Management Fix
By definition, customer development is a formal methodology for building startups and new corporate ventures. It is one of the three parts that make up a lean startup. (1)
The Customer Development framework was developed by Steve Blank as part of the Lean Startup methodology. It is typically the middle step of the process (preceded by Business Model Design and followed by Agile Engineering).
Following this process allows companies to understand the market needs and come up with multiple potential solutions. Customer Development has tremendous benefits for organizations as it delays investing significant resources into building solutions until there is a proven, justifiable need for them and an assurance that the product will benefit the customer. With this upfront exercise, companies avoid spending money and time on products that might work versus products that should work.
Customer Development also helps companies from making the mistake of falling in love with a product or solution without truly testing if it’s the best approach.
This also often results in much simpler solutions; by truly understanding the market and customer requirements, companies can focus on building what companies need (ranked by customer priority) instead of trying to solve every possible issue the company thinks customers care about. (2)
