Courses/Technology Product Entrepreneurship

Technology Product Entrepreneurship

CS9.424

Ramesh Loganathan + Prakash Yalla•Monsoon 2025-26•4 credits

Revision Notes/Unit 3 — Customer Development & Build-Measure-Learn

Unit 3 — Customer Development & Build-Measure-Learn

Old Map (Traditional Product Development) vs New Compass (Customer Development); Steve Blank's four stages (Discovery → Validation → Creation → Building); Search vs Execute with PMF as the pivot point; the six hypothesis types; the hypothesis formula; the Detective Phase (four past-behaviour questions); the Validation Board (up to 4 pivots); Build-Measure-Learn loop with MVPs; the Earlyvangelist Pyramid.

Discovery, Validation, BML, Earlyvangelists

14 min

Phase 3 has one job: **hunt a validated business model**. You enter with a validated problem (from Phase 2). You leave with a model that's been put in front of real customers and survived. Two intellectual parents: **Steve Blank** (Customer Development) and **Eric Ries** (Lean Startup / Build-Measure-Learn). Replace the linear *concept → product → launch* pipeline with a **loop** that searches first and executes only after Product-Market Fit. Three operational tools — the **Detective Phase** (four past-behaviour questions, never pitch your solution), the **Validation Board** (track up to 4 pivots like a scientist), and the **BML loop** (cheap MVP → measure → learn → persevere or pivot). Find your first customers at the apex of the **Earlyvangelist Pyramid** (people who already have budget to solve this problem).