![]() You hear what you want to hear and filter out the rest. But a lot of people take this too far, and fall into the “happy ears” trap during customer development. You want to talk to customers, and figure out where your product succeeds so you can build on these areas for more traction and growth. When you conduct customer development interviews, a big part of what you’re doing is figuring out what your product does right. Focus in on 5–10, biased heavily towards the ones you know like the back of your hand. You should be able to sit down with a friend and learn the basics of a specific vertical in a 30 minute conversation, rather than having to replicate those learning step by step over weeks and months.Įxplore different verticals and markets, but don’t go overboard. Double-down on markets you already know and have been a part of, or ones where you know a lot of insiders-where you have a competitive edge. You’re at a disadvantage from the get-go, and while you learn interesting things, you hemorrhage cash that could be use d to beef up your product, hire new talent, and serve your customers better. You’re a total stranger to these markets, and you waste time trying to figure out the basics. ![]() This kind of entry-level learning does nothing for your business. You think maybe healthcare, among others, would be a great vertical to pursue-you email a bunch of doctors, and find out that doctors don’t answer their own emails. You’ve largely focused on the tech sector, but the competition’s too stiff. You'll spread your time and resources too thin, while your business flounders.įor example, let’s say you’re building an inter-office communications platform.You’ll learn fun and surprising things about new markets, but these learnings won’t actually drive business for you.When you’re in the early stages of your startup, testing 60 different verticals at once is always a bad idea. ![]() But don’t shoot blindly, and poke your head into every market that you can think of. It’s good to go out and test these different verticals to see if one is particularly interested in your product. Your product is versatile, with tons of different possible applications. When your product has early traction, you probably get positive signals from customers in diverse markets. Let’s walk through the four most common customer development pitfalls you need to avoid on the road to product-market fit and real growth. At worst, it puts your entire business in jeopardy. You end up with faulty learning that at best is useless, and wastes your time. ![]()
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