Finding Problem Solution Fit by Interviewing Customers — 5 Minutes for Lean Startup Melbourne

We do a series of lightning talks at the monthly Lean Startup meetup in Melbourne. The crowd of around 350 that turn up are typically not from a startup background, so this month we highlighted Customer Validation. Most understand the Lean Startup methodology, but the emphasis was on the fact that everyone nods and skips the problem-solution fit interviews for various reasons. We work with many startups and the primary mistake they make is diving in before speaking to real, live customers.
As an aside, our product GetViable.com could be described as ‘a productized script to guide’ through the idea-to-pitch lifecycle.