Alexandr Galkin is CEO and Co-Founder of Competera, an international tech company offering AI-backed price optimization software to help enterprise retailers set and maintain optimal prices. He is a Forbes contributor, speaker at IRX, e-Commerce and RBTE conferences. Speech Overview: How we found Competera using a mix of Steve Blank and Google Sprint frameworks – Our journey Win & Loses – Fundamental tips about Customer Development and difference from Product develop – Hypothesis – creation, and validation – Weekly plan to evaluate and test. any idea in 90 days. (based on the real-life example of one of our product)

1. Customer
Development
Alex Galkin
CEO & Co-founder at Competera
galkin@competera.net
+44 7946 032232

2. About me
$28.2B
of revenue managed
by Competera Pricing Insights
120+
clients across
the Globe
60 people of experience
in retail & product development

3. pricing platform
The Optimal Prices
For the Right Products
Every Day

4. Competera: Pricing Platform makes
any pricing decision easy
Manage pricing strategies
at portfolio level using 2 metrics —
constraint and target — based on
elasticity or automated rules
Market insights: Competera
identifies when you start losing money
and provides recommendations
with a "show me why" explanation
Goal-driven approach:
increase productivity of pricing
managers by setting and managing
transparent business targets
#1
#2
#3

5. But prior to this story
was another...

6. - Outsourcing & Consulting
background
- 1.5 year product dev before launch
- Up to $400k investment
- 20+ people team
- 0 traction

7. Any story should start
from the Product
development Customer
Development

8. Questio
n list
~ 35 phone
interviews
~ 80 Google
Forms
responds
5 screens
MVP
One pager
for sales
First
Customer
3 month
after
Landing
page
And new story began this way

9. And takes
- Only ~36k
investment
- ~4 months
- 2 signed annual deal

10. Customer Development
Company
Building
Company
Creation
Scale
Organization
Scale
Operations
Scale
Execution
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
Problem
Solution Fit
Product
Market Fit
Proposed
MVP
Business
Model
Proposed
Funnel(s)
Sales &
Marketing
Roadmap
pivot

11. The Four Steps
to the Epiphany
- Steve Blank
“

12. Okay, but How?

13. Hypothe list creation
and clean process for weekly validation

14. One of the KEY factors for early success
is concentrated teamwork with cycle
of hypothesis creation and validation

15. One Pager with
almost zero code
Close 3 Enterprise
deals before
product
Continue investing
#1
#2
#3

16. SMB Product
Research
100 prospects
~40+ interview
8 was ready to
try&buy
(with target in 5)
Stop investing
MVP Failed
#1
#2
#3

17. List of hypnotists
Problem fit — Do we really target a problem or need? and Do
the customers waiting for solving this?
Solution fit — Do we really have a solution for them?
Market fit — How big this problem ? (Joke about social
network for pregnant Bikers), Animal Hunting Game
MVP fit — Do we can build something what can fix this
quickly? Create an “Wow” moment in 10 seconds.
Monetisation fit — Animal Hunting by Christoph Jianz
Sales & Marketing fit — How we can attract this customers
to get to the 100m in 7-10 years

18. Examples of weekly goals and Key Results
● Week 1
○ Do we really have a problem? What the list of KEY hypothesis could be?
○ Who is our Ideal Customer Profile, End User and Buyer
○ List of Hypotheses and ICP
● Week 2
○ Format list of prospects by ICP
○ Q&A list and Google Forms
○ Design of Interview (doc file)
● Week 3
○ Emails, Phones, and direct messaging
○ Scheduleings 30 minutes interview call

19. Weekly goals
● Week 4
○ Collecting feedback and scheduling new interviews
○ Sketching
○ Half Run Retro
● Week 5 - 6
○ Collecting feedback and scheduling new interviews
○ High fidelity product prototype
● Week 7 - week goal to get 5 ready to buy customers (received 7)
○ Landing page in producing
○ Traffic (one shoot)
● Week 8
○ 0 Sprint

20. Finally we decided to not
invest in the product..

21. One of the best way to do so
is to organize your weekly
work around Sprints with
Sprint framework

22. About Pivot
- Experience
You just tested X times bad hypothesis
- Learning
This is a learnings curve
- Improvement
As much as you can get from the early
interviews
as more you can improve your vision & product

23. Design your first customer
interview link

24. Thanks
Send me SMS in case of any questions
galkin@competera.net