building products customers will buy

Building Products that Customers Will BuyCindy AlvarezUX at Microsoft & Author, Lean Customer Development

2016

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Product development = building product

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Customer development = building customers

(people who want to buy your product)

understanding customer behaviors

gaining customer empathy

buildingcustomer relationships

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Why?

understanding customer behaviors

gaining customer empathy

buildingcustomer relationships

If we know what they’re already doing, we can build a product that helps them do it better

If we know their frustrations and constraints, we can build a product that doesn’t run into those walls

If we know how they are rewarded, we can build a product that rewards them

If we’ve offered value, we can ask for favors in return:

- Beta testing- Referrals- Case studies

= more sales

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How?

1)Form a hypothesis2)Try to disprove it

(you may remember this from school as “the scientific method”)

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What’s a hypothesis?Why do you think this new product/feature will be successful?

A hypothesis is NOT “I believe we need to support syntax highlighting on our mobile apps”. That is a feature, not a hypothesis.

A hypothesis involves people – problems they have and value they accrue. All parts of the hypothesis are assumptions. You must be able to invalidate any/all parts of it.

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A good hypothesis templateI believe ____________________________________

Needs to solve ______________________________________________

Which happens while ________________________________

Which will allow them to ____________________________________

Problem, i.e. “takes too much time to manually book appointments”

Type of person, i.e. ”busy small business owner”

Situation, i.e. “reception is answering phones”

Get value, i.e. “book more customers, make more $”

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Try to disprove ourselves by…• Practicing neutral observation• Asking open-ended questions• ”5 Whys” style pursuit of truth beyond surface answers• Understanding problem before solution

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Avoided Overbuilding an MVP

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Real Reason for Attrition

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Identified New Product Opportunity

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Avoided Building Wrong Solution

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Misleading Quantitative Data

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What can we do starting

tomorrow to start learning?

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We can…• Observe • Ask why• Follow up• Take a step back