Lean Customer Development · Cindy Alvarez · 2017
Customer development is a disciplined way to confirm that enough people truly want and will pay for what you’re building. Instead of relying on guesswork or intuition, teams talk to prospective or existing users early and often, listening for the needs and constraints that matter most. From startups to large enterprises, it combats the tendency to assume that internal expertise or past success guarantees future demand. This process systematically tests assumptions by asking open-ended, behaviour-focused questions, exploring where people struggle, and identifying how they decide what to buy. Each conversation helps refine the target audience, the product’s core value, and which features matter first.
Before engaging users, teams map out assumptions about who the customer is, what problem they face, and why they’d pay to fix it. They then form a concise “problem hypothesis” and narrow down which customers to approach. People experiencing the worst version of a problem are often the best interview targets: they have urgent motivation to solve it. Earlyvangelists or heavy users offer rich insights, while others might only say what they think you want to hear. Talking to them in person or on the phone uncovers details about constraints, daily routines, and blockers they rarely share in a typical survey.
During interviews, the key is to avoid selling or rushing to show a product. Instead, a good interviewer focuses on what the customer already does, how they work around obstacles, and who influences decisions. Even polite questions like “Tell me how you do X” and “What happens next?” reveal unmet needs and open opportunities. Phrasing questions about real recent events helps avoid inflated claims about what they would do in the future. A pair of people can attend interviews together so that one can concentrate on asking questions and the other can capture notes without interrupting. Summaries and immediate follow-ups help capture which ideas were validated or contradicted.
Validation often comes when people demonstrate real effort to fix a pain point: perhaps they have spent money, built a custom workaround, or expressed frustration they’d pay to resolve. Unverified enthusiasm is cheap; concrete actions or strong complaints signal real demand. Teams look for recurring patterns—if multiple people cite the same fundamental issue, that suggests a genuine market need. Once there’s evidence of true demand, minimal viable products (MVPs) help test specific assumptions about willingness to pay, distribution channels, or user behaviour. These MVP experiments range from simple pre-orders and landing pages to more manual approaches like concierge or “Wizard of Oz” services. The goal is to learn quickly and cheaply which ideas resonate and which fail before a big rollout.
Large companies adapt these methods so new ideas don’t clash with brand expectations or break a stable product for loyal users. Even so, they can build demos and prototypes that look polished but remain exploratory, testing user reactions in small groups or under different branding. A recognised name can bias feedback, so quietly approaching potential users incognito may improve objectivity. Existing customers often have deeply ingrained habits—asking them to show how they currently use the product reveals whether new features make sense or if unfamiliar obstacles are lurking. Overcommunicating that these conversations are research, not product announcements, preserves trust and lowers the risk of disappointment.
Customer development becomes even more powerful when it’s woven into everyday processes. Sales, support, and account managers encounter real users daily, giving them a prime chance to uncover deeper motives whenever customers propose a feature or complain about something missing. Simple questions like “What would that help you do?” defuse tension and illuminate the actual problem to solve. This continuous learning—collected in a quick, central place—helps teams spot patterns early. Sharing both the findings and the resulting product improvements across the organisation closes the loop and fosters an ongoing culture of customer-focused decisions.
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As We May Think · Article in the Atlantic
Vannevar Bush. 1945. (View Article →)
Consider a future device... in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications and which is mechanised so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.
I use Notion as my second brain. It’s become my Memex. Vannevar Bush imagined and articulated a truly amazing vision for the future - one that we’re still building on today. I’m grateful to live in a time when we have access to this technology.
Bush got the big picture completely right, the power of a personalised information system, the linking of ideas. That’s extraordinary. This paper is timeless, but he did get the medium wrong. Apparently he held onto the idea of using a mechanical device long after it was clear a digital solution was the answer.
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Book Highlights
One or two outspoken people often dominate the discussion, drowning out other voices. Dan Olsen · The Lean Product Playbook
There is one particular quality that distinguishes those who are great at product and market discovery work: active listening. They don't listen to respond or have their assumptions validated. There is open, attentive listening; their mission is to learn. Lead with open-ended questions that reveal market perceptions before diving into specific product discovery ideas. If you lead with your ideas, you've primed the response. It's easy for people to now be anchored around how you're thinking of the solution, not how they would. Equally important is to put enough different ideas in front of customers so you can gauge the relative strength of response. I encourage always using some form of calibration, like ratings, rankings, or even “Would you hit the like button?” Martina Lauchengco · Loved
As an IC, you need to occasionally do two things: 1. Look up: Look beyond the next deadline or project and forward to all the milestones coming up in the next few months. Then look all the way down to your ultimate goal: the mission. Ideally it should be the reason you joined the project in the first place. As your project progresses, be sure the mission still makes sense to you and that the path to reach it seems achievable. 2. Look around: Get out of your comfort zone and away from the immediate team you’re on. Talk to the other functions in your company to understand their perspectives, needs, and concerns. This internal networking is always useful and it can give you an early warning if your project is not headed in the right direction. Tony Fadell · Build
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Quotes & Tweets
You become what you scroll Shane Parish
Building Netflix taught me that your first idea is rarely your best idea. We started mailing DVDs, not streaming movies. Stay married to the problem you’re solving, not the solution you THINK will solve it. Marc Randolph
Product Management… Role: Define the product & orchestrate actions across the org to enable its success. Success: User adoption & satisfaction, Business impact. Key skills: Critical thinking, Cognitive empathy, Influential communication. Key traits: Openness, Deep care, High agency. Shreyas Doshi