The document discusses the importance of customer development for software developers. It provides several quotes emphasizing understanding customer needs and problems rather than just building products. It also discusses techniques like test-driven product development, customer interviews, and running experiments to continuously learn what customers want and whether solutions fit their needs. The overall message is that developers should focus on learning from and engaging with customers throughout the product development process.

1. Customer Development,
for Developers
David J Bland
Thursday, February 19th, 2015
@davidjbland

2. @davidjbland
David J Bland
Principal Advisor
Neo San Francisco
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David J Bland
Principal Advisor @Neo

3. Product
Death
Cycle
@davidjbland

4. @davidjbland
“In extreme
programming, if you
don’t know who the
customer is, who do you
sit next to the
developer?”
-Eric Ries

5. Adapted from Steve Blank
@davidjbland

6. “People don't
want to buy a
quarter-inch
drill, they want
a quarter-inch
hole.”
-Theodore Levitt

7. “What job, causes people to hire ____________?
Adapted from Clayton Christensen
@davidjbland

8. “What job, causes people to hire ____________?
Adapted from Clayton Christensen
@davidjbland

9. “What job, causes people to hire ____________?
Adapted from Clayton Christensen
@davidjbland

10. “What job, causes people to hire ____________?
Adapted from Clayton Christensen
@davidjbland

11. @davidjbland
Test Driven
Development
“All code is guilty until
proven innocent.”

12. @davidjbland
Test Driven
Product Development
“All features are guilty
until proven innocent.”

13. @davidjbland
We believe that [doing this]
For [customer]
Will result in [outcome]

14. @davidjbland
We believe that [doing this]
For [customer]
Will result in [outcome]
We know this is true by
[acceptance metric]

15. @davidjbland
Customer
Interviews
Learning
Time
Focus
Group

16. @davidjbland
Customer
Interviews
Problem
Interviews
Solution
Interviews

17. Based on Customer Factory by Ash Maurya@davidjbland

18. What experiments could
you run today?
@davidjbland

19. @davidjbland
david@neo.com
Thank You!