© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com) 1

BY DAN ADAMS & DAVE LOOMISA WHITE PAPER FROM THE AIM INSTITUTE

Lean Startup for B2B

Lean Startup holds many attractions for

product developers. Most B2B suppliers

can do even more with a critical adjustment

seldom needed for consumer products.

Adding a Key Step for B2B Innovation

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com)2

Lean Startup naturally applies to most B2C

products… but does it “start” in the right place

for B2B? The very act of creating a hypothesis

is a convergent mental activity, not a divergent

one. If you create your hypothesis too soon, are

you limiting your possibilities? In lean terms,

when you practice Genchi Genbutsu, and “go

and see for yourself,” do you really have to

bring a hypothesis or prototype with you? We

believe the answer is “it depends.”

There is much to love about Lean Start-

up. A concept conceived and refined

by Steve Blank and Eric Reis, it pro-

motes a rapid, nimble approach to starting new

businesses. Increasingly, it is being applied to

product development within large corporations.

(For more, read the HBR article, “Why the Lean

Startup Changes Everything,” by Steve Blank,

and the book, The Lean Startup, by Eric Reis.)

Here are some key elements of Lean Startup…

1 Don’t create an elaborate business plan,

which limits your flexibility and openness to

learning.

2 Instead, create a “business model canvas”

that lays out your assumptions to be tested.

3 Use “minimum viable products” to rapidly

test product hypotheses with customers.

4 Employ agile product development cycles

with many nimble “pivot or persist” decision

points.

At the heart of Lean Startup we see this prin-

ciple: Learn from your prospective custom-

ers… before you commit to what you’ll offer

them. This keep-your-mind-open-and-wallet-

shut approach boosts new product success and

shortens timelines.

Lean Startup: Adding a Key Step for B2B

IF YOU CREATE YOUR HYPOTHESIS TOO SOON, ARE YOU LIMITING YOUR POSSIBILITIES?

What happens when you test your

... with customers?

You may think you have learned about market

needs. You have not. You have learned about

market reaction... to a single idea... your idea.

In B2B, be sure to diverge to all customer ideas

before converging to yours.

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com) 3

Specifically, the answers to these questions

depend on your type of business. For many

consumer products, Lean Startup is fine “as-is.”

But for most B2B products, you need to engage

your customers even earlier—before you devel-

op a hypothesis. Let’s see why.

Lean Startup is based on a Build-Measure-

Learn process: Imagine you are developing a

new consumer phone app: You would create a

quick prototype, or “minimum viable product”

(Build), test this with consumers (Measure), and

use their feedback to make needed changes to

your design (Learn). You would “rinse and re-

peat”… with learning cycles that rapidly move

you closer to a winning design.

Note that the above process begins with a

hypothesis of what customers want. One of us

used to work for a brilliant Dutch business-

man who claimed those of us in marketing had

“romantic notions” of what customers wanted.

He doubted we were accurate, and in this he

was usually correct. Our worst hypotheses were

dead wrong, and our best hypotheses were usu-

ally incomplete.

Instead of Build-Measure-Learn, most B2B

teams should employ a Learn-Build-Measure-

Learn cycle. Keep everything that is good about

Lean Startup, but begin with an open-minded

exploration of the customer’s world, not your

hypothesis about their world. This, of course, is

terrible advice if you are designing a new con-

INSTEAD OF BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN, MOST B2B TEAMS SHOULD EMPLOY A LEARN-BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN CYCLE.

BUILD

BUILD

MEASURE

MEASURE

LEARN

LEARNLEARNBest for most B2B products

Best for most B2C products

Should You Expand Your Build-Measure-Learn Cycle?

Expanding the Build-Measure-Learn Cycle

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com)4

sumer computer game. Until consumers actu-

ally experience your product (or its prototype),

how could they predict whether they will be

entertained? So if you are developing a consum-

er product designed to increase a consumer’s

amusement, comfort, taste sensation or sense

of self-worth, you’ll want to stick with the pure

Lean Startup approach.

Imagine you are developing a new welding

machine for auto assembly or a new polymer

for adhesives. Your customers could help you

predict their needs before they experience your

product. Most B2B customers are “for-profit”

businesses, so most of their decisions are ulti-

mately driven by hard economics. This means

these decisions can be intelligently discussed

and predicted with customers before they expe-

rience your new product. In the case of a new

welding machine, you could learn that custom-

ers wanted faster welding rates, less spatter,

reduced metal pre-cleaning, and lower energy

consumption… before they ever saw a physical

prototype or minimum viable product.

In some cases, end-consumers are also able

When to “Learn First”A key consideration is customer foresight—the

customer’s ability to articulate needs before experi-

encing your product. Beyond foresight, four more

characteristics describe most B2B customers:

to express their desired outcomes before “the

experience.” When purchasing a new car, for

instance, buyers consider economic factors such

as fuel efficiency… before their test drive. In

The Lean Startup, author Eric Reis provides the

example of Intuit’s founder Scott Cook. He ex-

plains how Cook took to the streets and phones

to understand the needs of potential customers

in regards to managing their personal finances.

Sure enough, the people with whom he talked

were able to articulate a critical frustration:

paying bills by hand. With that, Cook had iden-

tified a key desired outcome before developing

his hypothesis or prototype.

“The goal of early contact with customers

is not to gain definitive answers. Instead,

it is to clarify at a basic, course level that

we understand our potential customer and

what problems they have.” 1

So some B2C endeavors also benefit from

Learning before Building. Clearly we need a

much better “divining rod” than a simple B2C

vs. B2B assessment. Let’s look more closely at

the nature of many B2B businesses for clues.

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com) 5

1 Knowledgeable: B2B customers often

employ engineers or other professionals

who think about their work 40 hours a week.

They are able to help suppliers develop

better products.

2 Interested: Consumers must often be paid

to join focus groups, but most B2B custom-

ers seek innovation from their suppliers.

They are willing to help suppliers develop

better products.

3 Objective: Unlike many consumer deci-

sions, B2B decisions often require account-

ability, involve multiple decision-makers,

and must comply with company procedures.

4 Concentration: In some B2B markets, a

small number of companies represents much

of the market buying power. This lets suppli-

ers understand market needs with just a few

interviews.

Eventually customers will experience your

product and you can learn from their reaction.

But the fundamental question you must ask is,

“Can I learn from customers before they experi-

ence my product?” The answer is a resounding

“yes” for most B2B because decision-making

is predictable, and these four characteristics

allow for deep and rewarding voice-of-customer

(VOC) interviews.

IDEA

CAN I LEARN FROM CUSTOMERS BEFORE THEY EXPERIENCE MY PRODUCT?

When Should Suppliers Learn from Customers?

B2B exampleWelding Machine

UsefulCustomer can

describe desired benefits & economics

UsefulCustomer can

suggest desired modifications

B2C exampleComputer Game

Not UsefulCustomer cannot predict what will

amuse or enterain

“Pre-Experience”Voice of Customer

UsefulCustomer can

suggest desired modifications

“Post-Experience”Voice of Customer

LEARNING

LEARNING

BUILD

Customer Experiencewith New Product

(e.g. prototype)

LEARNLEARN

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com)6

So there are two factors to consider when de-

ciding whether to Build, then Learn (post-proto-

type VOC) or Learn, then Build (pre-prototype

VOC): 1) Customer Foresight and 2) Prototype

Cost. This continuum is shown in the illustra-

tion to the left. Imagine—as with most B2B

firms—your business is in the upper

right: It will be a mistake to discuss

your prototype with customers if you

haven’t first discussed their needs

with them.

Lean Startup methodology refers

to “Leap of Faith Assumptions”…

a term that aptly reflects the shaky

foundation of most suppliers’

hypotheses. Lean Startup wisely

recommends testing assumptions and

learning from customers at the first

opportunity.

For most B2B suppliers, this “first

opportunity” to learn comes before a

prototype is created… through early

voice-of-customer interviews that engage the

insight and foresight of highly-knowledgeable

customers. Why take a leap of faithwhen you

could take a leap of confidence—even more

quickly and cheaply?

A second consideration is the cost to build a

prototype. Let’s return to the example of devel-

oping a new consumer computer game. Your

software developers might be able to develop a

minimum viable product quickly and cheaply.

What about developing a new polymer in your

laboratories? This may be much more time-con-

suming and expensive. While you’ll want to

develop a lab polymer before scaling up to full

production, it probably won’t make sense to lob

polymer samples at customers until you first

have intelligent conversations with them about

their needs. (A word of caution here: Don’t

assume you must have high prototype costs.

Follow the spirit of Lean Startup in creatively

pursuing minimum viable products.)

INCREASING

INCR

EASI

NG

BUILD, then Learn

(Post-Prototype VOC)

LEARN, then Build

(Pre-Prototype VOC)

Cust

omer

For

esig

ht

Prototype Cost

Minimizes“Leap of Faith”

Assumptions

When Does Pre-Prototype VOC Make Sense?

Requires“Leap of Faith”Assumptions

WHY TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH WHEN YOU COULD TAKE A LEAP OF CONFIDENCE—EVEN MORE QUICKLY AND CHEAPLY?

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com) 7

There is a special case where B2B suppliers

should almost always meet with customers to

understand their needs before sharing a proto-

type. This is when the supplier is pursuing a

concentrated market, i.e., there are just a few

potential customers in the target market seg-

ment.

In highly concentrated markets, the top ten

potential buying accounts may represent 50 to

100% of the total market buying power. For

such markets, the supplier should add a second

objective to that of understanding market needs:

engaging potential customers in a manner that

“primes” them to buy their

product when launched.

This leads to two reasons

why it’s a mistake for a sup-

plier to begin its customer

interaction with a minimum

viable product (instead of an

interview). First, the B2B

supplier only has one chance

to make a good first impres-

sion. Consider how B2C

differs: If you are develop-

ing a new computer game,

you have a huge pool of individuals to test

iteration after iteration. If some of them “burn

out” on poor designs, others can step up to take

their place.

Special Case: Concentrated B2B Markets

THE B2B SUPPLIER ONLY HAS ONE CHANCE TO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION

How deep is your pool of MVP testers?

You have a much smaller pool in concentrated

B2B markets. Sure, you can represent your

prototype for what it is… a work in progress.

But it’s often an expensive and time-consum-

ing affair for B2B customers to evaluate your

product, so you could quickly “wear out your

welcome.” Such customers will be more im-

pressed if you try to understand what they want,

than if you “guess and lob” prototypes in their

direction.

Second, well-crafted interviews are highly

engaging for B2B customers. Abandon your

questionnaire and let the customer lead you to

what they care about during the interview. The

B2Cusually deep

B2B often shallow

Don’t frustrate a small pool of prospects with

careless prototypes

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com)8

next section of this paper describes how this is

done in qualitative Discovery interviews.

Consider two scenarios: First, someone tells

you they just had a great idea and want you to

review it. Second, someone says they respect

your opinion and would like your advice before

they do anything. Aren’t you more engaged in

the latter case? Don’t you feel more “owner-

ship”? When you engage B2B customers in this

manner, you can leave them eager for you to

launch your new product. If just a few inter-

viewees represent much of your target market’s

buying power, it would be a shame to miss this

“engaging” opportunity.

Next we’ll see how B2B suppliers can conduct

voice-of-customer interviews before a prototype

is developed… to both understand customer

needs and to engage them. These interviews

should be conducted in two phases: qualitative,

divergent interviews followed by quantitative,

convergent interviews. For this, we’ll explore

New Product Blueprinting, a methodology that

has “reinvented” VOC specifically for B2B.

Qualitative B2B VOCBlueprinting methodology begins with qualita-

tive Discovery interviews, followed by quan-

titative Preference interviews. Here’s a key

feature of these interviews: In addition to gath-

ering customer insights, they fully engage B2B

customers to take advantage of their knowledge,

interest, objectivity and so on. Discovery inter-

views build engagement in eight ways:

1 Use a top team: Don’t send “hired guns”

to interview. Take your own team—with

a technical representative—so customers

know they’re talking to someone who can

innovate for them.

2 Drop the questionnaire: Never bore cus-

tomers with a questionnaire or survey. How

excited are you when someone comes to

your front door asking you to complete a

survey?

3 Project your notes: Display customers’

comments on a screen or wall, so they can

see them, make corrections, and begin to

“own” the conversation.

4 Focus on the customer: Discuss only the

customer’s desired outcomes, not your prod-

ucts. It’s all about them and their needs.

5 Don’t discuss hypotheses: Don’t “lead the

witness” to validate your concepts. Custom-

ers may sense you are more interested in

confirming your ideas than understanding

their needs.

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com) 9

6 Trigger more ideas: Spark fresh thinking

with “trigger maps.” For example, a map

could display trends potentially impacting

the customer’s future. This helps generate

more outcomes.

7 Listen skillfully: Signal your interest and

learn more by recapping, appreciating

silence, making affirming comments, asking

open-ended questions and probing thought-

fully.

8 Let customers lead: After customers give

you a desired outcome (and you understand

it), simply ask “What else?” This lets your

customer discuss outcomes they care about.

The last point is often overlooked. One of us

was working with a B2B supplier anxious to

query customers with a long list of questions:

They wanted to confirm facts, validate hy-

potheses, and fill in gaps. We told them, “You

know what you know (facts). You know what

you think (hypotheses). And you know some

of what you don’t know (gaps). But you don’t

know all you don’t know.” Suppliers putting

themselves in a position to be surprised find

that these epiphanies—not fill-in-the-blank

interview guides—provide the real spark for

innovation.

This leads us to an inherent risk in premature

hypotheses: The Build-Measure-Learn cycles

help you avoid the error of commission—creat-

ing a product no one wants. But there’s a com-

pletely different error you may make, which

is seldom considered: the error of omission.

Imagine you go into customer interviews with

nothing but an open mind—no hypotheses,

no solutions, no prototypes—and you let the

customer lead you to whatever interests them.

You’re much more likely to discover unimag-

ined customer needs than the supplier who just

wants to talk with customers about a prototype.

SURE, YOU’LL AVOID THE ERROR OF COMMISSION… BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ERROR OF OMISSION?

Quantitative B2B VOCAfter a round of market-facing, qualitative Dis-

covery interviews, the supplier conducts quan-

titative Preference interviews. Imagine your

Discovery interviews on automotive welding

uncovered maximize welding speed, minimize

spatter, minimize energy consumption, etc.

Then, in Preference interviews, you ask two

questions for each key outcome: 1. How im-

portant is it to maximize welding speed (on a

scale of 1-to-10)? 2. How satisfied are you with

your ability to maximize welding speed (on a

scale of 1-to-10)? The only outcomes customers

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com)10

might pay you a premium to improve are the

important, unsatisfied ones. The AIM Institute

developed the Market Satisfaction Gap metric

to measure customers’ eagerness for improve-

ment. The more important and unsatisfied an

outcome is, the higher its

Market Satisfaction Gap.

In more than ten years of

using this method around

the world in a broad range of

B2B industries, here’s what

we find: If an outcome scores

a Market Satisfaction Gap of

~30% or more, customers are

eager to see the outcome im-

proved. This doesn’t just tell

a development team what to

work on; it also reveals what

not to work on. If all Mar-

The Marriage of Lean Startup and New Product Blueprinting

Welding Speed

Welding Spatter

Energy Consumed

Portability

Range of Metals

Bead Uniformity

Bond Strength

Metal Prep Time

Post-Weld Cleanup

Rapid Data Access

Market Satisfaction Gap (MSG)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

MSG = Importance x DissatisfactionMSG = IMP Rating x (10 - SAT Rating)

Example: Avg. IMP = 8; SAT = 6MSG = 8x (10-6) = 32%

32%

21%

12%

13%

11%

8%

35%

25%

16%

36%

ket Satisfaction Gaps are well below 30%, the

market is over-served, i.e. customers are content

with what they have today… except of course,

lower price. This is usually a splendid time to

kill the project and move on to another.

So what do you do if you have a B2B business

with relatively high Customer Foresight and/or

high Prototype Cost? Our advice: Don’t remove

anything from Lean Startup. Add to it using

B2B-optimized VOC.

In The Lean Startup, Eric Reis suggests four

important questions to ask of a team.2 (See page

11.) For most B2B situations, New Product

Blueprinting can help teams answer the first

three.

Lean Startup suggests following the scientific

method, in which hypotheses are tested. Good

advice, but where does the hypothesis come

from? Scientists must first skilfully study their

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com) 11

subject to formulate these hypotheses. Consider

using Blueprinting Discovery and Preference

interviews to study your subject—your custom-

ers. In a nutshell: For most B2B, use Blueprint-

ing VOC at the beginning of your Lean Startup

journey.

And do this VOC rapidly. We’ve been im-

pressed with both the specifics and spirit of

Lean Startup. Frankly, we’re learning from it.

Here’s one example of how Lean Startup think-

ing can accelerate your interviews: At the end of

each qualitative Discovery Interview, schedule

a web-conference Preference Interview. Our

clients have found web-conference interviews

to be highly effective, especially when they’ve

already met the customer face-to-face. Don’t

wait to schedule Preference interviews: Your

customers are usually in a helpful frame of

mind at the end of Discovery interviews. This

simple practice can remove several weeks from

4 Lean Startup Questions

Finding Answers with New Product Blueprinting

Do consumers recognize they have a problem

you are trying to solve?

Use divergent, qualitative Discovery interviews to uncover a full

range of customer outcomes. At the end of each interview, ask

for their “top picks”… to begin isolating which customer problems

to solve.

If there was a solution, would they buy it?

Use convergent, quantitative Preference interviews to gain an

unbiased, unfiltered view of any important, unsatisfied

outcomes… the only ones customers would be eager to see

improved.

Would they buy it from us?

Customers only pay premiums for products offering more than

their next best alternative. Uncover customer “test methods” in

Preference interviews so you can accurately test competing

alternatives.

Can we build a solution for that problem?

Blueprinting helps suppliers focus on the right questions… not

develop the answers. Most of this “solutions” work takes place

after Blueprinting… and is best done using Lean Startup

principles.

OUR ADVICE: DON’T REMOVE ANYTHING FROM LEAN STARTUP. ADD TO IT.

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com)12

your timeline in a market-facing project.

Here’s another way to “marry” Lean Startup

and Blueprinting. Imagine you’re ready to let

customers experience your product. Perhaps

your technology allows rapid creation of min-

imum viable products… or your technology is

already in an advanced state… or you simply

seek customer reaction to a concept drawing.

Try scheduling a two-part customer interview

on the same day. Tell the customer you’d like to

get their reaction to your technology, but before

you “taint” them with your ideas, you’d like to

hear their views. Have a “Part A” Discovery in-

terview, take a short break, and finish with “Part

B,” in which you get feedback on your design.

There are several advantages to Part A/Part B

meetings: 1) The customer appreciates being

listened to (in Part A) when they are in control.

2) Customer feedback in Part B is typically

richer because it can be linked to fundamental

outcomes discussed in Part A. 3) This promotes

superior products by wedding new design ele-

ments from Part A to the original Part B design.

We’ll close with these insights from The Lean

Startup by Eric Reis:

“A startup is a human institution designed

to create new products and services

under extreme uncertainty.3 The goal of

a startup is to figure out the right thing to

build—the thing customers want and will

pay for—as quickly as possible.4”

To this we would add: When it comes to B2B

customer needs, extreme uncertainty exists in

the minds of suppliers, not their customers. The

faster you move from your conference rooms

to customer interviews, the more rapidly you’ll

reduce this uncertainty. You can still hypothe-

size, build prototypes and iterate, but taking this

important initial step of discovery boosts your

likelihood of making the right product—even

faster and more profitably.

FOR B2B CUSTOMER NEEDS, EXTREME UNCERTAINTY EXISTS ONLY IN THE MINDS OF SUPPLIERS, NOT THEIR CUSTOMERS.

THE FASTER YOU MOVE FROM YOUR CONFERENCE ROOMS TO CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS, THE MORE RAPIDLY YOU’LL REDUCE THIS UNCERTAINTY.

© 2015 The AIM Institute (www.newproductblueprinting.com) 13

Learning MoreThe AIM Institute has created a science of B2B

customer insight, and refined it while working

primarily with Global 1000 companies since

2005. Thousands of practitioners worldwide

have learned practical New Product Blueprint-

ing tools through workshops and e-learning…

and now apply these methods using software,

job aids, and acquired skills.

Dan Adams

Dan is the Founder of The AIM Institute, and created New Product Blueprinting after working 29 years in B2B firms. A chemical engineer with many patents

and innovation awards, he’s listed in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He authored, New Product Blueprinting: The Handbook for B2B Organic Growth.

Dave Loomis

Dave has trained hundreds of Blueprinting learners annually in every region of the world and has also trained clients in AIM’s LaunchStar® product launch

methods. He has led marketing excellence at major corporations, taught MBA-level marketing and consulted on distribution channel strategy.

1 Eric Reis, The Lean Startup, p. 89.2 Ibid., p. 64.3 Ibid., p. 8.4 Ibid., p. 20.

Download the free e-book, Reinventing VOC for B2B

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