In an introduction to the basics of the famous Customer Development Process, Steve Blank provides insight into the key steps needed to build a successful startup.

The main idea in this course is learning how to rapidly develop and test ideas by gathering massive amounts of customer and marketplace feedback. Many startups fail by not validating their ideas early on with real-life customers. In order to mitigate that, students will learn how to get out of the building and search for the real pain points and unmet needs of customers. Only with these can the entrepreneur find a proper solution and establish a suitable business model.

Building a startup is not simply building an execution plan for a business model that the entrepreneur thinks will work, but rather, a search for the actual business model itself.

You will learn the business skills it takes to bring your idea from conception to market. These include:

• Actively listening and engaging your customers to find out what exactly they want in your product and how you should deliver it to them
• Gathering, evaluating and using customer feedback to make your product, marketing, and business model stronger
• Engaging your customers through the three phases of the customer relationship management lifecycle: get, keep, and grow
• Identifying key resources, partners, activities, and distribution channels required to deliver your product to your customer
• Calculating your direct and indirect costs for delivering your product

This class involves no programming. The characteristics of a budding entrepreneur: passion, tenacity, and a willingness to work hard, are essential.

We also recommend you join the class with at least a rough idea of a business model for a startup you would like to work on throughout this class.