Customer Discovery Journey

One of the biggest lessons startups often learn the hard way is the importance of understanding users before investing huge resources into building a product.

Customer Discovery is a process through which potential customers, their problems, and needs are identified, before significant effort and money are invested in building the product. This process is part of a broader methodology known as Customer Development, developed by Steve Blank, one of the pioneers of the lean startup approach. Its goal is to help startups systematically test and validate their ideas to increase the chances of achieving product-market fit.

SignAvatar is a Serbian AI startup that enables more inclusive communication with deaf people. Their solutions are already used by large corporations and institutions, and the team has repeatedly revised and improved the customer development process - and now they are finally seeing concrete results.

Early challenges

"We thought we were doing customer discovery, but in reality, we weren't. We had a series of assumptions about users and customers that we didn't examine nearly enough," says Đorđe, founder of SignAvatar.

Their original strategy relied on talking to 5 to 10 people in Serbia - too few to draw valid conclusions, especially for the global market they are targeting. The next step was to expand to 30 interlocutors, but they realized that the questions were not well conceived, and the group was still too small. The funnel was poorly laid out, and the feedback was unclear.

When they found themselves in a situation where they did not know how to make key decisions because they lacked sufficient knowledge about customers and users, they decided to focus on this process radically. Instead of dozens of conversations, they started aiming for hundreds and thousands. They sent 100 times more inquiries, opened up channels they hadn't used before, and adjusted the way they asked questions. They spoke to more than 100 potential users, and the results quickly became visible.

From assumptions to data

SignAvatar started with the assumption that its product solves a relevant problem for customers. However, the reality was different. They gave contradictory answers, and the team didn't know if they were a deep tech company or a classic SaaS product.

The real turning point happened when they spent three months in San Francisco and adopted the mindset that the startup ecosystem there implies: If you sent 10 emails today, what would happen if you sent 500?

"The biggest mistake we made was that we didn't have a clear process for quickly collecting and analyzing feedback," says Djordje. "Now we test everything immediately - we either confirm the assumption or reject it as quickly as possible."

They used all possible channels - from cold outreach campaigns to targeted surveys and incentivized conversations. Data speed and volume proved to be the key.

Results

When they put customer discovery on a firmer footing, the situation changed drastically."Before, we didn't have inbound clients. Now we have three in the pipeline and we know exactly which market we are targeting," Đorđe reveals. Now they don't work by gut feeling - they work by data. They are in constant contact with the target group, monitor metrics, iterate faster than ever before, and adapt the product to the real needs of users.

SignAvatar's experience holds valuable lessons for any startup looking to find product-market fit:

• Customer Discovery is not a one-time task - it is a continuous process.

• The number of conversations is key - more insight into user challenges and customer needs leads to more accurate conclusions.

• Assumptions are dangerous - every hypothesis must be tested.

• Speed brings advantage - the key is a quick cycle of testing and adapting.

"The biggest problem was that we didn't know which way to think - pivot or iterate? Now, with clear data, we know exactly how to make decisions that move us forward."

At Garaža, we often see startups struggling with the same challenges, and that's exactly why we share these insights - so others can find their product-market fit faster and avoid costly mistakes.