Asking the right questions
to learn what to build (and who to target).
A case study with MiFuture about validating their audience through customer discovery.
“Oh Blimey’s approach to validation has given me the confidence to think about commercialising, deciding which future features to build, what format to build it in… and how to market it.”
Gem Hallett, Founder, MiFuture.
Background:
Skill Bursts is a product aimed at young people offering progressive skill learning that’s rewarded with curated and actionable higher-valued labour market opportunities. As a product that sits within the MiFuture portfolio, its mission is to improve skills and create career opportunities for young people in Wales.
Its founder, edtech entrepreneur, Gem Hallett, approached Oh Blimey with the following challenge: to ensure she was building a product for the right audience.
Challenges facing Gem ahead of validating her startup’s audience:
Deciding who to talk to and what to ask them, ensuring a focus on the right people who’ll show commitment.
Reducing bias in the customer discovery process, to ensure you’re building using good data and removing the chance of making risky decisions.
Getting more than just product insight - is there a way to ask questions that will also inform sales and marketing?
“I knew who I should be talking to but I didn’t necessarily know what to say and what I should be taking from these conversations to build my business model.
I’d previously built a product and learned the true price of developing the wrong features for our audience. With Skill Bursts, I wanted to make sure I had a clear idea of the problem I am solving and how to prioritise the build.” Gem Hallett
The startup validation process - how it worked for Skill Bursts.
Oh Blimey was brought in to help assess the problem Gem was looking to solve, to help validate the startup’s product, and to set the ground work to support initial message-market-fit.
The product has two audiences: the end user (B2B2C, the learner) and the organisation who’d potentially license the product (B2B).
The aim at this point was to segment the B2B users in a way that would help us quickly identify who had the problem we set out to solve, and who was willing and able to pay for the product.
Over the course of the project, we ran a customer discovery/validation project which involved:
Identification of B2B users with the aim of segmenting and ranking of priority
An audit of direct competitors and their go-to-market strategy to help lay the foundation for our problem hypothesis
Interviewing organisations to validate our product and problem and product hypothesis and collect voice of customer.
Examples of how we helped Skill Bursts to validate its B2B audience.
Deliverables included for this project:
An understanding of the minimum required features to include in the build
A repeatable process that Gem and the team could use to apply to the end user when the next phase came up.
A clear way to segment B2B users and a prioritised group to build a product for
Messaging insight: language for use in sales pitches to help frame the product, and a report to share with industry leaders
So, Gem…
What’s the number one thing you can now do… that you couldn’t before using Oh Blimey?
“A good result is understanding what you should build… but also what you shouldn’t. I thought I was initially working with Oh Blimey to learn which audience to prioritise when it came to building the right features.
But the process actually opened up a heap of new learnings. Oh Blimey’s approach to validation has given me the confidence to think about commercialising, deciding which future features to build, what format to build it in… and how to market it.”
Why I like working with Gem
(She didn’t tell me to write this):
Gem has the mindset to be open to new ideas. She was willing to drop features and audiences if there was no real need to solve a problem.
We’re aligned: we both have backgrounds in developing edtech products and a focus on improving lives with tech.
She’d put the ground work in. Months of building relationships, identifying potential problems and VocTech grant winner helped kickstart this product.
What’s next?
Anyone currently in this process of validating and launching products will know you don’t just stop here. Talking to audiences and customers regularly is how you build successful products.
Skill Bursts continues to repeat this process for the end user and will be running an event in November ‘23 to help build this platform.
In the meantime, learn how to validate your own startup’s market or read about common mistakes when talking to potential customers.
Are you a startup or business with product market fit looking to enter a new market?
Get in touch to learn how I may can help you uncover new insight about your ideal customers, so you can prioritise your marketing efforts and spend.
Or learn more about my customer validation strategy services.
