, no online surveys, no phone, no email. Don’t do more interviews if feedback repeats. (No new learnings) @andreasklinger

Validate Problem The Interviews Second
person takes notes - No laptop - Use IndexCards or Postits. - Write down exact customer phrase - Use Visual indicators ----------------> Ask for further intros. Ask “Is there anything you think i should have asked”. @andreasklinger

NEVER DELEGATE INTERVIEWS - Interviews
should be done by the product-deciders. - Especially if they hate sales. (they need to learn it) @andreasklinger

Action. Test run interviews. Group
into people who like ice-cream. And people who want to build a unique ice-cream startup idea. @andreasklinger

Validate Problem Review Review in
the team - Use exact wording by customer - Understand their answers in their context - Don’t try to be correct with your assumptions - See what you learned. @andreasklinger

Source: Custdev.com#emminvest – @andreasklinger Validate
Problem Review - Write down new learnings (or new assumptions) - See which old assumptions turned out to be wrong or right. - Adapt your solution.

Source: Custdev.com Validate Solution -
Come back to interviewees - Focus first on their current solution. - Discuss flaws of their current solution. - Show mockups, screens, interactive demos. - Get improvement feedback. - Get them to commit. - Or iterate. If it solves a problem you don’t need to sell (much) @andreasklinger

If you were wrong. Be
happy. Several of the biggest startup successes started out wrong. You still have money, team and energy to iterate or pivot.

Summary - Know what you
want to learn. - Narrow your customer segment - Formulate your assumptions. - Define biggest questions (topic map). - Ask non leading, open questions. - Ask about experience not opinions. - Understand their feedback in their context. - Filter “Nice Human Behaviour” and Opinions. - Adapt with your learnings. Iterate your product. TL;DR: Use custdev to doublecheck your assumptions and product. Never bias in customer interviews. @andreasklinger

Read on Highly recommended: Rob
Fitzpatrick’s Collection of best Custdev Videos - @robfitz http://www.hackertalks.io @andreasklinger

Tweet & share @andreasklinger If
you like this presentation, please tweet about it: “Actionable Customer Development for Startups” - A workshop by @andreasklinger - slides: http://www.slideshare.net/andreasklinger/actionable-customer-development

Thank you :) @andreasklinger More
presentations: www.slideshare.net/andreasklinger