Resources

Customer Discovery

Finding your true (and false) customers on path to PMF.

Purpose

“Get out of the office and talk to users” is table stakes.
Getting great at customer discovery means realizing not all users are created equal.
Understanding the differences between them will make or break your journey to product-market fit.
Early in your journey, customer discovery isn’t just talking to users; it’s figuring out who your true customers are. You only get there by figuring out who isn’t your customer.
Responsible customer discovery gives you better insights and odds at building long-term relationships that deliver ongoing value. This is a competitive advantage and potential moat over the long term.

Method

Lay groundwork
Consider using one of the many customer discovery frameworks that exist to drive your initial outreach and hypotheses, such as behavioral or acquisition segmentation, the Jobs to Be Done framework, or Bill Aulet’s work on end user profiles.
Put customers first
Develop deep empathy for your users’ challenges to help you stay focused on the problem you’re solving rather than falling in love with an early solution. If you fall in love with your customers rather than your solution, you’re more likely to maintain a laser focus on solving the problems they struggle with and that your company is trying to solve.
Identify latent + stated needs
‍Catalogue your customer’s latent needs and stated needs. Stated needs are what customers tell you they want. Latent needs are what they will actually pay for long term. Observe and interpret rather than just taking customers’ words directly as feedback. Understand their context of use, external pressures, and potentially unarticulated ecosystem challenges to avoid solving the wrong problem.
‍
- Find your users. This takes hustle. Whether you find them at conferences or coffee shops, it’s going to be hard to find strangers to give you meaningful feedback. Be ready to embrace the “no.”
- What you ask potential users once you’ve identified them will depend on what you have developed thus far.
  ‍
  - If you have an MVP, don’t ask them “do you like this?” Instead:
    - Ask them to try your MVP. Notice where they struggle and when they get excited.
    - See what they think the product would do for them and what they think is missing.
    - Try to learn what functionality would make someone pay.
    - See if they can tell you what disappoints them most about potential competitors.
    - Pay attention to emotional responses as well as feedback about product features.
      ‍
  - If you don’t have an MVP, engage users around the problem space.
    - Use the conversation to deepen your understanding of the problems people face – especially from their perspective.
    - Look for themes, and try to resolve contradictory feedback.
    - Ask enough questions so you can make a sketch (persona) of your user types, including their emotional state when using your potential product.
Close the loop
Revisit your chosen customer discovery framework to help you analyze the information collected. Look at the module on Product Roadmap to get insight on how to continually engage with customers.

This is some text inside of a div block.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

This is some text inside of a div block.

Trap Doors

Pattern recognition on pitfalls to avoid.

Reduction…
Avoid an overly reductionist view of customers. Customers are more than purchasers, they are people. And people are complex and contradictory.
Overlook…
When users don’t act (or use your product) in the way you anticipated or designed for, don’t get frustrated. Try to solve the mystery of *why*. People always have a reason for acting why they do.
Undervalue...
“Understanding your users” is not just about being extractive of their knowledge. Instead, consider customer relationships as strategic assets with long-term value. And treat them with the level of care appropriate for a valuable asset.
Underestimate…
You can learn just as much from people who are not your target market. Don’t assume that someone who isn’t interested in what you’re building can’t provide useful insights.

Founders + Operators

Participate in workshops and learning experiences that help you survive and grow. Connect with values-aligned peers. Shape how startups impact society.

Founders + Operators

Participate in workshops and learning experiences that help you survive and grow. Connect with values-aligned peers. Shape how startups impact society.

Don’t let your own experience and expertise make you overlook surprising or contradictory insights from users.

Cases

Airbnb's founders gained early insights by personally hosting guests, starting with air mattresses for conference attendees. This hands-on approach helped them understand the importance of trust-building and quality presentation in the home-sharing market. Listen to the founders talk about their early customer discovery efforts.

Dropbox’s founder, Drew Houston, created a simple demo video explaining how the product works, which led to beta sign-ups jumping from 5,000 to 75,000 overnight. The genius of Dropbox’s customer discovery was recognizing that potential users couldn’t articulate their need for seamless file synchronization—it was a latent need they didn’t know they had. To hear more about the principle of observing and interpreting rather than just taking customers’ words directly as feedback, listen to the founder or read an analysis of the company’s early days.

‍

Tools

Name

Description

Coming Soon!

Who to Enlist

Everyone you know is a potential lead to a customer. Respectful and relentless working your social network is key to connecting with potential customers.