In the book, The Startup Owner’s Manual, authors Steve Blank and Bob Dorf outlined 14 rules that make up The Customer Development Manifesto. The manifesto discussed the must-have elements for startups to follow and to avoid costly mistakes.
I also found another somewhat expanded list on Steve Blank’s website and thought to keep both lists close-by for the ease of search.
- There Are No Facts Inside Your Building, So Get Outside.
- Pair Customer Development with Agile Development
- Failure is an Integral Part of the Search
- Make Continuous Iterations and Pivots
- No Business Plan Survives First Contact with Customers So Use a Business Model Canvas
- Design Experiments and Test to Validate Your Hypotheses
- Agree on Market Type. It Changes Everything
- Startup Metrics Differ from Those in Existing Companies
- Fast Decision-Making, Cycle Time, Speed and Tempo
- It’s All About Passion
- Startup Job Titles Are Very Different from a Large Company’s
- Preserve All Cash Until Needed. Then Spend.
- Communicate and Share Learning
- Customer Development Success Begins with Buy-In