Identify Customer Segment for Alpha

Vishnu Gopal

Why?

See earlier Learn Session: “Customer Segments & Personas”

Identify at least 3 customer segments you will target with the

product.

Then pick 1 to focus on for the Alpha Launch

Tip 1: Drill down, and focus on as narrow a segment as possible.

Not good enough: To say that your customers could

be “all startups”

Okay: To say that your customers could be “all startups that have a sales team”

Wow: To say that your customers could be “sales representatives of mature startups in the

eCommerce space”

Tip 2: Focus on 1 customer segment by picking

“lower hanging fruit” from the customer segments you have listed down.

i.e. a combo of 1) the customers easiest to target

2) the customers who are most likely to accept your product.

For 2) customers who are most likely to accept = customers who are likely to

have the most value from your product.

This is more art than science.

Tip 3: Learn from other companies before you.

Go back to your Reverse Engineer a SaaS company target

& ask this question, “When they started off, what customer

segment did they focus on? Why?”

Who were the first customers of Amazon?

of Freshdesk? of Paytm?

Tip 4: Again: think about how easy it is to address the customer segment’s

needs in 2 months for Alpha.

Submit a document in tabular form like this:

Customer Segment Demographics Jobs & Gains Pains

Segment Name 1

A one-line description of

this customer’s demographics

Which jobs of the customer

will you be assisting with?

Which problems of

the customer will you be

solving?

Segment Name 2

Segment Name 3

+ a written explanation describing the 1 customer segment

you are focusing on for Alpha