This document discusses common excuses people give for avoiding customer development and usability testing. It translates these excuses to their true meanings, which generally boil down to fears of being wrong or not caring enough about customers. The bottom line is that startups should make customer development a recurring part of their process and not make excuses to avoid it.

1. Excuses
Excuses
Excuses
(why people avoid custdev and usability testing)
by Giff Constable

2. We know...
What people say and what
they do are different

3. “Customers don’t know what
they want”

4. Translation
“I’m afraid of being wrong”
(or over-confidence)

5. “There’s no point until we
have more features”

6. Translation
“I’m afraid of being wrong”

7. “I am the customer”

8. Translation
“I’m the next Steve Jobs”
(or)
“I’m afraid of being wrong”

9. “Conversations are
meaningless. The metrics tell
the truth”

10. Translation
“Don’t make me talk to real
people!”

11. “I showed it to VCs, UX
gurus, and the VC’s dog”

12. Translation
“Denial is ok, as long as it’s
with famous people”

13. “I did my cust dev when we
started”

14. Translation
“Can’t we just pretend that
we know what we’re doing by
now?”

15. “The sales people are my
ears in the market”

16. Translation
“I’m tired of arguing over
priorities”

17. “I’m too busy”

18. Translation
“I don’t care enough about it”

19. I’m not saying every second
of every day, but

20. BOTTOM LINE
Build recurring cust dev into
your startup DNA
No excuses!