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Comment by sdesol | Hacker News Reader

This resonated with me way too much, which is kind of scary. My startup hasn't failed yet, as I haven't launched yet, but I truly understand the technical mindset issue.

I've been getting better at this as I have started to focus more on the marketing/business aspect of things. As much as I have learned in the past couple of months, with regards to the business side of things, I can't seem to shake the mentality of "it's just not good enough yet".

I may have a point though, as I will be competing against in house solutions, so I really have to come at them with a compelling reason to use my solution.

I guess the good news is in the next couple of months, I'll have the opportunity to be more formally educated on the business side of things.

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There is salvation. It is called Customer Development. It is a methodology described in this book: http://www.cafepress.com/kandsranch

It will save your startup. And no, I don't get a dime from your click but yes, I am going to buy 10 copies right now so I can have 3 in my bag to sell at cost to anyone that asks, wherever I go.

Can you describe what's unique to this "Customer Development" method that isn't discussed and taught in the rest of the business literature?

So far, i only read about 35% of the content. I think what makes it unique is the language that it used is quite casual and it gives a lot of example per cases. It emphasized a lot about validating your assumptions. All in all, i highly recommended it too.

I highly recommend it too. The advice and method concrete enough but not too specific. It tells you a bit what to do, why and how. Since it's iterate process its gets better by time and goes well with agile development.

At first your goal is to define your assumptions, test them with potential customers and gather facts. Next integrate the facts into your product development. Continue verifying your product and business with customers, start your sales and go-to-market activities. Last, if you're successful, scale your company.

I read a lot business literature and Steve Blank's book is exceptional in way that it makes sense and offers you a path to walk on. For quick reference see http://www.slideshare.net/venturehacks/customer-development-... and http://steveblank.com/

He outlines a simple methodology for you to get out there, early, as soon as you start development on your first product concept, and get validation from the marketplace. The fact is: almost every startup makes bad assumptions about what their customers want, or who the customer for their product is. Steve's methodology takes it for granted that you are probably wrong about things, and incorporates customer feedback into your product development from day one.

Most of the existing product development literature fails to address the fact that most startups fail because they build something their customers don't want to buy.

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