4 Steps to Epiphany

1. Customer discovery
   1. Phase 1: state your hypotheses
      1. Product
         1. Product features
         2. Product benefits
         3. Intellectual Property
         4. Product dependency analysis
         5. Product delivery schedule
         6. Total cost of ownership/adoption
      2. Customer
         1. What type of customer
         2. What problem is the customer trying to solve
         3. A day in the life of the customer
         4. Organization and who are the influencers within the organization
         5. Return on investment
         6. Minimum set of features
      3. {Channel}
      4. Demand Creation
         1. {Demand.Creation}
         2. {Demand.Influencers}
      5. Market Type
      6. Competition
   2. Phase 2: test and qualify your hypotheses
      1. First customers contacts
      2. Problem presentation
      3. In-depth customer understanding
      4. Market knowledge
   3. Phase 3: test and qualify the product concept
      1. First reality check
      2. Product presentation
      3. Yet more customer visits
      4. Second company reality check
      5. First advisory board members
   4. Phase 4: verify
      1. Verify the problem
      2. Verify the product solution
      3. Verify the business model
      4. Assess whether to iterate or exit
2. Customer Validation
3. Customer creation
   1. Phase 1: get ready to launch
      1. Construct a market-type questionnaire
      2. Choose a market type
      3. Agree on the company first year customer creation and sales objectives
   2. Phase 2: position the company and product
      1. Select a PR agency
      2. Conduct internal and external positioning audits
      3. Match positioning to market type
   3. Phase 3: launch the company and product
      1. Select a launch by market type
      2. Select the customer audiences
      3. Select the messengers
      4. Craft the message
      5. Understand the message context
      6. Understand the media for the message
      7. Measure success
   4. Phase 4: create demand
      1. Select a demand creation strategy matching the company first year objectives
      2. Agree on demand creation measurements
      3. Iterate, return or exit
4. Company building
   1. Phase 1: reach mainstream customers
      1. Transitioning from Earlyvangelists to Mainstream Customers
      2. Managing sales growth by market-type
   2. Phase 2: review management and build a mission-centric organisation
      1. Review management
      2. Develop a mission-centric organization and culture
   3. Phase 3: Transition the Customer Development team into Functional departments
      1. Set Department mission statements
      2. Set Department roles by market-type
   4. Phase 4: build fast-response departments
      1. Implement mission-centric management
         1. Mission intention
         2. Employee initiative
         3. Mutual trust and communication
         4. Good enough decision-making
         5. Mission synchronization
      2. Create a culture for information gathering and dissemination
      3. Build a leadership culture
      4. Iterate and grow