Customer Discovery for SBIR/STTR: Proving There’s a Market for Your Innovation
Customer discovery before R&D work is a crucial step in validating your problem-solution fit early. You want to confirm that the problem you think exists actually matters to customers, that they're willing to pay to solve it, and that your proposed solution addresses their real pain points. This upfront investment in understanding customers typically saves far more money and time than it costs.
Key Considerations Before Starting Customer Discovery:
Define your target customer clearly. The more specific you can be about who you're trying to serve, the more valuable your discovery will be. Focus on problems before solutions. Most importantly: resist the urge to pitch your idea during discovery conversations. Instead, explore how customers currently handle the problem, what frustrates them about existing solutions, and what outcomes they're trying to achieve.
Practical Steps for Customer Discovery:
Start with people you can easily access. Reach out to people you know in the field, industry contacts, and leverage relationships with your network who fit your target profile. Conduct one-on-one interviews that are positioned as discussions to ask open-ended questions like "Walk me through the last time you dealt with [problem]" or "What's the most frustrating part of your current process?"
Listen for emotional language and pain points with words like "frustrating," "time-consuming," or "expensive." These indicators often signal real problems worth solving. Validate the problem's frequency and impact by asking how often they encounter this issue and what it costs them in time, money, or frustration. A problem that happens rarely or has minimal impact probably isn't worth solving.
Test your assumptions directly. For example, would they need certain features or requirements, and if so, how would those be ranked by importance. Document patterns across conversations. After 5-10 interviews, you'll start seeing recurring themes. These patterns are more valuable than individual opinions.
Just keep in mind, the goal isn't to validate your solution, but to understand the problem deeply enough that your R&D efforts focus on what matters most to customers. This foundation makes everything else more efficient and effective.
