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Core Principles

Customer’s need comes first

If a customer doesn't have a genuine need your product or service can satisfy, you simply won't achieve sales—and consequently, no profit.

Regardless of how brilliant your product appears—with advanced AI capabilities, blockchain integrations, dozens of patents, or stunning design—if it doesn't solve a real customer problem, sales either won't materialise at all or will trickle in only after heroic marketing and sales efforts.

Those occasional buyers won't become repeat customers or recommend your product to others, leaving your business perpetually vulnerable to competitors offering something genuinely useful.

Building a product is an exceptionally complex task. Distractions, logical missteps, internal politics, and emotional attachments to a "brilliant idea" or "inspiring vision" often lead founders and product managers to create something nobody genuinely wants.

"Leaders start with the customer and work backwards."
—Amazon’s first Leadership Principle, Customer Obsession

In the startup ecosystem, estimates suggest that between 70–90% of startups fail. Experienced product teams recognise that around 9 out of 10 hypotheses don’t pan out, with the primary reason for failure being straightforward: the customer simply doesn't need the product.

Every decision you make—no matter how minor—should pass through one filter: "Are we delivering value to our customers?"

"Focus on the user and all else will follow."
—Google’s guiding mantra

To effectively answer this critical question, consider the following:

  • Is there a sufficiently large, paying customer segment with this specific need?
  • How critical is it for these customers to accomplish this particular task?
  • How much time, money, and stress do they currently invest in solving this problem?
  • What specific obstacles or frustrations do they currently experience?
  • How certain are we of this? Are these assumptions based solely on internal hypotheses, or have we directly observed customer behaviours and pain points?

When developing a new product or feature, your first goal must always be to identify a segment with a genuine, pressing need.

Customer segments evolve dynamically as global and local trends reshape contexts. For example, the widespread adoption of remote work has created urgent needs around managing breaks effectively, ensuring efficient video calls, and maintaining secure cloud storage. Meanwhile, advancements in technology—like smartphones, 5G, and cloud computing—regularly open up entirely new markets and product possibilities.

If your target audience currently struggles to solve a problem, perhaps using awkward workarounds or feeling persistent frustration, there's a strong chance they'll be receptive to trying your solution. Conversely, if they're indifferent to solving the problem, it's likely not important enough to them, and no marketing strategy will meaningfully alter that perception.

"We are customer obsessed. We work tirelessly to earn our customers’ trust by solving their problems, maximizing their earnings, or lowering their costs."
—Uber’s Cultural Principle

Too frequent, teams deceive themselves about genuine market demand. They overlook the foundational question—"Does the customer truly need this?"—and continue pouring investor funds into developing features that ultimately no one uses.

Example: Parent’s don’t get support on understanding their child’s development leaps between 0-3 yrs; nor how to communicate to their children effectively throughout the process

Suppose we want to create an application that helps parents effectively understand and communicate their child's developmental leaps from ages 0 to 3.

Since customer needs should guide product development, our next step isn't crafting an appealing pitch deck or immediately seeking investment. Instead, we set aside the idea itself and focus first on hypothesising which Job Stories the product might address, and for which segments:

We first target parents who are proactive and engaged with parenting resources, aiming primarily at first-time parents. Then, we formulate the following hypothetical Job Stories:

When first-time parents notice their child exhibiting new behaviors or reaching new milestones and feel uncertain if their child's development is on track,
They want clear, actionable information about developmental leaps and how best to support their child during these transitions,
So they can confidently nurture their child's growth, minimize anxiety, and feel assured about their parenting approach.

Current Pain Point: Information online is fragmented, overwhelming, or contradictory, leading to confusion and anxiety rather than clarity.

When their child goes through new developmental stages and standard parenting approaches no longer seem effective,
They want practical, easy-to-follow guidance tailored specifically to their child's current developmental stage,
So they can better support and engage their child, fostering a stronger parent-child connection and smoother developmental transitions.

Current Pain Point: Lack of personalised, accessible resources that give real-time guidance, leaving parents unsure of how to effectively communicate or engage with their child during critical developmental stages.

Effectively, we have identified hypotheses for two potential parental segments. Next, we must evaluate which segment is most appealing and conduct some customer interviews with representatives from that segment.

The strongest validation signal that a segment truly has the need we've hypothesised comes when segment representatives invest money, time, and effort into solving this need—even if they solve it inefficiently or suffer negative emotions because the need remains unresolved.

After conducting one or multiple interview iterations with representatives, we either validate our segment hypothesis and confidently decide to build the product, or realise our assumptions were incorrect and either no such need exists for the segment, or the actual need is significantly different.

This example illustrates a typical process you'll encounter frequently—highlighting nuances of the segment discovery process and Riskiest Assumption Test approach.

References