This document discusses the importance of conducting customer/market validation before launching a new product or service. It states that launching a product without validation is the most expensive form of market research. The document then outlines the key questions validation helps answer, such as what problems are being solved, how much customers will pay, and how to create a scalable business model. It describes a 5-stage validation process involving reviewing plans/research, brainstorming hypotheses to test, interviewing potential customers, and creating a go-to-market strategy. The goal is to understand customer value and prove a profitable business model as quickly as possible.

1. “launching a product is the most expensive
market research you can do”

2. When to do a Customer/Market Validation?
 Preferably as soon as you have the idea and before
developing a product or service
 If a product or service is already launched and sales
are not what you expected then NOW, before hiring a
new team, re-launching or re-developing the product

3. Customer and Market Validation
A discovery process to understand:
 what’s valuable to the customer
 create a Go-To-Market strategy
 prove a profitable, sustainable
business model as quickly as
possible

4. What does it answer?
 What problem/s we are setting out to solve?
 What’s their scale and importance - is the
solution a ‘must have’ or merely ‘important’?
 How to find customers?
 What positioning resonates best?
 Who will buy and how will they buy?
 How much will they pay to solve their problem?
 How can you create a scalable business?

5. How’s it done?
5 Stage Process:
 Review of existing planning, strategy, research
and demos
 Process Preparation meetings – brainstorming to
extract and evaluate hypotheses, qualify opportunities
based on compelling business criteria
 Pre-screening interviews and recruiting -
screening of targets and arrangement of meetings
 Customer/market validation meetings - with
potential buyers/key decision makers
 Go-To-Market strategy – including sales roadmap

6. Hypotheses – create/test/validate or change
 Product Hypothesis -
 Problem Hypotheses we’re selling this product – not
 Positioning Hypotheses this product plus lots of custom
features!
 Value Prop Hypotheses  Pricing Hypothesis
 Differentiation Hypotheses  Sales/Distribution
 Market Hypotheses Hypothesis
 Market Type Hypothesis  Exit Hypothesis

7. Example: Market Type Hypothesis
Your market must be one of:
 new product to existing market?
 new product to new market?
 new product to existing market and
trying to re-segment that market?
- Each has different has different cash
needs, rates of customer adoption and
acceptance, needs different sales and
marketing strategies

8. Example: Pricing Hypothesis
 If customers don’t ask about price, they
don’t understand the product concept or
aren’t interested in buying it…
 Pricing research has a very high ROI and
very valuable payback in confidence
 Goal is not just price, but to find out what
drives value in the customers’ minds…

9. Need Help Designing or
Executing a Customer &
Market Validation Process?
Jeffdrust@comcast.net
+1 650 208 5771
Skype: jeffdrust
www.linkedin.com/in/jeffdrust

10. “We hired Jeff as an expert in the CAD
market who could give us advice on our
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been extremely satisfied with his work in
this regard. … His marketing
recommendations have proven to be right
on target.”
“Jeff helped to solidify our go-to-market
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Testimonials knowledge and structured methodology is
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