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GapingVoid-Business Is Socializing With Purpose

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Customer Discovery – 1bProblem Hypothesis

Iain Verigin

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Customer Discovery Loop“Problem & Product”

The Problem and Your Solution (the product)

Phase 1State Your Hypothesis- Problem- Product ( solution )

Phase 2Test Your “Problem” Hypothesis

Phase 3Test Your “Product” Hypothesis

Phase 4Synthesize, Verify,Prepare to Do it Again.

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Phase 2: Test & Qualify Problem Hypothesis

• Actions– Get out of the building – Test the problem – Become the customer

• Goal– Solve a real problem

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Test & Qualify Problem Hypothesis

• Friendly First Contacts • “Problem” Presentation • Customer Understanding • Market Knowledge• “Service Journey”

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Test & Qualify Problem: First Contacts

• Build a Rolodex – Build List of ~50 prospects– People who will talk to you.

• Develop “Innovators” list– who “gets” new ideas

• Create reference story/sales script– Assume 10% of your list will meet with you – Means lots of calls

• ~ 10 phone calls per day per team member.

• Schedule Customer Visits

More - First Contacts

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• Start Broad: Friends, Family, LinkedIn– Qualifying Questions– Referrals

• Possible Users: Industry Veterans– Market Insights– Problem/Solution Feedback

• Target Users: Early Adopters– Product Market Fit Insight– Customer Acquisition

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Test & Qualify Problem: Create Problem Presentation• In the Meeting :Think: I want to listen.

– How do I get the prospect to talk?– whiteboard, single sheet of paper, … napkin.

(Powerpoint)• I’m not kidding.• Give “them” the pen.

• ! Not a Sales Pitch ! – Test of your understanding of the customers

problem – Problem/Solution – “One Pager” idea (page 204 Fig

5.4)• Problems column 1 • Today’s solution column 2 • Your solution column 3

– Capture other missing data

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Test & Qualify Problem: Customer Understanding

• Meeting Goals --? What do I need to learn from these meetings ? – Become a Domain Expert – Understand their “Day-in-the Life” – Understand their problems/pain – Get a feel of how this impacts their life/work – Who has similar products that solve this problem – How do they learn about new solutions – Can they be helpful later

• :Think: I need to present the above to my company?

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Test & Qualify Problem: Market Knowledge

• Get a feel for the “lay of the land” • Adjacent Market players • Industry Influencers • Key Analysts • Attend Conferences /Tradeshows

• Based on Initial visits expand your list to include the whole “Ecosystem” of the problem.

• Begin “developing” an Ecosystem “sketch”

“Service/Product” Journey

• “Who Is Your Customer?”– :idea: Sketch Your Product and the

People it “touches” through it’s usage.

• Often it is difficult to determine who is your customer. The service journey gives you a “top level” insight.

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:Extra:

12:Service Journey V0.1:

:Extra:

MammOpticsMarketing

:Extra:

MammOpticsInterviews

Breast Cancer Advocacy Groups

OB/GYNs

FDA/Clinical Trials

Medical Sales

Be Bright PinkJennifer Glover

Dr. Cindy WooDr. Jags Powers

Dr. Aaron Shuvkan

Katrina BellTanay Dudhela

Jed Hwang

Phyllis WhitelyCarl Simpson

:Extra:

Customer Archetypes

• A more detailed articulation of your customer.

• Lots on this in the textbook.

• This is not version 0.1 ( this is the goal)

15:Extra:

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Prospects? Who are you gonna talk

to? Early Customers

– Budget– “home brew

solution”– Actively looking– Know they have

problem– Have a Problem

:Extra:

Review TimeDoes Our Product Idea …

• That we didn’t talk about• Actually solve the problems that

we’ve learned about in our first pass of talking to ( experimenting on) customers?

• This is formal review time.– Do we need to re-Do our Product

Idea or are we ready to “pitch it”??17

:Tricky:

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Test Problem Hypothesis: First Reality Check

• Team Review– What did we learn? – What are we gonna do about it? – Make Decisions. – Take Action.

• Review Details– Build a Workflow Map of customer

• Before and after your product– Problem scale – Key insights – How did the product spec match needs? – Re-review product feature List – Why are you different?• Fyi … this Review can turn into a

“jihad” ;-)

… be calm … this is how real learning happens.

Getting everyone on same page is not easy in practice.

END

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20Source: http://giffconstable.com/Listening - Example

Note: Product Context

• You can’t talk product until you can “position it” as a solution to a problem.

• In Customer Discovery you are still “searching” and “not selling” therefore your “Product” should be the minimum necessary to gain the information you need. This is called “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP)

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:Extra:

Really Three Separate Steps

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1. Develop/Sketch “Market Understanding”(What You Did Last Week)

2. Develop/Sketch “The Problem” ( No Talking Product Yet!)

3. Develop/Sketch “Your Solution to the Problem” (Your Product )

(that never end)time

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In Summary

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CustomerDiscovery

CustomerValidation

CustomerCreation

ScaleCompany

Customer Discovery

• Stop selling, start listening– There are no facts inside your building, so get

outside

• Test your hypotheses – Two are fundamental: problem and product

concept

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Customer Discovery: Rules

• Rule 1: Facts are outside the building, opinions are inside.

• Rule 2: Solve a problem that customers say is important and valuable

• Rule 3: Does the product concept

solve that problem?

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Customer Discovery: Exit Criteria

• What are your customers top problems? – How much will they pay to solve them

• Does your product concept solve them? – Do customers agree? – How much will they pay

• Can you draw a day-in-the-life of a customer – before & after your product

• Can you draw the org chart of users & buyers

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Customer Dev’t ProcessTime Frames

CustomerDiscovery

CustomerValidation

CustomerCreation

ScaleCompany

Existing Market: 1 Months - 1 Year

Resegmenting a Market: 6 Months - 3 Years

New Market: 1 - 3 Years