Many products fail not because they are poorly made, but because they do not solve a specific user problem. The team has developed something, invested time, resources, and launched it... but the market is silent. Why? Because no one has checked — but does anyone need it at all?
The Customer Development (CustDev) approach is a way to avoid such a mistake. Instead of quickly diving into development, they first study the needs of future customers. We need to find out what difficulties they face, what they are not satisfied with in current solutions, and what they are really willing to pay for. And only after that, work on the product begins.
CustDev (short for Customer Development) or simply custdev is a way to find out what users really need before spending time and money on product development.
Instead of coming up with an idea first, launching it, and only then checking if it would be useful to someone, castdev suggests another way: first, understand people and their tasks, and only then make a solution for them.
check if there is a real problem that you want to solve.;
understand how people solve it now;
find out what they're uncomfortable with, what they're missing, and what they're willing to pay for.
No tables, CJM (client's path), frameworks and guesses can replace a real conversation with people. When we work on a product in isolation, we look at the world through the prism of our own hypotheses, which means we risk building a solution for a spherical "user in a vacuum."
Therefore, the most important part of CustDev is to go beyond the "information bubble", when you can look at the product through the eyes of customers and hear stories, pains, expectations.
We are preparing the ground: why and with whom we will talk
What do we want to find out, and what hypothesis about behavior, problem, or motivation are we testing? You need to understand these points: "Are users really spending money on this?" or "Are they really uncomfortable at this moment?"
Next, you need to determine who you need to talk to. For example, if the product is for freelancers, then it is definitely not rational to take middle managers as respondents. The value of the response depends on getting into the audience.
Before the interview itself:
— identify topics and guidelines, not just a list of questions;
— come up with a plan B (what to ask if the user walks away);
— break the conversation into logical blocks (easy introduction, the main part, the final with a summary).
Conducting a dialogue
It's better to start with something simple and human. People open up when they feel trusted. Here you can explain why the interview is being conducted and how the opinion of the interviewee will help to do something useful.
During the conversation:
— don't disguise yourself as an expert — speak simply, without terminology;
— ask open-ended questions: not "Is it convenient for you?" (the answer is yes/no), but "Tell me how you usually...";
— experience questions work best: "When was the last time...", "What was uncomfortable about it?", "Why did you decide to do this?";
— listen more than talk, give pauses, do not interrupt;
CustDev Interview Results
They will return to their hypotheses and answer honestly.: what was confirmed and what was not?
Putting everything into short notes, a plaque, or an insight card is the working material.
Conducting a castdev interview is a resource—intensive task. Previously, paper questionnaires, voice recorders, hand notes, and hours of manual analysis were used for this purpose. Now everything is much easier thanks to digital tools.
For example, a smart assistant for communication management helps automate a significant part of this work. The AI agent connects to the call, recognizes speech, and extracts key fragments. All information is automatically structured in the form of a knowledge graph, where it is easy to find the necessary fragment of the dialogue, test a hypothesis or collect arguments for further decisions.
|
Principle |
What does it mean |
Why is this important? |
|
One question at a time |
Keep it short, without double entendre. |
Simplifies perception and helps to focus on the essence. |
|
The question of actions |
Instead of "Would you..." — "How did you do it last time?" |
People rarely predict behavior accurately, but they remember the actual steps. |
|
Notice non-verbal cues |
Watch for facial expressions, pauses, and speech confusion. |
It helps to understand where the user is experiencing real emotions. |
|
Respect the other person's life experience |
He doesn't have to know UX terms, but he knows how he lives. |
This approach helps to build a dialogue on equal terms and to hear the main thing. |
|
Be childishly curious |
Don't be afraid of simple and naive questions |
This gives you a chance to get to the bottom of things and understand the details that others are missing. |
Unfortunately, even a well-conceived process can be easily messed up. Here's what often goes wrong:
An interview for show. You've talked, but you haven't figured out what to do about it. The benefits are zero.
Suggestive wording. "It was uncomfortable for you, wasn't it?" is an easier question to ignore than to answer honestly.
There is no data fixation. After a couple of hours, everything will be forgotten, especially if you didn't take notes or didn't record the conversation.
Blind faith in your hypotheses. The interview is used only as a confirmation tool, not as an understanding tool.
Unwillingness to turn. Even if everything indicates that you have chosen the wrong problem or the wrong audience, you continue to follow the same path.
Castdev helps to get rid of illusions and look at the idea from the angle of existing needs. The LighTech team will help the business implement the CustDev approach in practice and reassemble product hypotheses in order to launch the required solution.
And if you need to build a turnkey project implementation, we'll connect project management, where we'll plan goals, stages, and a team and ensure full control over the progress of work.
