This Workbook is based on the “Startup Owner’s Manual”, a book by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf. They introduce the Customer Development framework, a process that organizes and formalizes the search for a scalable business model - the key things any startup should focus on.
<aside> 💡 Startup = a company or project that is established to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model
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In theory, by grinding through the workbook, you should end up with a validated business model that is profitable, repeatable, and scalable.
Before we get into the good stuff, let’s familiarize ourselves with the Customer Development framework.
The Customer Development process is divided into four steps, the first two focusing on the discovery and validation of a business model, and the second two on scaling up:
The Workbook focuses on looping through steps 1 & 2, which combined describe the period when a startup searches for a profitable, repeatable, and scalable business model.
Search for a validated business model. Source.
At the end of the Startup Owner’s Manual, the authors offer a series of “checklists”, and that’s what I wanted to share to help myself and others who need help with planning. The idea is that by working through the checklists, you journey through Customer Discovery and Customer Validation, validating your business model as you go.
When you get to the end, you face the most important question: to pivot or to proceed? If your evidence says you should pivot, you get back to Customer Discovery and iterate. If the evidence says you should proceed, you’ve graduated the startup phase and are ready to double down on your business model.
This Workbook is organized under two databases: