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Erm. So he never tells what his product is, what questions he asked or what responses he got. Then he claims success before the product has even launched. And a
by moe 17y ago
Erm. So he never tells what his product is, what questions he asked or what responses he got. Then he claims success before the product has even launched. And all people over here immediately throw their arms up to praise the new, awesome, groundbreaking methodology.
What is it with us nerds that we fall so easily for every new XP, agile, scrum, CD brainfart of the week? Is it that our brains are, on average, so exhausted from the constant hacking, that we crave to outsource at least the higher level thinking?
- tptacek 17y agoHe had an extremely productive conversation with a cold prospect. From it, he got a compelling argument not to build a product he was otherwise ready to build. He didn't declare his business a success. He declared Steve Blank's recommendation a tactical success. And he's right. Customer development isn't a software development methodology. Steve Blank is just talking about basic fundamental marketing, and giving it straightforward steps.
- moe 17y agoWell, that's fine and all. I think this approach was called "market research" or just "common sense" for a few decades, at least before Mr. Blank came along. I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I just fail to see how it is a new idea in any way.
- tptacek 17y agoThat observation would be a lot more witty if so many people didn't know how to do basic market research. I most definitely include myself among them.
- moe 17y agoI'm sort of baffled in two ways here, because neither do I think this is necessarily a prerequisite to launching a successful business, nor do I think someone who seriously needs that kind of advice has a snowball's chance in hell to actually create one... Either you have a strong vision and go for it no matter what, or you feel a need to validate and know the right questions to ask. No book can tell you the right questions for your particular product, nor how to interpret the answers. And for many products, especially the truly great ones, it doesn't even make sense to try and squeeze any kind of judgement out of potential customers. Can you imagine the google or twitter founders getting any useful feedback out of such a questionare? Everyone would just have told them to stop and get a real job at the time...
- ehsanul 17y agoAnd for many products ... it doesn't even make sense to try and squeeze any kind of judgement out of potential customers. Can't agree any more. Doing straight up market research through this "customer development" approach probably great for most products. But there are some things for which there is little precedent, things we would take for granted today and yet would have been, at best, ambivalent about when they were first being imagined. For example: A PC in every home. Few people would have bought into this when it was originally just Bill Gates' vision, in the way the whole world has bought into it now. The internet and the world wide web are similar in that respect. As are so many other things, and more waiting to be created - things nobody knows they want yet.
- drusenko 17y agoI couldn't disagree more. Maybe the pundits would have told them to go get a regular job, but the users were clearly very passionate, or they wouldn't have continued iterating and developing the product. Believe it or not, there were a ton of people who got very addicted to twttr when it first came out, and I'm absolutely positive that, without their feedback, the product wouldn't be the massive success it is today.
- debategrl1 17y agoi agree with you because the pundits should og told them to get a proper job on the other hand the product is a massive succes so really its 50/50
- elblanco 17y agoAmazing, you say talking to customers about what they are looking for, then targeting your product and business practices to this need is not Professor Blank's personal idea?