Failure to Launch
Talk to Customers
It’s simply essential. When it comes to customer discovery make like Nike and just do it. There’s really no way around it if you want to be successful. If you want to fail, then don’t talk to customers. We didn’t talk to customers….and we failed. I think that's enough generalities - let's get technical.
Customer discovery is a form of qualitative (not quantitative) research used to test assumptions and gain empathy and insight. It is NOT the process of explicitly asking people what they want.
“If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said ‘A faster horse.’”.
-Henry Ford
Josh Botkin, an entrepreneurial follow at University of Michigan's Zell Lurie Institute, put together a very useful presentation on customer discovery. If you don't want to take my word on the importance of CD, take his. To view the presentation, click here!
Overall, customer discovery can be viewed as a focus group-like activity where you are far more interested in the candid input of your subjects, as opposed to direct feedback on your predetermined ideas. Throughout the process, you are trying to learn, not sell.
Talk to Smart People
List of people (in order of importance) entrepreneurs should talk to when starting a business:
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Potential customers
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People smarter and better than you
It is simply impossible to effectively enter a market without knowing what consumers desire in a product. With UpGrade, no one on the team had student loans, so none of us could say specific things that would have made paying for college easier. This didn’t have to be a problem, but it became one when we time and time again neglected to seek input from those - be it students or parents - actually dealing with student loans. When looking to build a company, your personal vision is important, but it should always be guided by needs of your customers.
Number 2 is one of the few things UpGrade did a good job of. We were able to build a robust network in entrepreneurial, peer-to-peer lending, and educational spaces. This was advantageous for a number of reasons. I found talking to successful people inspiring, in turn motivating me to strive for similar degrees of success. Of equal importance, successful people know other successful people, and once the ball is rolling, it is not difficult to make connections with a wealth of individuals able to help you with your various needs.
In general, be outgoing and step out of your comfort zone when seeking guidance - I was consistently surprised at how willing most people are to help. There really aren’t many people who don’t have time for a thirty minute phone call, although in some cases, I did have to wait a number of weeks before setting up a meeting or phone call.