Customer Need Narratives

I recently had an introductory call with the 10 new startups I’ll be coaching as part of Luxembourg’s Fit4Start program. And as with every other startup I’ve coached, these entrepreneurs were passionate about their product. But they didn’t really know their customers.

Established companies tend to know their customers better, but this knowledge is not widespread, and many people are too busy doing their work to think about customers.

Is it any wonder that most startups and most new product launches fail?

I’ve recently discovered a great approach to solving this problem — the Customer Need Narrative, based on this article by Dave Bailey.

It’s a fill-in-the-blank template that expresses the customer need really clearly, without referring to the product or solution at all. Here’s the template, adapted slightly from Dave’s article:

For [target audience], it’s a constant challenge to [general problem]. Every [time period], these people [do something] in order to [achieve a goal]. This is important to them because [reasons], especially if they’re a [niche].

The main problem they face is [problem] which leads to [bad outcomes]. Today, their best option is [substitutes], but of course, they [have problems]. With [key trend], the problem will only get worse over time.

If only there was a easier/better/cheaper way to [do something], then customers could [quantified impact on their goal] which would lead to [positive outcomes / emotions].

With [number of potential customers], each willing to pay up to [value of solving this problem] there is a total addressable market of [total addressable market].

Each field is fairly self-explanatory, and represents a testable assumption. Fill it in with what you understand about your customers, and use it as a starting point for your Working Backwards narrative (or however you present your idea).

Once you’ve written it, share it with your colleagues, or even with real (or potential) customers. If you’ve got it right, you’ll find that they agree with each point — and if they don’t, you know where you need to learn more, or test your assumptions. And if they do, you can ask for ideas to solve the problem, and see if they have better solutions than your own idea.