1. Business Model Validation Lab
Customer Discovery
Customer Validation
Mentor Feedback
Mentor Feedback
It’s helpful to orient everyone to where they are in the Lab. Plus further explanation here will give mentors a sense of how far the entrepreneurs have come so far over the last three days and how they might guide their mentoring based on what the entrepreneurs have focused on.
Identify Assumptions
Rapid Prototyping
Mentor Prep + Cost Assumptions
Strategic Planning
Keep Momentum

2. ‘No idea survives first contact with customers’ Steve Blank
This is an important point to make throughout the course of the Lab: the best teacher for the entrepreneurs is the customer. To really get to a place of VALIDATION, they will need to get feedback from customers.

3. 10% of startups fail because of ______________
Have entrepreneurs guess the answers here...

4. 10% of startups fail because of product/technology failure
90% of startups fail because of inability to find customers and a market
Steve Blank

5. The Customer Everything flows from validated assumptions of:
who the customer is
what the problem the customer has is
if entrepreneur is able to effectively address that problem with a solution
if the customer is willing to pay for it
There is nothing more important to first determining if there is product-market fit. Every other assumption will flow from here.

6. Common Challenges
Entrepreneurs don’t know exactly how to prioritize what to focus on in the early days of their venture
Entrepreneurs don’t spend enough time in market
Entrepreneurs underestimate how fast they can learn

7. Today’s Plan Determine your key assumptions
Learn how to find + interview customers
Build a customer interview script
Go interview customers

8. Your Job
Unknowns → Knowns

9. The Plan 3 2 1 4 5

10. What have you already tried?
Ask entrepreneurs how they have engaged with customers in the past? What have they done?

11. How to find customers: Principles Identify the broad customer segment
Follow the problem, not the solution/product
Practice
Online
In-person
When looking to find customers, it’s important to look for people who are experiencing the problem. Go follow the problem, not the solution, to your customers. As you follow the problem, you will find that perhaps the solution - as you understand it - is not the best solution. Finding people who have the problem you are attempting to solve will leave you more open-minded about how your solution might adapt and change.

12. How to talk to Customers:

13. Frame it
It is important for the entrepreneur to frame the conversation for the customer so they know what success looks like for the entrepreneur and what their role is in that.

14. Questions Do you agree that these muffins are just totally delicious?
why is this question bad?
The importance of asking good questions: entrepreneurs who are excited about their solution might be inclined to ask questions about their solution or might ask leading questions that would give them the answers they want to hear. It’s important at this point to talk about the art of a good question:
open-ended: It should not be a yes/no question
non-leading: they don’t yield accurate answers
not associated with solutions: when asking a good question, it’s important for entrepreneurs not to preface the question with the solution they have, or else they will be biasing the response

15. Listening > Talking
Conducting interviews is challenging for an entrepreneur who is excited about their solution. They will be inclined to just jump in and start talking about their product/service/solution. The key is to be patient and do more listening than speaking. The goal is to learn as much from the customer as possible.

16. Next steps Role Play (10 minutes)
Build out an interview script (20 minutes)
Practice (20 minutes)