Are you a budding entrepreneur eager to increase your startup’s chances of success? Have you ever felt that despite your meticulous preparation and dedication, your customer discovery efforts seem to fall short in informing your business decisions effectively? If you’ve found yourself nodding along, you’re not alone.
At the Zell Lurie Institute, we understand the challenges faced by early-stage founders. Angela Kujava, Managing Director of the Desai Accelerator, spent a year researching the customer discovery process to understand why founders’ efforts can be dedicated but ineffective, and how to approach process improvements… And the culmination of this extensive research is published in the Institute of Design’s 4-piece article series, “Customer Discovery 201.”
The Imbalanced Focus on Customer Discovery Stages
One of the key findings of Kujava’s research is the existence of an imbalanced focus on different stages of customer discovery. For many reasons, founders invest considerable time and resources in “Observation Activities” like interviews and secondary research, and less effort in “Decision Activities” like information analysis and synthesis. This imbalance can result in a distorted understanding of customer needs and preferences, ultimately impacting the odds of business success.
“Customer Discovery 201,” takes a closer look at these disparities and offers strategies to help you strike a harmonious balance throughout your customer discovery journey.