Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy by Cindy Alvarez

When it comes to successfully launching a new product, the key to success is understanding what customers actually want—and need. In “Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy”, Cindy Alvarez shares the proven techniques she developed to help entrepreneurs, startups, and companies develop products that their customers will actually buy.

Alvarez, a head of product at Yammer, provides a framework of strategies and tactics for discovering validating customer needs and for building products that meet those needs. In this book, Alvarez shares how to use “Lean Customer Development” to develop products that match customer needs. Features of her methodology include a clear focus on the customer, speed, testing and iteration, making data-driven decisions, and creating an environment of experimentation.

First, she discusses the importance of focusing on the customer. Instead of making assumptions about customer needs and wants, entrepreneurs must actually talk to their customers in order to better understand their needs before developing a product. Additionally, it is important to use “lean” practices, such as minimum viable products and A/B testing, in order to quickly test and refine products before they are launched.

Alvarez also speaks to the importance of creating an environment of experimentation. This is done by using fast-paced experiments to quickly identify potential problems, gathering feedback from customers to improve the product, and iterating quickly. This ongoing testing process helps entrepreneurs to be agile and quickly pivot when necessary.

The goal of Lean Customer Development is to make data-driven decisions about product decisions—a technique used by the likes of companies like Google and Amazon. In order to ensure that the right feature set is included in the product, entrepreneurs must collect and analyze large amounts of data regarding customer needs and wants. Alvarez shares various strategies for collecting meaningful customer data, such as surveys and interviews, as well as strategies for analyzing and interpreting the data.

Once entrepreneurs have properly used Lean Customer Development to create products that match customer needs, Alvarez goes over how to market the product in order to increase sales. She discusses the importance of building relationships with customers and giving them a voice in the company. Additionally, she speaks to the importance of using a variety of marketing tactics, such as search engine optimization, email campaigns, and content marketing, to make customers aware of the product and its value.

Finally, Alvarez provides a number of resources and case studies to help entrepreneurs better understand and implement the techniques discussed in Lean Customer Development. She provides worksheets, checklists, and templates to help entrepreneurs plan and execute customer development projects.

“Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy” provides entrepreneurs with a roadmap for developing products that match customer needs. By following the strategies and tactics outlined in this book, entrepreneurs will be able to develop products that are more likely to be successful.