Steve Blank

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The LeanLaunch Pad at Stanford – Class 4: Customer Hypotheses

Steve Blank

This week they were testing who the customer, user, payer for the product will be (and discovering if they have a multi-sided business model , one with both buyers and sellers.) The news from customers was not good. talk to more customers? Which value added services do public clouds want to attract customers for?

Customer 234
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Why Build, Measure, Learn – isn’t just throwing things against the wall to see if they work

Steve Blank

Build a product, get it into the real world, measure customers’ reactions and behaviors, learn from this, and use what you’ve learned to build something better. Repeat, learning whether to iterate, pivot or restart until you have something that customers love. Build, Measure, Learn sounds pretty simple. Waterfall Development.

Lean 120
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Building a Company with Customer Data – Why Metrics Are Not Enough

Steve Blank

Gathering real-world feedback from customers is a core concept of Customer Development as well as the Lean Startup. When I asked him if he actually had personally left the building and talked to these potential customers, or even had gotten them on the phone, he sounded confused. Customer needs are non-deterministic.

Metrics 239
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Why Companies are Not Startups

Steve Blank

These groups are adapting or adopting the practices of startups and accelerators – disruption and innovation rather than direct competition, customer development versus more product features, agility and speed versus lowest cost. existing enterprises are establishing corporate innovation groups.

IRR 335
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How One Startup Figured Out What Could Really Help Deaf People

Steve Blank

Customer Development for us meant a lot of hard-won learnings. The endless emails we received describing the exact need we had uncovered were the powerful validation of the customer development approach. Incredibly high usage and impressive retention prove that we are on the right track. There was no going back. So what now?

Cofounder 120
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How To Keep Your Company Alive – Observe, Orient, Decide and Act

Steve Blank

Your customers will no longer be your customers. Your customers start buying. The CEO should dial through as many of the largest existing customers to get a firsthand understanding of the magnitude of any revenue shortfall. Ask yourself: Are there now new customers, new services and new channels to pursue?

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A Path to the Minimum Viable Product

Steve Blank

Shawn immediately said the name I had given the four steps was confusing – I had called it market development – he suggested that I call it Customer Development – and the name stuck. In other words, you prove retention. It’s really all that matters at the earliest stage.

Product 436