Building a Company with Customer Data – Why Metrics Are Not Enough « Steve Blank

Gathering real-world feedback from customers is a core concept of Customer Development as well as the Lean Startup. But what information to collect?

Only 57 Questions
Yesterday I got an email from an ex-student lamenting that only 2% of their selected early testers responded to their on-line survey. The survey said in part:

The survey has 57 questions, the last three of which are open ended, and should take about 20 minutes to complete.  Please note that you must complete the entire survey once you begin.  You cannot stop along the way and have your responses to that point saved.

This is a good post about how just collecting data isn’t enough. At some point you really have to directly connect with customers.