I've read a lot of business books over the last couple years as I've been considering starting a business for some time now.
Of all the books that I've read, this one contains the most actionable advice that can be used to actually start something. I come from a background of engineering, so for me I've generally always thought of the business around the product and its features. My idea before was, "hey, I got an idea for this really cool product."
There is nothing wrong with that philosophy, but what this book attempts to do is also introduce you to the marketing and sales aspects of starting a business instead of just the product.
Really this book lays out a methodology of having a product development cycle, and IN PARALLEL, having a "customer development" cycle as Steve blank calls it - where you are constantly getting feedback from customers, and then actually proving that you can sell to them as your product is still being built.
He lays out a fairly formal 4 step process involving Customer Discovery, Customer Validation, Customer Creation and Company Creation. Of course you will have to adapt this to your own business, but in particular in the early phases the ideas presented about Customer Discovery and Customer Validation are awesome.
In the customer discovery phase you develop your own hypothesis as it were about your product, its selling point, the distribution channel, key features, etc. Then you "get out of the building" meet customers and basically ask them if this information is correct. Often times it is not. At first the book emphasizes finding a new customer niche, instead of changing the product, but you may change some of the features depending on customer feedback. You almost certainly will tweak aspects of your price point, distribution channel, and understanding of your market.
In parallel the product development team develops the minimum viable product. Basically a version of the core product that offers key features and nothing more. The idea is to get the product to market as fast as possible - not to get first mover advantage (which doesn't exist) - but rather to start the customer dialogue as soon as possible, and not waste time or money.
While the product development team develops product 1.0, perhaps before it is even released, in the Customer Validation phase, you SELL the product to your first visionary customers. The key here is that you haven't yet hired a full time sales or marketing team - you are trying to prove that you have a repeatable sales process first. If you can't sell to enough early customers, you go back to Customer Discovery and refine your initial hypothesis.
You do NOT begin scaling up the company and burning cash until you've proven out your sales.
Overall, this has been the best book so far on developing a business that I've read. I strongly recommend it, and yes there are a lot of typos and the images and flow charts aren't great, but that doesn't really matter - the material in it is solid.
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Must-have book for all businesses.
Reviewed in Canada on December 28, 2023
