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- November 2011 (Revised August 2012)
- Background Note
Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs
By: Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas Eisenmann and Steven G. Blank
Provides practical guidelines for conducting market research to explore and validate demand for entrepreneurial offering. Explains how the research objectives of entrepreneurs might differ from those relevant to managers evaluating product or service offerings to... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V., Thomas Eisenmann, and Steven G. Blank. "Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs." Harvard Business School Background Note 812-097, November 2011. (Revised August 2012.)
- Research Summary
Entrepreneurial Management: Customer Discovery and Business Development
This research focuses on: (a) market research methods and tactics suitable to startups seeking their initial customers and validation of their initial business model; (b) guidelines for conducting visits with potential customers as part of the startup ptrocess; and (c)... View Details
- September 2020
- Article
Customer Supercharging in Experience-Centric Channels
By: David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno
We conjecture that for online retailers, experience-centric offline store formats do not simply expand market coverage, but rather, serve to significantly amplify future positive customer behaviors, both online and offline. We term this phenomenon “supercharging” and... View Details
Keywords: Retail Operations; Marketing-operations Interface; Omnichannel Retailing; Experience Attributes; Quasi-experimental Methods; Operations; Internet and the Web; Marketing Channels; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry
Bell, David R., Santiago Gallino, and Antonio Moreno. "Customer Supercharging in Experience-Centric Channels." Management Science 66, no. 9 (September 2020).
- July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
Propel
By: Mitchell Weiss and Sarah McAra
In 2014, Jimmy Chen, a former product manager at Facebook, founded the start-up Propel to build software for low-income Americans. After conducting in-depth behavioral research, Chen and his small team in New York City began to develop technology to address the... View Details
Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Govtech; Food Stamps; EBT; Mobile App; User Research; Financial Services Referrals; Grocery Marketing; Customer Discovery; Social Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Business Model; Research; Social Enterprise; Poverty; Welfare; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; United States
- September 2022
- Case
AllSpice: GitHub for Hardware Engineers
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Mel Martin
AllSpice, a software-as-a-service company that built a GitHub-like revision control tool for hardware engineers, was in the midst of preparing for rapid scale when the 2022 market downturn left them with big decisions to make. Cofounder and CEO Valentina Ratner had to... View Details
Keywords: Scaling; SaaS; Strategy; Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technology Industry; Electronics Industry; United States
Bussgang, Jeffrey J., and Mel Martin. "AllSpice: GitHub for Hardware Engineers." Harvard Business School Case 823-022, September 2022.
- September 24, 2024
- Article
4 Steps That Can Optimize Your Sales Process
By: Frank V. Cespedes, Scott Peterson and Daniel Weinfurter
Sales is a performance art where outcomes matter, so most advice here focuses on closing the sale. But a close is the result of actions and choices that occur earlier in the process: how much time and effort to spend on customer discovery (understanding what and to... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V., Scott Peterson, and Daniel Weinfurter. "4 Steps That Can Optimize Your Sales Process." Harvard Business Review (website) (September 24, 2024).
- April 2009
- Case
Merck: Managing Vioxx (A)
By: Robert L. Simons, Kathryn Rosenberg and Natalie Kindred
This two-class case series allows students to stand in the shoes of CEO Ray Gilmartin during the unfolding stages of a reputational crisis. Merck's mission statement claims to "put patients first," but the company is widely criticized for putting profit before patient... View Details
Keywords: Ethics; Crisis Management; Reputation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Customers; Business or Company Management; Cost vs Benefits; Corporate Accountability; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Pharmaceutical Industry
Simons, Robert L., Kathryn Rosenberg, and Natalie Kindred. "Merck: Managing Vioxx (A)." Harvard Business School Case 109-080, April 2009.
- 2024
- Working Paper
Platform Information Provision and Consumer Search: A Field Experiment
By: Lu Fang, Yanyou Chen, Chiara Farronato, Zhe Yuan and Yitong Wang
Despite substantial efforts to help consumers search in more intuitive ways, text search remains the predominant tool for product discovery online. In this paper, we explore the effects of visual and textual cues for search refinement on consumer search and purchasing... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Behavior; E-commerce; Decision Choices and Conditions; Learning; Internet and the Web
Fang, Lu, Yanyou Chen, Chiara Farronato, Zhe Yuan, and Yitong Wang. "Platform Information Provision and Consumer Search: A Field Experiment." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 32099, February 2024.
- December 2003 (Revised September 2005)
- Case
Rein Chemical Company: Specialty Division
By: Francis Aguilar
This case describes corporate management's recent discovery of widespread unethical pricing transactions in one division and key managers' different views on how to respond. Students are asked to evaluate management's position and decide who should do what to resolve... View Details
Keywords: Customers; Price; Ethics; Business Divisions; Chemicals; Crisis Management; Chemical Industry
Aguilar, Francis. "Rein Chemical Company: Specialty Division." Harvard Business School Case 904-046, December 2003. (Revised September 2005.)
- 29 Sep 2015
- First Look
September 29, 2015
patients; however, organizations have struggled to obtain outcomes data from electronic health record (EHR) systems. This study describes how Texas Children’s Hospital customized a commercial EHR system and assembled a cross-functional... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- 31 Oct 2017
- First Look
New Research and Ideas, October 31, 2017
heterogeneity in consumer sophistication could explain the prevalence and persistence of misconduct at such firms. Misconduct is concentrated at firms with retail customers and in counties with low education, elderly populations, and high... View Details
Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne
- 17 Feb 2020
- Sharpening Your Skills
How Entrepreneurs Can Find the Right Problem to Solve
discovery work to validate the problem or their target customers. While gut feel or personal experience with a problem can be a strong signal there is a problem to solve, without proper product discovery... View Details
Keywords: by Julia Austin
- 11 Aug 2009
- First Look
First Look: August 11, 2009
from an online grocer to address this question. In general, we find that as the delay between order completion and delivery increases, grocery customers spend less, order a higher percentage of "should" items (e.g., vegetables),... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
- 15 May 2007
- First Look
First Look: May 15, 2007
economic models predict that they do not systematically differ. With online grocery data, we show that people are decreasingly impatient the further in the future their choices will take effect. In general, as the delay between order completion and delivery increases,... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
- 18 Feb 2009
- First Look
First Look: February 18, 2009
who need them most, but unrestricted transfers might threaten the Internet's routing system. I suggest policies to create an IP address "market" while avoiding major negative externalities—mitigating the worst effects of v4 scarcity, while obtaining price... View Details
Keywords: Martha Lagace
- 23 May 2012
- Research & Ideas
Five Ways to Make Your Company More Innovative
slogan from Apple. And thinking differently leads them to act differently. From our research, consistent patterns emerged that led us to identify five primary discovery skills that underlie innovation: associating, observing, quetioning,... View Details
- 06 Jun 2016
- Research & Ideas
Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful
can include small “lifestyle” businesses, multi-generational family businesses, high-growth, venture funded technology businesses, and new ventures designed to commercialize breakthrough discoveries in life sciences, clean tech, and other... View Details
Keywords: by HBS Working Knowledge
- 20 Dec 2022
- Op-Ed
Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation
well-being of our customers and the people we serve first”—and requires senior teams at every level to foster repeated honest conversations with lower levels about whether their unit is practicing that credo. According to recently retired... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Beer
- 21 Jan 2014
- First Look
First Look: January 21
with a low level of disclosure. Second, competition ensures that services with a high level of disclosure subsidize consumers. Third, firms maximize profits at the extensive rather than the intensive margin, outperforming competitors by attracting a larger View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
- 22 Aug 2005
- Research & Ideas
The Hard Work of Failure Analysis
thereby rescuing a drug that the organization was ready to discard.5 Failure analysis can reach beyond the company walls to include customers. Systematic analysis of small failures in the form of customer breakdowns was instituted at... View Details
Keywords: by Amy Edmondson & Mark D. Cannon