Business Model Validation Lab Customer Discovery Customer Validation Mentor Feedback Mentor Feedback It’s helpful to orient everyone to where they are in the Lab. Plus further explanation here will give mentors a sense of how far the entrepreneurs have come so far over the last three days and how they might guide their mentoring based on what the entrepreneurs have focused on. Identify Assumptions Rapid Prototyping Mentor Prep + Cost Assumptions Strategic Planning Keep Momentum

‘No idea survives first contact with customers’ Steve Blank This is an important point to make throughout the course of the Lab: the best teacher for the entrepreneurs is the customer. To really get to a place of VALIDATION, they will need to get feedback from customers.

10% of startups fail because of ______________ Have entrepreneurs guess the answers here...

10% of startups fail because of product/technology failure 90% of startups fail because of inability to find customers and a market Steve Blank

The Customer Everything flows from validated assumptions of: who the customer is what the problem the customer has is if entrepreneur is able to effectively address that problem with a solution if the customer is willing to pay for it There is nothing more important to first determining if there is product-market fit. Every other assumption will flow from here.

Common Challenges Entrepreneurs don’t know exactly how to prioritize what to focus on in the early days of their venture Entrepreneurs don’t spend enough time in market Entrepreneurs underestimate how fast they can learn

Today’s Plan Determine your key assumptions Learn how to find + interview customers Build a customer interview script Go interview customers

Your Job Unknowns → Knowns

The Plan 3 2 1 4 5

What have you already tried? Ask entrepreneurs how they have engaged with customers in the past? What have they done?

How to find customers: Principles Identify the broad customer segment Follow the problem, not the solution/product Practice Online In-person When looking to find customers, it’s important to look for people who are experiencing the problem. Go follow the problem, not the solution, to your customers. As you follow the problem, you will find that perhaps the solution - as you understand it - is not the best solution. Finding people who have the problem you are attempting to solve will leave you more open-minded about how your solution might adapt and change.

How to talk to Customers:

Frame it It is important for the entrepreneur to frame the conversation for the customer so they know what success looks like for the entrepreneur and what their role is in that.

Questions Do you agree that these muffins are just totally delicious? why is this question bad? The importance of asking good questions: entrepreneurs who are excited about their solution might be inclined to ask questions about their solution or might ask leading questions that would give them the answers they want to hear. It’s important at this point to talk about the art of a good question: open-ended: It should not be a yes/no question non-leading: they don’t yield accurate answers not associated with solutions: when asking a good question, it’s important for entrepreneurs not to preface the question with the solution they have, or else they will be biasing the response

Listening > Talking Conducting interviews is challenging for an entrepreneur who is excited about their solution. They will be inclined to just jump in and start talking about their product/service/solution. The key is to be patient and do more listening than speaking. The goal is to learn as much from the customer as possible.

Next steps Role Play (10 minutes) Build out an interview script (20 minutes) Practice (20 minutes)