ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the need for a separate customer development process. It discusses the different steps of the customer development process and its relationship with product development. The chapter also explains the role of marketing and sales in the customer development team. To find appropriate leading customers, the entrepreneur should network. If he or she finds customers who recognise the latent need and are willing to co-develop the new application, the entrepreneur could explore whether these customers are also willing to share the development costs. Such early buy-in will help create committed partners and continuity. It is also the ultimate early market validation. Stakeholder analysis and management are part of the customer validation step and extend to customer and company building. The objective of customer discovery and validation is to ensure product-market fit, but even more so to begin the process of identification and development of the start-up’s business model.
