Customer development is a process for discovering and validating market demand for a business idea and determining the right product features to meet customer needs. Customer development is
used to help build products that customers want and avoid spending time and money on products customers don’t want. It can be used to identify problems and new startup ideas, to test ideas, and
to optimize ideas and existing products. Customer development helps us learn about our potential customers so we can build products they will actually use. Customer development and Lean Startup
methodology have become quite popular with entrepreneurs. I wrote this book to be a supplement to books like The Lean Startup and The Startup Owner’s Manual. Without rehashing too much of what
they’ve taught, this is a tactical guide to practicing customer development. Many entrepreneurs and corporate innovators know they need to be practicing customer development, but don’t know how
to do it in a way that will help them build awesome products. Topics include: How to Get Startup Ideas Through Customer Development How to Test a Startup Idea’s Viability Before Building a
Product How to Find Customers to Interview How to Ask for and Get Customer Interviews How to Gain Customer Insights to Build Products People Want The Best and Worst Customer Development
Questions How to Optimize Ideas and Existing Products Common Mistakes to Avoid When I first learned about Lean methodology and customer development it was mind-blowing. I’ve been thinking of
and evaluating startup ideas for as long as remember. It helped me to focus my ideas, and helped me avoid wasting a lot of time and money and products that no one actually wants. This book is a
compilation of everything I’ve learned through study and practice.
