startups are not simply smaller versions of large companies.

Customer discovery includes two outside-the-building phases. The first tests customer perception of the problem and the customer’s need to solve it. Is it important enough that the right product will drive significant numbers of customers to buy or engage with the product? The second phase shows customers the product for the first time, assuring

A third type of market has both invention and market risk. For example, complex new semiconductor architectures mean you may not know if the chip performs as well as you thought until you get first silicon. But then, because there might be entrenched competitors and your concept is radically new, you still need to invest in the Customer Development

we offer parallel tracks through the book: one focused on physical goods and channels, and one focused on web/mobile products and channels. Often, the book addresses them separately. When it does, we begin with the physical channel,

This portion of the value proposition brief captures your vision for what you want your successful company to become. Over time, successful companies are usually more than a single product. What’s your long-term vision for your company? What do you want to ultimately change? Are you going to do it with a series of products? How do you expand into

Saboteurs: They can lurk anywhere (as saboteurs do) and hold titles including CFO, CIO, child, spouse, or purchasing agent with “friends.” They can be found in strategic planning departments or in your own home, where their veto can slow things dramatically. Find them. Identify patterns that reveal where they’re hiding in the decision process.

An initial positioning chart explains the company and its benefits to venture capitalists or corporate higher-ups.

Early-stage ventures fall into two types: those with customer/market risk and those with invention risk.

Customer discovery translates a founder’s vision for the company into hypotheses about each component of the business model and creates a set of experiments to test each hypothesis.