Post on 13-Jan-2015
description
PracticalCustomer
Development
Cindy AlvarezDirector of User Experience,Yammer (a Microsoft company)
The “lean startup” is:
• Use of low-cost and free software frameworks and services
• Rapid, iterative development
• Customer development
Customer development doesn’t come naturallyto builders and do-ers
You’re wronghalf the time
At Yammer, nearly 50% of our projects fail to ship because they do not move the intended metrics.
Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Netflix all agree that at least half of their feature ideas fail too.http://ai.stanford.edu/~ronnyk/ExPThinkWeek2009Public.pdf
Each hour of
saves 5, 10, 20+ hours of
Tools:http://bit.ly/14a30PQ
Customer Development steps:
• Forming a hypothesis
• Finding potential customers to talk to
• Asking the right questions
• Making sense of the answers
• Figuring out what to build to keep learning
• Repeat as needed
Forming a Hypothesis:• Problem, not product
• Testable
• Narrower is better
I believe [type of person]
experiences [problem]while performing [task].
Your potential customer:
Finding potential customers:
• Use your (extended) network
• Quora
• Domain-specific websites
• Stores, clubs, and “real world” locations
Templates:http://bit.ly/16K4mhM
Asking the right questions:
• What is the potential customer already doing?
• Frustrations
• Constraints
• How they decide, how they buy, how they use
Getting customers to talk:
• Tell me about the last time…
• 60 seconds of silence
• No “yes/no” questions
• “Other people have told me…”
• Who / What / When / How / Why
Tell me about how you do _________ today…
Do you use any [tools/products/apps/tricks] to help you get ________ done?
If you could wave a magic wand and be able to do anything that you can’t do today, what would it be?
(Don’t worry about if it’s possible)
Last time you did ___________, what were you doing right before you got started?
Once you finished, what did you do after?
Is there anything else about _________ that I should have asked about?
You may be wondering about:
• Compensation for interviewees
• On-site, face-to-face, phone, other?
• Should I record?
• Who needs to interview?
• What if the customer isn’t useful?
Making sense of what you hear:
• Validates
• Invalidates
• Surprises
• Emotion
What to build next:• What is your biggest risk?
• (Use the magic wand on yourself)
• MVPs are not scalable!
MVPs for learning can be:
• Concierge MVP
• “Wizard of Oz” MVP
• Single use case MVP
• Pre-order (“vaporware”) MVP
• Other peoples’ products
Pick your metrics (for example):
• X% increase in signup conversions
• Y% decrease in time between signup and successful task completion
• Customer reports qualitative data
You can ask questions anytime!
cindy@cindyalvarez.com or @cindyalvarez
(also stay tuned for Lean Customer Development)