12 Practical Tips for Customer Development (From the Field)

Pithy reminders to keep in your head while getting out of the building.

By Tristan Kromer · Jul 17, 2012

Customer development is hard. It takes work to get it right and you’ll always be improving your technique. Here are a few pithy tips I like to keep in my head while I’m getting out of the building. It’s probably the exact same words they’ll type into google to find a solution. Suspiciously oversimplified bonus formula:

Quick Answer: Customer development is a skill you refine through practice, not a process you perfect once. As product managers, we should keep practical reminders top of mind every time we get out of the building — from how we frame questions to how we listen for real problems. The core takeaway: focus on how customers actually describe their pain points (it’s probably the exact words they’d type into Google to find a solution), and accept that your technique will always be a work in progress.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is customer development and why is it hard?

Customer development is the practice of getting out of the building to validate your assumptions about customers and their problems. It’s hard because it requires continuous improvement of your interviewing and discovery techniques — we never truly “master” it, but we keep refining our approach with every conversation.

How do I get better at practicing customer development?

The key is consistent practice and self-awareness. As product managers, we need to keep practical tips top of mind every time we get out of the building. Customer development is a skill that improves over time — the more conversations you have, the better your technique becomes.

What does “getting out of the building” mean in customer development?

“Getting out of the building” means talking directly to real or potential customers rather than making assumptions from your desk. It’s a core principle of customer development — we learn far more from actual conversations than from internal brainstorming sessions or building features based on guesses.

Written by

Tristan Kromer

Tristan Kromer is an innovation coach and the founder of Kromatic. He helps enterprise companies build innovation ecosystems and works with startups and intrapreneurs worldwide to create better products for real people. Author, speaker, and passionate advocate for lean startup and innovation accounting methods.

𝕏 @TriKro LinkedIn Website

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