The Novelty Anti-Pattern
Customer development has some messy edge cases that aren’t covered clearly in the primary texts or the various case studies. I’ve run into a few, which I’ll be documenting here. (Update: the second...
View ArticleBig Name Discovery Anti-Pattern
(This is the second in an ongoing series of customer development anti-patterns. The first post was on the novelty anti-pattern) The big name discovery anti-pattern happens when you keep “improving” the...
View ArticleThe pathos problem
When you’re testing the waters with a new idea, you really need to present yourself as emotionally robust. You can’t validate a business if you seem pathetic, which I’m using in the sense of “having a...
View ArticleThe greatest joke ever told
This is all going to come back to startups (actually it will come back to getting feedback for any creative endeavour), but first watch this: Just like you can’t tell an anti-joke if you aren’t willing...
View ArticleThe mom test for good customer feedback
Supposedly, you aren’t meant to ask your mom if your business is a good idea. The idea is that she thinks everything you do is great and her opinion is therefore a worthless data point. That advice is...
View ArticleCustomer development antipattern: the meeting
This is the third entry in my very slow series on customer development anti-patterns. Previous ones were on the novelty anti-pattern and the big name anti-pattern. The meeting anti-pattern is the...
View ArticleLet’s admit that customer development is awkward
Customer development has a core quality that nobody really talks about: It’s awkward. I think people don’t talk about it because it’s not entirely clear whether the awkwardness arises from the...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....