Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

— Andy explained that, years ago, a PR person’s was to turn so-called influencers like journalists and analysts into advocates for your client. Positioning must be authentic, she stresses: Here’s the thing about great positioning or great PR: You have to be aligned with who you are. Filed under: Customer Development.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

For example, our goal could be: Create demand for our products and drive it into our sales channel. Create awareness of our company and brand for potential customers. Founders ask me all the time whether they should hire a PR agency. Customer Discovery Never Stops. Filed under: Customer Development , Marketing.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

So we tried to craft a strategy that would give us the product development leverage we needed to serve all customers. We combined three tactics: extensive use of free software, an open platform for user-generated content, and leveraged distribution channels. Leveraged distribution channels. Dont fall for it - its a trap.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

, it seemed time to return to the subject of investigating who my customers are. Today, Id like to spend some time on two techniques: the problem presentation and learning what channels of information reach customers. But beyond the obvious, its also important to know where customers go to get answers to pressing questions.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

The App Store is a channel for customer acquisition. As the channel gets more and more crowded, just launching an app in the store is getting worse and worse as a strategy for each new entrant. On the web, we have many of these channels: SEM, SEO, world of mouth, PR and viral. My advice: dont launch big.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Announce a new product, start its PR campaign, and engage in buzz marketing activities. Marketing launch) Make a new product available to customers in the general public. Do your customers really read TechCrunch? Do some Customer Development instead. Spend your time with renewable sources of customers and iterate.

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San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

FM KQED live-streams over the internet here : [link] Forum is also broadcast on Sirius XM satellite radio (channel 135 NPR Talk) I know for many of you 10AM is not the common time you're sitting by the radio with nothing better to do than call into a live radio show. There are several ways to tune in: In the Bay Area, tune your radio to 88.5

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Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

I wanted to understand how customers bought our products. I knew we were selling through a multi-level indirect sales channel. That’s a mouthful to say that our sales people didn’t sell our products directly to a customer. Market messages to indirect sales channels are just like that. The result is usually hilarious.

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Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Not being able to hear negative customer input is an extremely bad idea. Out of the Ashes A few of the key tenets of Customer Development , came from the ashes. The Customer Validation lesson of, “no formal launch until you have early sales validating the product and sales process&# was also born here.

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Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In the tactics section, list your sales channels and describe how you will be selling your products. Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door. You might also get immediate access to channels that might have otherwise taken years to break into. Do your own PR.

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Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Duct Tape Marketing

MARCH 1, 2016

Lead generation is essentially a game of channels more than tactics. Meaning you need to find the right mix of channels that allow you to profitably attract a high enough number of leads over and over again in order to feed your growth objectives. You don’t simply assemble a few tactics; you master a few channels.

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Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Steve I have to tell you some bad news, I just showed our potential channel partners and customers a few completed pieces of the games we had. Customer Development There was nothing wrong about Rocket Science having a vision radically different than the conventional wisdom. They think the games stink.” Order Here.

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Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 212

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

We use email; we use Word; we use task manager; we use a file sharing tool. Meetings are definitely one of those places, but email is another primary way that that comes in. So that’s a very simple way of saying it’s task management, but it’s getting rid of emails that of course no one wants emails.

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ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

PR and publicity drive attention…to drive sales. It is simply getting customers. On Sean’s GrowthHackers.com , categories include… So, essentially everything from customer development and onboarding to persuasion and social marketing fall under the umbrella of growth hacking. Conducted Customer Development.

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Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

Every marketing communication hire couldn’t wait to produce the next great ad or PR program. We were going to do that by turning marketing into a machine to generate end user demand, drive the that demand into our sales channels, and educate our sales channels. In my experience, every marketer with an MBA wants to “do strategy.”

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ReadWriteStart

MARCH 27, 2011

This is lean development without any customer development. In addition, channels such as Applifier, Appsumo or the Humble Indie Bundle have made it easy to reach large groups of users. The same goes for payments, analytics, emailing and more. Every startup needs PR, but this is even more true of flips.

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www.rocketwatcher.com

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Rocket Watcher Product Marketing for Startups Product Marketing for Startups About Speaking Contact Email Posts Startups Product Marketing Messaging Social Media Commentary Uncategorized Marketing Metrics 101 for B2B Startups 13. You can sign up for email updates, subscribe via RSS or follow me on Twitter. April Amrita Reply 13.

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techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Twitter is an excellent distribution channel for us. (B) Everything Seth said is absolutely spot on, except I’d encourage founders to make sure they do some customer development (even in the consumer space) in parallel to cranking out the first product. Will be looking forward to seeing the next piece that you do.

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Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

In fact, you cant go through traditional channels at all. Why do you think outsources have been happy to generate all this PR the past few years about people losing their jobs to India? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Want to learn more about me?

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Most normal customers – even among early adopters - do not pay attention to the trolls. They don’t participate heavily in the forums, and they don’t send email when they are dissatisfied. They are largely invisible in the normal channels where customer service and community management pays attention.

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