My Quick Review of “The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development”
Four greatest strengths of “The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development“
1) Assumption identification & ideation (To the whiteboard) (p. 51-54)
2) Customer Problem Solution problem (p. 68 to 70)
3) Brainstorm business model hypothesis (p. 71-74)–including a SaaS business model
4) Find prospects to talk to, reach out to prospects, and engaging prospects (p. 75 to 83)
5) The zingy story is pretty inspiring, it would still be nice to have more pivot examples.
I think the walk through of Peanut Butter **may** also prove helpful.
What the next version of the “The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development” could use as an appendix or mini-chapters:
1) A/B Testing options–a short review of 7 to 12 options beyond Google analytics for start ups). The link to startuptool box does help to isolate products in a handful of product areas.
2) Revenue models on the web (I guess mobile app models as well)
3) More examples from actual technology startups–to my knowledge there are four in the book.
4) Examples of company strategies for scaling
5) A copy of the business model template by Ann Miura Ko & Alexander Osterwalker (this is probably a relatively minor criticism)
6) Market type is under-developed (no chart on risk, which is really core to this concept)
“My philosophy is you don’t know what you don’t know and if you are ever right in a given moment, and if your guesses were ever true it would be serendipitous. You must attack your assumptions at all times. My basic tenet: question yourself, because your world is ever-changing.”
Bruce Moeller CEO of Drive Cam (2004 to 2008)
“Customer development will help you–force you– to make better decisions based on tested hypotheses, rather than untested assumptions.”
Brant Cooper & Patrick Vlaskovits
“Customer development methodologies are designed to give you data and feedback you may not want to hear. It is incumbent upon you to listen.”
Brant Cooper & Patrick Vlaskovits
“The objective is to see how quickly you can change guesses into facts.”
Steve Blank
* The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development can be purchase as an ebook or via Amazon as a hardcopy paperback.
