The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win

This is called mission-oriented leadership. In times of crisis or confusion, understanding why the company exists and what its goals are will provide a welcome beacon of clarity.

write down all of your company's initial assumptions, or hypotheses.

In reality none of these is the true objective. Simply put, a startup should focus on reaching a deep understanding of customers and their problems, their pains, and the jobs they need done to discover a repeatable roadmap of how they buy, and building a financial model that results in profitability.

What are the industry trends? What are key unresolved customer needs? Who are the key players in this market? What should I read? Who should I know? What should I ask? What customers should I call on?

You cannot create a market or customer demand where there isn't any customer interest.

Types of customers Customer problems A day in the life of your customers Organizational map and customer influence map ROI (return on investment) justification Minimum feature set

In general, what did you learn about customers’ problems? What were the biggest surprises? What were the biggest disappointments?

The goal is to have a single paragraph feature list that can sell to thousands of customers.

InLook lacked what every startup needs: a method that allows it to develop a predictable sales process and validate its business model.