Customer Development and Design Thinking

Launching a startup or developing a new product within a company involves navigating countless uncertainties. Lean Startup and Design Thinking are powerful methodologies designed to tackle these unknowns by iteratively validating hypotheses around value creation and growth. While rooted in different cultures and terminologies that can sometimes bewilder newcomers, these approaches, once clearly understood, complement each other perfectly to deliver the right solutions for unmet needs.

Design Thinking zeroes in on uncovering gaps in the user experience, focusing on empathy and qualitative insights to prototype and test problem-solution fit. In contrast, Lean Startup prioritizes validating the ‘job to be done’ by rapidly deploying minimum viable products (MVPs) and relying on quantitative, data-driven metrics to achieve product-market fit.

Together, these approaches merge seamlessly within the “Lean UX” framework, accelerating development cycles while maintaining a deep commitment to exceptional user experience.

Self-study Videos

1. Customer vs Product Development – How to Build a Startup (3 min 01 sec)
2. Don Norman: The term “UX” (1 min 49 sec)
3. The UX design process, explained | A step by step overview (11 min 39 sec)
4. Customer Development vs. Design Thinking (4 min 14 sec)
5. What is Lean UX? (4 min 24 sec)
6. Customer Segments – How to Build a Startup (2 min 05 sec)
7. Jobs-to-Be-Done vs. Personas (3:04 min)
8. Geoffrey Moore: Market segmentation and Personas (3 min 48 sec)
9. Creating Personas Is Like Sorting Rocks (3 min 59 sec)
10. Minimum Viable Product – How to Build a Startup (2 min 36 sec)
11. Why MVP is the Antithesis of Good UX (4 min 47 sec)