The entrepreneur's guide to customer development
by Brant Cooper · first published 2010
62% recommend31% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
A short, practical cheat sheet to the customer discovery phase of Steve Blank's method. It works as a quick companion to The Four Steps to the Epiphany and Lean Startup for founders validating ideas.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Highly recommended: http://www.custdev.com/ (E-)book that summarizes the 4 Steps into a usable reference guide, with case studies mixed in.
on “The Four Steps to the Epiphany” ↗I would look at http://custdev.com to see how they did it. I bought their PDF. That said I am interested in a good solution to this too.
on “Ask HN: How do I sell a PDF document?” ↗http://www.custdev.com/ - Learn how to do Customer Development, an essential component of the Lean Startup philosophy. Learn how to: Find prospects and how to approach them, Develop and iterate your "Minimal Viable Products" (MVPs), Segment markets, position products and when to pivot, Validate before scaling" http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/startup-lessons-learne... - "Written by Eric Ries
on “Ask HN: I want to start a web company what books should I read?” ↗If you want an even quicker read, as 4 Steps can be quite redundant (or not relating to your business), check out The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: http://www.custdev.com/
on “The Fallacy of Customer Development” ↗…grocery store, a short-story writer at the bar. Look at the problems people really have and ask: could I build something that would help? If you think the answer is yes, go pick up something like "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development", or go do a Lean Startup Machine weekend. Learn how to test your ideas before you write code. When you find an idea you can't kill without building it (and find it you will) then go build it.
on “Ask HN: Copy & Undercut. Should I do this?” ↗In my haste, forgot to mention other key resources in my "toolkit": * Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development http://custdev.com (cheat sheet to Steve Blank's book) * Highly recommend Lean Startup Machine to get hands on practice with the guidance of lean startup mentors! http://theleanstartupmachine.com
on “Offer HN: FREE: I'll make your first 10 cold calls” ↗I'd start with Nail it, Then Scale It. Specifically for customer development, I'd check out The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany.
on “Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders” ↗I'd recommend checking out The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: http://custdev.com - It's a very practical guide to the first part of customer development and complimentary to Steve Blank's book and Eric Ries's Lean Startup Principles. I recommend it to every entrepreneur that I talk to (which ends up being hundreds a year!)
on “Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders” ↗…Blank, but I think the methodology would benefit from a different presentation. Is this any good? Can anyone post or point to a review? Two things struck me as funny about this: 1) The title, "The Entrepreneur´s Guide to Customer Development for Tech Startups". Isn't that exactly the target of Blank's book? Virtually all the literature on CD is aimed at entrepreneurs, this is hardly a point of differentiation. (Versus, for example, books…
on “The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development” ↗Thanks for your insights. I like the "how disappointed would you be" approach since it's a question users can easily answer that conveys actionable information. Incidentally, I just ordered the "Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development" that I found through HN, and quite a few people on here endorsed. If anyone's interested, I'll share the results of reading/applying that book.
on “Ask HN: Best ways to learn what users want?” ↗…determination of success, but rather is framed by the entrepreneur’s objective (user scale, specific functionality, payment) as measured by specific “currency” (usage, problem solved, money). -The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development
on “Pg, Blank and Ries on MVPs” ↗A list of the books, with ISBN-10/13: Book Title ISBN-10 ISBN-13 (if available) #1. Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup 0470929839 978-0470929834 #2. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany 0982743602 N/A #3. Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist 0470929820 978-0470929827 #4. Bargaining for Advantage:…
on “Books that helped us reach a million downloads” ↗Ash Maurya - Running Lean Cooper and Vlaskovits - The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development
on “Software is no longer sold; it's adopted” ↗