Customer Development
company
Customer Development is a four-step framework created by Steve Blank that emphasizes discovering and validating customer needs before building products.
The Four Steps
- Customer Discovery - Test whether your problem/solution fit resonates with customers
- Customer Validation - Build a repeatable and scalable sales process
- Customer Creation - Create end-user demand and drive it to your sales channels
- Company Building - Transition from learning and discovery to execution
Key Principles
- Get out of the building - Talk to real customers instead of making assumptions
- There are no facts inside your building - Only opinions exist until validated by customers
- Failure is integral to learning - Pivot based on customer feedback
- Focus on learning, not selling - Early conversations should discover problems, not pitch solutions
Resources
- Steve Blank’s blog
- Blank’s own book page: The Four Steps to the Epiphany, and The Startup Owner’s Manual (with Bob Dorf)
- The Four Steps to the Epiphany in context: Business books