How Steve Jobs validates the Customer Development model.(startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com)
startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com
How Steve Jobs validates the Customer Development model.
http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2009/08/steve-jobs-method.html
3 comments
Your comment shows you do not understand the 'customer development' methodology Eric is talking about. You never stop building. You build concurrent with customer development.
Seriously, read up on it. Don't just dismiss it as paralysis analysis. There's real value here.
Seriously, read up on it. Don't just dismiss it as paralysis analysis. There's real value here.
I agree that there's a ton of value there - but I've been involved in projects where the "suits" want to do all sorts of bullshit AdWords/Facebook Ad tests, surveys, storytelling, and God knows what.
For fuck's sake, you have a vision. Act on it. Then get some feedback.
For fuck's sake, you have a vision. Act on it. Then get some feedback.
Having a vision is important, and it gets the ball rolling. The important part is: Get feedback as you're acting on it. The problem comes when you spend too much time in the cave building, or too much time not building crap, doing a survey. Do both!
The middle path of product development :)
The middle path of product development :)
Too much CD "work" is just an excuse to not build something . . .
Precisely the opposite of the model Ries talks about.
Precisely the opposite of the model Ries talks about.
This is a completely speculative article with no actual information. The author takes an interview with Steve Jobs (interesting in its own right) and reads in whatever happens to validate his preexisting beliefs about product development.
The customer development model is interesting, and its important - because it solves the problem that causes most startups to fail: they build something nobody wants.
The 'Steve Jobs' (and other visionaries) phenomenon is a common counter-point: "If John Ford had listened to the market, he'd have built a better horse whip!"
All Eric is saying is that customer development does not reduce the need for a visionary. Visionaries are more connected with the market than anyone else. But don't do what most startups do and assume that you are one. Validate, validate, validate. You can't afford not to.
The 'Steve Jobs' (and other visionaries) phenomenon is a common counter-point: "If John Ford had listened to the market, he'd have built a better horse whip!"
All Eric is saying is that customer development does not reduce the need for a visionary. Visionaries are more connected with the market than anyone else. But don't do what most startups do and assume that you are one. Validate, validate, validate. You can't afford not to.
idlewords == Maciej Cegłowsk?
Apple is a $30 billion company, yet we've got less than 30 major products.
incredible!
incredible!
But that doesn't mean you don't heed feedback. Apple wasn't against cut-and-paste; they just didn't want to have an offering that wasn't up to their standards. Google tests the hell out of everything.
I still think you have to put your first visionary offering out there - IMVU had their client that Eric had to throw away - and see what happens. Too much CD "work" is just an excuse to not build something and is just the same wasted "effort" as premature optimization.