Driving Corporate Innovation: Design Thinking vs. Customer Development

By Steve Blank

#startups #innovation #product #customer #customerdevelopment #designthinking

This is a great article from the creator of the Customer Development Process Steve Blank, where he explains in a clear an straight way the differences between two of the most widely used methodologies for driving innovation in a business.

This is great because one expert, the inventor of one of this methodologies, explains the differences and best use scenarios for both of them.

From the article here are the lesson learned:

"

1.   Customer Development and Design Thinking are both customer discovery processes
2.   Customer Development starts with, “I have a technology/product, now who do I sell it to?”
3.  Design Thinking starts with, “I need to understand customer needs and iterate prototypes until I find a technology and product that satisfies this need”
4.  Customer Development is optimized for speed and “good enough” decision making with limited time and resources
5.   Design Thinking is optimized for getting it right before we make big bets"

But, don't settle for just this summary, go and read the full article and its complementary videos here:

https://steveblank.com/2014/07/30/driving-corporate-innovation-design-thinking-customer-development/

So, if you are part of a startup or have a technological product and are looking for who to sell it to, customer development could be your best option.

And if you are part of an established profitable business, Design Thinking might be better for you.

Choose wisely and I wish you much success.