Take It Back To Phase 0

Summary
Let’s wind it back and take a closer look at phase 0 of your customer development. Before you even begin with your process you need to lay the groundwork, so get ready to educate and to keep others in your company on the right path.

Take It Back To Phase 0

Like all the best prequels, Star Wars, Alien, Harry Potter, we’re taking you back to before you began the customer discovery process, right back to phase 0. If you didn’t think there was a phase 0 in customer development, it’s time to realise that the more hours you spend on laying the groundwork and getting things right at the very beginning, the better. And so, we’re going to focus on what you need to do before you start your customer discovery process, before you even think about it.

Phase 0

The very first thing you need to do before you begin the customer development process is educate your company. This is phase 0. Making customer development a separate process from product development will be new to most people and you’ll need to sell this approach to them. Board members might not understand it and execs and even founders may struggle to wrap their heads around it at first. So take some time and make sure you have everyone onboard with this approach before you actually begin.

The mission statement

Your mission statement should be on hand at this point so you can refer anyone who is confused or looks likely to wander from your path, right back to it. Your mission statement for your company should set out briefly what your product is and should describe the market for it. It’s a simple strategy, but when anyone in you company is lost you can point to this to show them just why this company began in the first place. This is great at centring people and a mission led approach can bring people quickly back onto the same path you are on and give them clear vision again.

Core values

Your company’s core values are the ethics or morals you operate by. These values are setin stone and act as a cornerstone for your business. These are the fundamental beliefs and they set out what the company stands for. Your core values should be a potted version of what your company is setting out to do. This is separate from the product or service and instead describes why you want to bring this product to the world. What will it do for people and how will you operate? You should have between three and five core values and it should be clear to everyone that these points are immovable. While your mission statement may change overtime your core values will not.

Because customer development is so alien to most of you company you need to guide others forward on this new path and keep them grounded. You will experience some resistance, but you’ll be ready to explain why this is important and how it will benefit everyone. When your board members question the need for customer development you should be able to sell the benefits and importance of it easily. Use the tools you have and insist on how vital this is.