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You are invited to conduct a semi-structured interview with an entrepreneur who has started a business recently. A semi-structured interview starts out with between 5 and 10 questions and the interviewer should ask follow-up questions based on what is told by the entrepreneur. (See example below).
The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize yourself with the process of customer development. Customer development in its most basic form refers to the fact that any entrepreneur needs to find a product/market fit through customer discovery and subsequent customer validation. It revolves around the idea that a product is developed for a customer and any entrepreneur needs to present his product to this customer, check if it adheres to the expectations of the customer and change the product if necessary.
See the following link to inform your understanding of the customer development process:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2058
The semi-structured interview should tap into the following three key-areas:
How the entrepreneur discovered who the customers would be (everyone vs. targeted segments)
Whether initial contact with customers changed the product or service to increase the product/market fit, prior to launch.
How subsequent customer contact shaped the product or service after launch.
The interview should be transcribed (recorded and typed out) and analysed (you are invited to derive two aspects from the experience of the focal entrepreneur that are relevant for your current start-up initiative).
To be uploaded as individual assignment: The transcribed interview (it will typically be around 3-4 pages), the two selected aspects and accompanying rationale as to how they could be applied in your start-up (max. 1 page).
Example question: How did you get in first contact with customers and could you please explain how initial contact with customers changed your product/service prior to launch?
As an internet consultancy company we present clients with solutions for representing their firm online, it is to say we create their full online identity (website, online sales, strategic use of internet) in dialogue with the client. This is different to how we started when we were mostly focused on the website but not as much on the underlying value of a strong contemporary online identity.
Follow-up 1: How did you first get in contact with customers?
As a student I worked for the University (as an employee) and developed part of their website, this assignment increased in scope and I decided to work as a free-lancer instead in order to negotiate a better pay and to have set up my own company along the way.
Follow-up 2: Did you experience any difficulty altering the work relationship with the university and how did this impact your ‘product’/’service’?
At first the university was reluctant to hire me as a freelancer, but I managed to convince them by emphasizing that I had worked for them for a relative low salary for two years and had in-depth knowledge about their website. It resulted in the fact that they agreed to hire me as a freelancer and this meant I became more of a partner rather than an executioner. Meetings previously held without me where the future of the online identity of the university was discussed now were held in my presence and this meant that the whole idea changed.
But your main activity is still the internet consultancy company?
Yes, I consider the CEO position at the printer company as a long term investment, it basically only means that I own 25% of the company, there is no real administrative burden for me there. But it definitely changed how I think about my company and the activities we deploy. It also meant we went from a two person company two years ago to a team of 12 full-time employees now.
Note how follow-up questions get you to the core of issues at hand. We suggest you to come up with 5-10 start questions centered around the three key areas. You will find that each question will give ample opportunity for follow-up questions. Follow-up questions will evolve from the interview, hence you need to listen carefully to what the entrepreneur says and think quickly about what to ask.
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