Customer Discovery Dan Kunitz

DC I-Corps Accelerator Director

February 10, 2016

2, 4, 8

2, 4, 8 test your hypothesis; guess the rule

Course outline:

• Feb 10 Business Model Generation and Customer Discovery

• Feb 17 Office hours

• Feb 23 Final presentations and discussion of what’s next

Expectations:

• Articulate your business thesis

• Develop hypotheses about your business model

• Test your hypotheses with 5 - 10 interviews each week

• Update and present your canvas each week

Course outline:

• Feb 10 Business Model Generation and Customer Discovery

• Feb 17 Office hours

• Feb 23 Final presentations and discussion of what’s next

Expectations:

• Articulate your business thesis

• Develop hypotheses about your business model

• Test your hypotheses with 5 - 10 interviews each week

• Update and present your canvas each week

Course outline:

• Feb 10 Business Model Generation and Customer Discovery

• Feb 17 Office hours

• Feb 23 Final presentations and discussion of what’s next

Expectations:

• Articulate your business thesis

• Develop hypotheses about your business model

• Test your hypotheses with 5 - 10 interviews each week

• Update and present your canvas each week

Course outline:

• Feb 10 Business Model Generation and Customer Discovery

• Feb 17 Office hours

• Feb 23 Final presentations and discussion of what’s next

Expectations:

• Articulate your business thesis

• Develop hypotheses about your business model

• Test your hypotheses with 5 - 10 interviews each week

• Update and present your canvas each week

Customer Development

Evidence-based entrepreneurship

1992

1994

1997

So what could

they do?

Confirmation bias:

The tendency to overvalue data

that supports a pre-existing belief

What we used to think Your opinions are the result of years of rational,

objective analysis.

What we used to think Your opinions are the result of years of rational,

objective analysis.

What we now know Your opinions are the result of years of paying

attention to information which confirm what you believe while ignoring information which challenges

your preconceived notions.

How do you find customers?

How many cold calls to get 10 interviews?

• Conversion rate

• Lead time

• Referrals & warm introductions

• Number of customer segments

Preparing for the interview

1. Take two people whenever possible – assign roles!

2. Get out of your comfort zone

3. Research them, be prepared

4. Develop specific falsifiable hypotheses

5. Focus on listening and learning; don’t sell

6. Think about archetypes, talk to the right ones

During the interview

•Ask open-ended questions ▫ Not yes/no

▫ Not multiple choice

▫ Avoid “would,” “should,” “could,” “do you think…”

▫ Avoid surveys

•Get specific details about: ▫ Budget

▫ Archetypes (“we need signoff on that from…”)

• ALWAYS FINISH WITH…

▫ “What did I forget to ask?”

▫ “Is there anyone else you think I should meet?”

•Why?

•Why?

•Why?

•Why?

•Why?

After the interview

1. Write your notes up immediately

2. Discuss each interview as a team

3. Collect data, look for patterns

Extract Insights 1. What archetype is this person?

2. What did they tell us we’d never heard before?

3. What hypotheses did they disconfirm?

4. What new customer types did they tell us about?

5. What did they tell us about money in the ecosystem?

Interview workshop

Team Name

Interview Workshop

Room

(2:15-3:30PM)

Office Hours

Instructor

Office Hours

Time

Wagner GROUP A:

Study Room G-8

Jim Chung

Study Room G-8 3:30 PM

Voyager GROUP A:

Study Room G-8

Jim Chung

Study Room G-8 3:45 PM

Tao Systems GROUP A:

Study Room G-8

Randy Graves

Study Room G-8 3:30 PM

Pancopia, Inc GROUP A:

Study Room G-8

Randy Graves

Study Room G-8 3:45 PM

Fluid I/O GROUP B:

Room 311

Dan Kunitz

Room 311 3:30 PM

Open Data Nation GROUP B:

Room 311

Lex McCusker

Room 311 4:00 PM

Organizing4Innovati

on

GROUP B:

Room 311

Dan Kunitz

Room 311 3:45 PM

Ride Saver GROUP B:

Room 311

Randy Graves

Room 311 4:00 PM

Hedge America i-

Devices

GROUP C:

Room 402

Lex McCusker

Room 402 3:30 PM

Clutch Band GROUP C:

Room 402

Annamaria Konya Tannon

Room 402 3:30 PM

Staff U GROUP C:

Room 402

Lex McCusker

Room 402 3:45 PM

Nikou Inc GROUP C:

Room 402

Annamaria Konya Tannon

Room 402 3:45 PM

Exercise #1: Cold call • Identify the role of the individual you want to

interview

• Develop a cold call script to get an interview with that person

5 minutes

• Practice your cold call with an instructor or mentor 10 minutes

Exercise #2: Interview • Develop interview questions

15 minutes

• Practice interview with partner team 15 minutes

Thank you

dkunitz@gwu.edu

• Extra slides

The art of customer interviews Good

• Disarm the sales pitch mentality

• Insight questions • Open ended questions • Listen, then listen, then

listen more • Why-why-why-why-why • Parrot back to confirm • Further introductions • Thank the interviewee

Bad

• Selling your product or service

• Talking about your technology

• Not listening • “Learn nothing” questions • “False positive” questions • Biased questions • Interrupting • Missed opportunities to dig

deep

I-Corps Nodes

I-Corps Sites

I-Corps Teams

Mentors

The National Innovation Network

Our ecosystem: GW Office of Entrepreneurship

DC I-Corps

AccelerateDC

DC DSLB; TEDCO; CIT

NSF National I-Corps; SBIR/STTR