What are the Benefits of Customer Development?
- Customer development is very beneficial to organisations because it allows them to postpone spending a large amount of money on developing solutions until there is a clear need for them and a guarantee that the end user will benefit from the product. Companies can save money and effort by doing this upfront exercise instead of investing in items that should function but might not work.
- Customer development also keeps businesses from making the common error of falling in love with a solution or product before thoroughly evaluating if it’s the right course of action. Customer Development’s strict validation procedures may take a lot of the emotion out of decision-making and replace it with data and facts.
- Customer development should be relatively “cheap” by design, allowing businesses to save money or postpone further fundraising at this time. When it is clear that the business has done its due diligence and verified the opportunity and viability of the solution, it can not only give the company a longer runway but also make the investment far more appealing to potential investors.
- Additionally, this frequently leads to far simpler solutions because businesses can concentrate on developing what they really need (ranked by customer importance) rather than attempting to address every problem they believe their clients may have. This is because they have a deeper understanding of the industry and consumer requirements.
What is Customer Development in Product Management?
Customer development is a way to learn about your customers and find out if the product you make meets their needs. Customer Development is part of the Lean Startup process that focuses on problem understanding. This requires thoroughly screening the prospect and confirming that the suggested remedy would satisfy client demands. Typical product development methods start with the ideal solution in mind and proceed straight into execution; this is not the case with customer development.