In a time, where technological improvements have made is easier than ever before to start building your product idea straight away, the question is no longer if your product can be built, it’s whether or not anyone actually wants it. Customer Development is used to help you stop wasting time and money on products that people don’t want. Next to validating your startup idea it can, of course, be used to identify problems and to optimise ideas or existing products.
We touched on the subject of Customer Development before in our blog post from last week, this week we are going to dive a bit deeper into the subject on how to actually get the most out of these conversations.
Below are 9 key tips and principles for practicing Customer Development effectively.
#1 Don’t pitch your idea at first
One of the most natural things, when you start talking to people, is to go into an automatic pitch mode. However pitching an idea instead of trying to have a conversation where you try to find out about people’s problems will result in learning less about your potential customers. You will get biased answers that can lead you down the wrong path. The goal of Customer Development is not just to validate or invalidate your idea, but mostly it is to learn what is valuable for your customers and optimise whatever it is you are building. People are naturally inclined to agree with whatever you are telling and to compliment you, so when you are talking about this “brilliant” idea which you are putting blood and sweat in, of course, they will love it! Because of this you will miss out on learning key insights. Pitching and potentially even selling should only be used after you are confident that you’re solving a real problem. And even when you do that and people say the love it, let them get their wallet out straight away to prove they are not just trying to blow you off.
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