Complementary Iteration Loops: Product and Customer Development
Because of the overwhelming response and great feedback for the the Customer Development image I recently shared, I decided to share another from our upcoming book. Please let me know what you think.
Figure 2. My interpretation of Ries' Lean Startup: Customer and product development interrelatedness
*CPS = Customer-Problem-Solution
As shown in Figure 2, customer development and product development are two distinct, but interrelated and iterative processes. As Eric Ries describes, the Customer Development team works on testing the problem-customer-solution assumptions, while the Product Development team tackles the solution. The product development process receives input from customers indirectly through customer development, and (in the web world) directly through measurement of product usage. The product development process actively iterates on the product, releasing new or different functionality directly to the customer as quickly as possible.
The customer development process receives input from customers indirectly through product development reports on feature usage, but also directly from customer development processes and analytics. The customer development process iterates on core business assumptions, product functionality, and acquisition and conversion assumptions, resulting in updated hypotheses, honed messaging, positioning, marketing tactics, and feature requirements.
In the Customer Discovery context, a lean startup is not one that necessarily uses lean manufacturing precepts per se, but rather one that uses fast, iterative development practices in conjunction with customer development methodologies in order to:
1) Validate core hypotheses (customer-problem-solution),
2) Produce an MVP,
3) Achieve Product-Market fit,
4) Produce a development and marketing roadmap for scaling.
Creating a proper iteration loop requires you to predefine success and failure for each stage, and a means to measure your progress. For example, in the web-based world, Dave McClure’s AARRR metrics (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue) might be applied to measure the stages from concept to product-market fit.
(BTW, if you are interested in being notified when the book is published, sign up here.)
Customer Development, Lean Startup, Sales and Marketing Roadmap
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Customer Development, Dave McClure, Eric Ries, Lean Startup
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You have a typo in your URL, bottom right, of the chart.
Ha ha! Thanks for that! My own domain; priceless.
Great picture from Eric. I shared this post with client who is looking at taking next steps towards launching product line extension type new business. Do you by chance work with non-software/technology companies to provide marketing help?