Where Do I Begin? Your Customers!

Hi there, innovators! Welcome back to "The Glass Shoe", where we're on a noble quest to find that elusive Product-Market Fit for your startup. I'm Ashley, your fellow entrepreneurial explorer, ready to map out the terrain of today's big question: Where do I begin?

And the answer, my friends, is always—your customers. Whether you have thousands of users or don’t even have a product yet, you should still start with your ideal loyal customer. I like to think about it in terms of who has a problem so severe, like a bleeding neck, that they critically need to find a solution. Our goal here is to really understand those customers.

Startups often have multiple customer segments, they can have businesses and consumers, they can have audiences on multiple sides of a marketplace or platform, or their decision makers are different than the end-users. Each side that is relevant to your idea or business is vital, and to succeed, you must understand them all.

If you’re unsure which market or segment has the biggest need for your product, research the top 6. Then, you can eventually narrow it down to your Beachhead market.

Geoffrey Moore’s metaphor of a Bowling Alley perfectly illustrates how your beachhead market is like the lead pin, and if you dominate the beachhead market, you knock down the lead pin, which crashes into the other pins that represent either adjacent market opportunities or different products to sell the customer in your beachhead market.

Depending on which stage you are at with your product, there are different ways you can tackle researching your customers’ problems. For instance, if you have a newer product or idea or aren’t sure what the best target market is for your startup, you want to first approach it as if you don’t yet have a solution, even if you are already do! Remember, you are trying to identify a clear problem in the market and understand how much of a problem it really is. This means, that it’s time to inquire and listen, not advocate and sell your idea or product.

If you have a more established product with lots of customers and a clearly identified market, your discovery phase will be all about simply observing how they interact with your existing product. What steps they take before, during, and after those interactions, and understanding the WHY behind the behaviors.

Don’t ever expect your customers to have the solution for you, you just want to understand their problems, so you can figure out the best solution for them. In the wise words of Henry Ford, “If I would have asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

I promise you, whether you’re building a new feature or a whole new product, it will be cheaper and faster in the long run, to do this customer research first. Rather than building something, researching, then having to completely rebuild it. Especially, if you’re adding in marketing dollars to acquire new customers, just to have those customers render your product useless.

Which leads me to the 'Jobs to Be Done' Theory—it's not just about tasks on a to-do list; it's about understanding the deeper needs and desires that drive customers to action. A classic example is from Clayton Christensen, when he worked with a fast-food company to increase milkshake sales.

He noticed that many customers bought milkshakes early in the morning, taking a long time to consume them while driving to work. After talking to these people, the insight he learned was that these customers needed something to make their commute more enjoyable and to ward off hunger until lunch. Hence, the milkshake was being "hired" for its thickness and ability to last through the morning commute, providing a convenient and tidy way to consume something on the go.

Based on these observations, Christensen suggested that the fast-food company could improve and market their milkshakes more effectively by addressing the specific "job" the customers needed them for, rather than trying to make them better-tasting or cheaper. This led to product and service innovations tailored to the real reasons customers were buying milkshakes, thereby significantly increasing sales and customer satisfaction.  

Whenever you’re dealing with customer experiences, which I would argue is literally every interaction someone has with your company, a Design Thinking methodology should be sprinkled throughout—centering around the customer - based on empathy, creativity, and iteration. It's not just about building something; it's about crafting end to end experiences that truly resonate with your users."

We’ve all heard the buzzwords: customer obsessed, customer centric, customer driven, customer focused, customer centered, and so on. But the common denominator is customers. It’s really all about them. If you make them happy, they will not only continue to use and/or buy your product but they will also tell others about their great experience, which will sustainably grow and generate revenue for your business.

So, how do we get up close and personal with our audience?  Surveys, observations, interviews, and focus groups... these are some key ingredients in our customer research kitchen. And if you have existing product or website usage data to pair with these ingredients, you’ll be closer to Michelin quality in no time. AKA: unicorn status.

Ideally, you’ll want to analyze as much qualitative and quantitative data as possible. Striking the balance of having clear numbers and percentages, along with the voice of the customer telling you why they took those actions.

I know this is a lot to digest, so don't worry. We'll be slicing and dicing each of these customer research methods in upcoming episodes, giving you the full recipe to cook up success.

So gear up for a deep dive into surveys next, where every question brings us closer to our target. Prepare for a mini masterclass on interviews, where every answer is a golden nugget of insight. And then get ready for a journey into the world of design thinking, to unlock a treasure chest of gems to use throughout your research.

Remember, the more we know about our customers, the better we can tailor our Glass Shoe to fit just right. So, hit "like", "subscribe", and share your thoughts and questions down below. Until our next adventure, keep seeking, keep questioning, and above all—keep fitting!