In general, what did you learn about customers’ problems? What were the biggest surprises? What were the biggest disappointments?

Accordingly, develop a solution-oriented presentation that describes the product in terms of solving the customer's problem.

The appropriate milestones measuring a startup's progress answer these questions: How well do we understand what problems customers have? How much will they pay to solve those problems? Do our product features solve these problems? Do we understand our customers’ business? Do we understand the hierarchy of customer needs? Have we found visionary

Is your company entering an existing market, resegmenting an existing market or creating a new market?

You've found a customer who has such a desperate problem he has had his own homegrown solution built out of piece parts.

The first customer ship date does not mean the company understands its customers or how to market or sell to them. (Read the preceding sentence again. It's a big idea.) Yet in almost every startup, ready or not, the sales, marketing, and business development people are busy setting their departmental watches to the first customer ship date.

Unlike mission statements, core values are not about markets or products. They are a set of fundamental beliefs about what the company stands for that can endure the test of time: the ethical, moral, and emotional rocks on which the company is built.

So the general goal of Customer Discovery amounts to this: turning the founders’ initial hypotheses about their business model, market and customers into facts.

Over time, as you get confirmation on the key issues, begin to ask different questions.