Week 4: Customer Development
Customer Development is neither User Research nor Product Management. While User Research advocates for the user, and Product Management prioritizes what pieces to act upon based on product vision, Customer Development is about honing the customer from the vantage point of the business.
For Alcye, I started developing the product alongside a hypothesis of a customer profile, and to fill a perceived need. Perhaps not the right way to do it. As I’ve continued to reach out to the said hypothesis-customer, a new kind of customer emerged. This new customer was willing to be the pilot of the platform. This was surely an interesting development. And as I started pitching on this new customer profile, more of the same were willing to try the platform.
ANALYZING CUSTOMER PROFILES
The new customers had one thing in common — they all had groups and members. So, I knew that membership groups or group leaders who had people united a common ethos were a potential customer. A few teams who showed interest as the potential the early adopters - 3 Day Startup, Austin Coding Academy, ChickTech, and a Career Coach who runs group programs in cohorts.
I kept thinking about all the different ways communities and groups exists. Corporate ERG — Employee Resource Groups, users of a product (Nike attempted to start a community of its users but quickly found out that users are quite different from members) Alumni Groups, Networking Groups .. so many community hubs.
Among all these community groups present, and with current free group interfaces like LinkedIn and Facebook Groups, why was I approached for a solution? Why is there interest in a payment platform?
Most importantly, what is, if there is one, the underlying connection between all the people who approached me? How are they being driven to look for a different way to connect their members into a coherent community?
As I kept analyzing the profiles of these potential customers a different avatar emerged. There was indeed an underlying thread connecting each of them beyond the fact that they had members.
They were all learning communities.
They all catered to the adult learner (beyond K-12).
They were all imparting education in some form or fashion.
ADULT LEARNERS
Given that my doctoral work is in Adult and Higher Ed, and I am passionate about people development, especially the adult learner, (which I pursue through my Leadership Development consultancy, Pathway Power) this convergence was like a symphony to me.
The landscape of learning for adults has shifted tremendously within the last five years, and will continue to morph. Not only are we constantly re-learning and re-tooling but we are doing so through formal programs. While informal MOOC courses like Udacity and Udemy reigned once, the lean now is towards high-touch programs such as bootcamps, 1 year curricula, 6-month courses, training programs, Mastermind Programs, Coaching Programs and so on.
There are many reasons people are paying for these programs: They are adapting to the shifting job markets and disappearing jobs; they are tired of what they’ve been doing and want to use their skillset in a different way; they want to try out an entirely new skillset, perhaps one that pays more; they intend to launch their own startups, or maybe grow their businesses. There may be other reasons which have not been accounted for.
In response to this need, the new learning and educational companies have cropped up. They are all striving to fill this need to help adult learners better their skills, and thus better their lives. And given the diversity of learning delivery, they are all catering to the way adults learn. Some teach the learners directly, some by providing supportive services to these learners, some by a combination of teaching and immersive learning, while others connect the learners to a network of learners. They are all taking into account the lived-life of an adult learner.
What does this mean for the educators and owners of these programs?
They have to deal with the added dimension that comes with educating adult learners that often involve juggling the many demands of work, life, and new learning. So, these new learning companies have to not only account for the learning delivery, but they have to do so in way that accommodates the life flow of these learners. They are all taking into account the lived-life of an adult learner.
LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Anyone who is in involved in education or is an educator knows that 80% of learning happens outside the classroom. And peer engagement is a big part of learning retention. We solve problems better together than alone. Just the chance of ideating with someone else, increases our own understanding of a subject.
But adults have very little time to spend connecting with their peers outside of classroom — cause life. This isolation can have detrimental effects on not only learning retention for the student, but client retention looking at it from a business stand point. For educational businesses to succeed, the learner must succeed. And for the adult learner to succeed, they need peer engagement that is efficient, adaptive, and purposeful.
The educators are looking:
- For a way to connect these learners in wholesome way
- For a tool that effectively straddles personal and professional
- For the engagement to be purposeful and efficient
- For the community connection to be respectful
- To minimize the disconnect amongst their learners
- To provide a space for continuous learning after class
- To include people who are not on Facebook
- To eliminate travel time, yet foster peer learning
- To connect members globally
The current platforms don’t fulfill the needs to create engagement within a learning community. On the flip side, members and learners have a time-constraint, already being straddled by the demands of adulthood, and would benefit from a platform that not only respects their time but provides an avenue for focused, collaborative relationships.
Alcye is the platform that can provide this for learning communities with its built in engagement and learning tools. The customer is the owner of such learning communities. The beneficiaries being the members.
To make a long story short, going through a thorough process of customer development is essential for a startup.
MY ASK:
I’m looking to interview leaders of learning communities. If you lead cohorts, or in any form teach members or support them on their learning journey (or know of anyone), I would love to connect for a 20min phone conversation. I want to understand your pain points. Please reach out or connect me to that person — lav @ alcye.com
Special thanks to Holly Tachovsky, CEO of BuildFax for lending me her personal copy of Lean Customer Development.
