How can you validate customer discovery in business development?

1 Use the lean canvas

The lean canvas is a tool that helps you to map out your business model assumptions and hypotheses in a concise and visual way. It consists of nine blocks that cover the key aspects of your value proposition, customer segments, channels, revenue streams, cost structure, problem, solution, unique value proposition, and unfair advantage. By using the lean canvas, you can quickly identify and test your riskiest assumptions and validate them with customer feedback.

2 Conduct customer interviews

Customer interviews are one of the most effective ways to validate customer discovery in business development. They allow you to have direct and in-depth conversations with your potential or existing customers and learn about their needs, problems, motivations, and behaviors. You can use customer interviews to test your problem-solution fit, product-market fit, and value proposition. To conduct customer interviews, you need to prepare a clear goal, a set of open-ended questions, and a way to record and analyze the data.

3 Run surveys

Surveys are another method to validate customer discovery in business development. They enable you to collect quantitative and qualitative data from a large number of customers or prospects in a relatively short time. You can use surveys to measure customer satisfaction, loyalty, awareness, preferences, and feedback. To run surveys, you need to design a clear and concise questionnaire, choose a suitable platform or tool, and segment and sample your audience.

4 Build a minimum viable product

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of your product or service that has the minimum features and functionality needed to test your value proposition and generate customer feedback. It helps you to validate customer discovery in business development by allowing you to test your solution with real users and measure their responses. To build a MVP, you need to define your core value proposition, prioritize your features, and iterate based on feedback.

5 Observe customer behavior

Observing customer behavior is another way to validate customer discovery in business development. It involves watching and analyzing how customers interact with your product or service, your competitors, or your industry in general. It helps you to understand their pain points, needs, goals, and emotions. You can observe customer behavior by using various methods, such as user testing, web analytics, heat maps, eye tracking, or social media listening.

6 Experiment and learn

Experimenting and learning is the final step to validate customer discovery in business development. It involves designing and running experiments to test your hypotheses and assumptions and learn from the results. It helps you to validate or invalidate your ideas, improve your product or service, and optimize your business model. You can experiment and learn by using various frameworks, such as the Build-Measure-Learn loop, the Validation Board, or the Experiment Canvas.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?