Customer Development Process in Software

The customer development process is essential for any company hoping to create a viable product that the public needs and wants. In software, developers must take steps to identify the needs of the public, create a product to satisfy those needs, develop a strategy to attract customers, and ensure that their organization can support customer needs. According to Steve Blank of Agile Alliance, a global non-profit dedicated to helping organizations apply the Agile manifesto principles to their organizations, the four-pronged process can be broken down into four categories: Customer Discovery, Customer Validation, Company Creation, and Company Building. These categories are part of what is called the “Lean Start-up” approach. Through this approach, startups can learn through feedback which solutions will best help build and maintain their customer base and how best to support them.

Customer Discovery

Customer development starts with customer discovery, which begins with identifying the initial need that can be solved. Market forces are dictated by what the public does and doesn’t demand, so any startup hoping to succeed must address an unaddressed public need or create an alternative solution that improves upon an existing one. Some startups already have a product idea in mind, and in this case, they must work backward to discover what needs their current software can fulfill. After that, startups must make assumptions about how their product may fare in the business environment, what the product dependencies are, what minimum requirements the product must meet, and what management changes are required.

Customer Validation

Customer validation involves making assumptions about what a potential customer may need from a solution and building a customer development strategy around that. Doing a market assessment is a great way to get an idea of what the public is most concerned about and how best to fulfill their current needs. This step will further help startups understand the unmet needs in the market or the needs that can be better served given existing solutions.

Company Creation

In this step, companies can begin developing their solutions and ensure that they meet customers’ needs. Their job is to create a solution that will best fit the customers’ desires. Developers must question which markets are most apparent and then address them all with their answers. Sometimes the need that needs to be addressed is entirely different from the initial assumptions about it. Once the solution is complete, it can be delivered to the public.

Company Building

The relationship between customers and startups doesn’t stop with releasing their solution to the public—it should be an ongoing relationship. To support and satisfy future needs, startups must build an organization with the ability to address these needs. Customer feedback is essential, and solutions like surveys can help give startups an idea about how the public feels about their solution. They should have the ability to update software that no longer satisfies the customer’s intended needs. In turn, they should continually be reevaluating if their software is genuinely measuring up to expectations.

Maria is a writer at Enki Tech, a Downtown Santa Monica technology company that specializes in the development of high-quality, user friendly software, web platforms and mobile apps.