— lean startup method, hypothesis testing, prototype, product-market fit
Speaker:  Joe Giglierano, Ph.D., San Jose State University
Meeting Date: Thursday, May 1, 2014
Time: 6:00 pm Networking; 6:30 pm Management Forum/Guided Networking; 7:00 pm sandwich dinner; 7:30 pm Presentation
Location: RAMADA Silicon Valley, 1217 Wildwood Ave, Sunnyvale, CA

Summary:
Management Forum / Guided Networking: Bring Your Management Challenge; Arrive by 6:30 PM to join this exciting Management Forum. Following informal networking is a guided discussion typically related to the topic of the evening’s after dinner talk, or of general Technology Management interest.
Light Dinner: This month we’re continuing with our light dinner format — typically sandwiches, salad, drinks, and cookie or similar light dinner.

Presentation: Customer Development, Business Development, and Crossing the Chasm 
Customer development is closely related to “business development” in early stage companies.  Much of the early experimentation of customer development is done in collaboration with customer partners.  The partner gets new products or new technologies in exchange for giving the entrepreneur ideas, feedback, and early revenue.  Crossing the chasm by building new revenue through partnerships between the two essentially same goals will be discussed.

In the last decade, Steven Blank introduced the idea of “customer development” and Eric Reis has refined this, calling it the Lean Startup method.

The thinking and observations that form the underpinnings of customer development (and hence, lean startup) focus on the high level of uncertainty inherent in a startup, especially when an innovative idea (product or service) is being launched into an unfamiliar market.  When the product (or service) is unfamiliar to intended customers, market research is not very good at projecting how these prospective customers will respond.  To reduce this uncertainty, Steve Blank says that it is necessary for the startup to conduct customer development and product development concurrently.

Customer development involves “hypothesis testing” – trying out small product experiments, using prototypes, which allow prospective customers to react positively or negatively interactively.  The idea of customer development is to discover a product-market fit through this series of experiments.  Being wrong and adjusting is part of the process.

Customer development is closely related to “business development” in early stage companies.  Much of the early experimentation of customer development is done in collaboration with customer partners.  The partner gets new products or new technologies in exchange for giving the entrepreneur ideas, feedback, and early revenue.  Since business development is generally viewed as building new revenue through partnerships, customer development and business development at this early stage are essentially the same.

Research done by the speaker also suggests that “business development” is a way to overcome problems faced by an emerging company trying to “cross the chasm” – the period that Geoffrey Moore identified in the adoption of an innovation when most visionaries have adopted, but before pragmatists begin to adopt.

Bio:
Joe Giglierano is Professor of Marketing at San Jose State University. Joe has taught at San Jose State University in the marketing field since 1986. He has taught courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Courses taught include Marketing Management, Retail Marketing Management, Customer Behavior, Integrated Marketing Communications, Technology Marketing, and Marketing in New Ventures. His principal areas of research are marketing and entrepreneurship, and new venture processes. He has published in the Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Marketing, and Industrial Marketing Management, among others.

Joe served on the board of advisors for the San Jose Software Business Cluster, a successful non-profit business incubator. He has also served as a director for three startup companies and continues to advise and consult for a number of startup technical companies. He also served as the Chair of the Department of Marketing and Decision Sciences at San Jose State for 2 ½ years and as the interim Associate Dean for the College of Business for another 2 ½ years.

Joe received his Ph.D. in Business Administration, concentrating in Marketing, from The Ohio State University in 1987. He also holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Ohio State and a BA in Political Science from The College of Wooster.