... / Launch Beaufort / Week 2 — Ideation & Customer Discovery

Welcome to Week 2! Now that you’ve built a foundation of mindset and project management, it’s time to dive into ideation — the process of generating, refining, and selecting business ideas — and customer discovery, which ensures your ideas solve real-world problems.

Too often, entrepreneurs fall in love with their idea without asking the critical question: “Does anyone actually want this?” Customer discovery is how you test assumptions, validate demand, and learn directly from the people you hope to serve. It prevents wasted time and money on products no one buys.

This week, you’ll learn practical methods to brainstorm ideas, filter them through problem-solving criteria, and design simple discovery tools like online surveys to gather real feedback. We’ll introduce digital platforms such as Google Forms, Typeform, and SurveyMonkey, which make it easy to reach potential customers and collect insights.

By the end of this week, you will:

• Understand key techniques for generating and refining ideas.
• Learn how to craft discovery questions that uncover customer needs.
• Build and share your first customer survey using a digital tool.
• Analyze early responses to spot trends, problems, and opportunities.

Remember: great businesses don’t start with perfect products; they start with clear problems.

When most people think of entrepreneurship, they think of “the big idea.” But the truth is, successful businesses rarely come from a single flash of genius. They come from structured creativity — intentionally generating many possible solutions, then carefully narrowing them down to the ones most worth pursuing.

Ideation is not about waiting for inspiration to strike in the shower. It’s about deliberately creating the conditions for ideas to emerge, evaluating them against real-world needs, and developing them into actionable opportunities.

Sources of Great Business Ideas:

1. Brainstorming Sessions

Set a timer (10–15 minutes) and write down as many ideas as possible — no matter how silly. The goal is quantity before quality. The wilder, the better. Out of 50 bad ideas may come one brilliant one.

• Pro tip: Use prompts like “How might I solve [problem] differently?”

2. Mind Mapping

Start with a central problem in the middle of a page (e.g., “Healthy eating”). Branch outward with possible causes, solutions, and related industries (meal kits, grocery apps, nutrition coaching). This process helps uncover less obvious connections.

3. SCAMPER Technique

A structured framework for rethinking existing products:

• Substitute – Replace one element (e.g., substitute meat with plant-based protein).

• Combine – Merge features (e.g., combine exercise equipment with a subscription app).

• Adapt – Adjust something to a new context (e.g., adapt food trucks for mobile bookstores).

• Modify – Enhance or exaggerate a feature (e.g., super-sized water bottles for athletes).

• Put to other use – Repurpose a product (e.g., shipping containers turned into homes).

• Eliminate – Remove unnecessary features (e.g., simplified phones for seniors).

• Reverse – Flip the process (e.g., instead of going to a laundromat, have laundry picked up and delivered).

• Without structured ideation, entrepreneurs risk chasing their first idea blindly, even if it’s weak.

• Structured creativity ensures you generate multiple pathways and can evaluate them based on customer needs, feasibility, and potential for impact.

• A strong ideation process lays the foundation for customer discovery, which we’ll dive into next.

Customer discovery is one of the most critical steps in entrepreneurship — yet it’s often skipped. Too many founders assume they already know what customers want, only to spend months (or years) building something no one actually buys.

At its core, customer discovery is not about selling your idea. It’s about listening, observing, and learning from the people you hope to serve. The goal is to test your assumptions about the problem, the customer, and the solution before you invest heavily in building.

Think of it as detective work: you’re gathering clues to understand your customer’s real needs, motivations, and frustrations.

1.​ Ask Open-Ended Questions​

The way you frame questions determines the quality of answers you get. Closed or leading questions (e.g., “Would you buy my app?”) often produce shallow answers. Instead, open-ended questions invite stories, details, and insights.​

○​ Example: “What’s the hardest part about managing your household budget?”​

○​ This type of question reveals frustrations and unmet needs you may not have considered.​

2.​ Listen for Pain Points, Not Just Desires​

Customers may say they want certain features, but their true needs are revealed through frustrations and obstacles. Pain points often highlight what customers are actively trying (and sometimes failing) to solve.​

○​ Example: If people complain about long checkout lines, the pain point isn’t just “wanting faster service” — it’s about wasted time, which is a deeper motivator.​

3.​ Don’t Lead Customers Toward Your Solution​

A common trap is to ask questions that validate what you already believe. (“Wouldn’t it be great if there was an app that did XYZ?”) This biases the customer and prevents you from hearing the truth. Instead, focus on their reality and let insights guide your solution.​

○​ Example: Instead of asking, “Would you use a new meal-delivery app?” try:​

“Tell me about the last time you ordered food. What went well? What was frustrating?”​

○​ The second question uncovers behaviors, not hypothetical opinions.​

The Customer Discovery Mindset

Approach discovery as a learner, not a salesperson. Your goal is to understand the customer’s world, not to pitch your product. This requires humility and curiosity.

Do:

●​ Listen more than you talk.​

●​ Take notes or record (with permission).​

●​ Ask follow-up questions: “Can you tell me more about that?”​

Don’t:

●​ Argue with customers if they don’t like your idea.​

●​ Treat interviews as sales calls.​

●​ Overpromise what you can deliver.​

This week, set a goal to interview five people who could be your potential customers. Ask open-ended questions like:

●​ “What’s the biggest challenge you face with [problem]?”​

●​ “How do you currently try to solve it?”​

●​ “What frustrates you about the solutions you use now?”​

At the end of five conversations, review your notes and look for patterns. Are frustrations consistent? Do people describe the same pain points? These patterns will guide the refinement of your idea.

While one-on-one interviews provide deep, personal insights, surveys allow you to gather broader data from a larger group. When designed well, a discovery survey can confirm patterns, quantify behaviors, and help you see whether customer frustrations are widespread or isolated.

Surveys are especially powerful in the early stage of entrepreneurship because they’re quick, low-cost, and scalable. But here’s the key: a poorly designed survey can produce misleading results. To be effective, your survey must be short, focused, and crystal clear.

What Makes a Good Discovery Survey?

● Multiple Choice → Useful for identifying demographics or behaviors.

Example: “How often do you order takeout each week?”​

● Likert Scale (1–5 or 1–7) → Measures intensity or frequency.

Example: “On a scale of 1–5, how satisfied are you with your current coffee shop options?”​

● Open-Ended → Provides richer, qualitative insights.​

Example: “What is the biggest frustration you have when ordering coffee?”

1. How often do you buy coffee outside your home each week?​

2. Where do you usually buy coffee?​

3. On a scale of 1–5, how satisfied are you with your current coffee options?

4. What frustrates you most about your current coffee experience?

5. How much would you typically spend per visit?

6. What would make you switch to a new café?

This short survey gives you both quantitative data (frequency, spending, satisfaction level) and qualitative insights (frustrations, motivators).

● Start small. Share with 10–20 people to test clarity before scaling up.

● Distribute widely. Use social media groups, community boards, LinkedIn, or local Facebook groups. Avoid relying only on friends and family, as they may give biased answers.

● Analyze patterns. Look for recurring frustrations or consistent spending behaviors. These patterns guide your product or service design.

● Pick one customer problem your business aims to solve.

● Write 7 clear, unbiased questions (mix multiple choice, Likert scale, and open-ended).

● Share the survey with at least 10 potential customers this week.

At the end, review responses and ask:

● Are frustrations consistent?

●Are people already paying for alternatives?

● What would motivate them to switch?

Ideation and customer discovery are powerful tools — but only if you approach them with the right mindset. Many early-stage entrepreneurs unknowingly sabotage the process by making common mistakes that distort their insights and lead them down the wrong path. Recognizing these pitfalls early will help you gather accurate, actionable data and avoid wasting months (or years) building something no one truly needs.

Ideation and discovery are not about proving you’re right — they’re about learning the truth. The entrepreneurs who succeed are those willing to let go of their first idea, ask unbiased questions, seek objective feedback, and act on what the data actually says.

Collecting interviews and survey data is only the first step. The real value of customer discovery lies in what you do with the information. Too many founders stop at gathering feedback but never translate it into action. This step — turning insights into direction — is what transforms raw data into a strategy for your business.

Customer discovery is not about gathering endless data — it’s about making decisions. Patterns reveal priorities, willingness to pay confirms value, and frustrations point to opportunities. By translating insights into clear experiments, you set yourself up to build a business grounded in customer reality, not assumptions.

Google Forms & Typeform

Surveys are only as good as the tools you use to deliver them. Two of the most effective (and beginner-friendly) platforms for early entrepreneurs are Google Forms and Typeform. Both allow you to design professional surveys quickly, share them widely, and gather real data that can shape your business idea.

Google Forms is an excellent choice if you want a no-frills, straightforward survey tool. It’s free, easy to set up, and integrates directly with Google Sheets for instant analysis.

How to get started: 1.​ Go to forms.google.com.​

2.​ Create a new form and title it Customer Discovery Survey.​

3.​ Add a mix of multiple-choice, scale, and open-ended questions (e.g., frequency of purchase, satisfaction level, frustrations).​

4.​ Customize the confirmation message to thank respondents for their time.​

5.​ Share the link via email, WhatsApp, or social media channels.​

6.​ View results in real time — responses automatically collect in a linked Google Sheet.​

Best for: quick surveys, fast data collection, and simple reporting.

Typeform is designed to make surveys feel more like conversations than forms. Its sleek design and one-question-at-a-time format keep respondents engaged.

How to get started:

1.​ Sign up at typeform.com.​

2.​ Choose the Survey template.​

3.​ Add conversational questions one at a time.​

4.​ Use branching logic (e.g., “If they answer A, show Question 5; if B, skip to Question 7”).​

5.​ Embed the survey directly on your website or landing page to increase reach.​

Pro tip: Pair Typeform with AI. For example, ask ChatGPT: “Generate 7 unbiased customer discovery survey questions for people who eat out 3+ times a week.” Copy, refine, and paste them into your form.

Best for: creating engaging, professional-looking surveys that feel personal.

Final Tip No matter which tool you choose, keep surveys short — ideally 5–7 minutes max.

Shorter surveys = higher completion rates.