Essay

The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution

Steve Blank · steveblank.com Free Intermediate

Blank's own blog distills the argument from his book into a short, free read: most startups don't fail on execution, they fail because nobody confirmed a real customer had a real problem first. It is a faster on ramp than the book if you want the philosophy before committing to the full process. Good to read alongside the HBR piece for the free version of the same core idea.

  • Product development and customer development are two separate tracks needing separate processes.
  • Most startup failure is a sales and marketing failure, not a product failure.
  • Get hypotheses in front of real prospects early, revise them, repeat.
Open on steveblank.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. How do I tell the difference between a nice-to-have problem and one people will actually change their behavior to fix?

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