Forum Ventures Playbook: Customer-Driven Product Development

Building a product isn’t just about features — it’s about deeply understanding your customers, validating assumptions quickly, and recognizing when you’ve hit product-market fit.

This playbook distills lessons from Armand Mignot (CEO & Co-founder, Ready) and Neil Sarraf (Managing Director, Forum Ventures) on how to take your idea from zero to one with a customer-first approach.

Step 1. Understand Product-Market Fit Archetypes

Here are Armand Mignot’s three archetypes for reaching product-market fit:

1. Hair on Fire – Competitive market, your product must be differentiated (not just better).
   
   
2. Hard Facts – Challenging the status quo and upending existing assumptions.
   
   
3. Future Vision – Creating a new category customers didn’t know they needed.
   
   

👉 Action: Identify which archetype best fits your startup. This will shape how you approach discovery, prototyping, and adoption.

Step 2. Run Effective Customer Discovery

Before outreach:

• Write a clear hypothesis of who you believe your customer is.

• Begin by targeting people who directly experience the problem (e.g., CFOs, Chief People Officers)

• Start with warm introductions before attempting cold outreach

• Position conversations as learning opportunities rather than sales pitches

• Use specific questions in outreach to make it clear what you want to discuss

• Expect to need 10-15 conversations before patterns emerge

In conversations:

• Ask open-ended questions about where problems show up in their workflow (workflow, workarounds, costs of not solving the problem).

• Uncover current workarounds and solutions they've cobbled together

• Determine costs (time, money, morale) of not solving the problem

• Document feedback systematically using templates (like Notion)

• Position yourself as learning, not selling.

• Expect 10–15 conversations before seeing patterns.

👉 Use this Customer Discovery Template in Notion to log contacts, companies, and feedback systematically.

Step 3. Prototype Quickly (Don’t Overbuild)

A prototype is not an MVP. It’s more basic – just enough to validate direction.  Consider what type of prototype fits your validation needs:

• Simple frontend for complex products (Armand's approach for Ready) to test usability

• Landing pages to test willingness to pay

• Wireframes or even PowerPoint mockups to test concepts

Rules of thumb:

• Set strict timeboxes (e.g., one week) to avoid overthinking

• Cut features until it feels almost “embarrassingly simple.”

• Focus on solving one core problem extremely well

Step 4. Spot Signals of Product-Market Fit

Look for behavioral cues more than verbal feedback like "this is cool" or "that's nice." Key signals that indicate you're achieving product-market fit:

• Customers want access before it’s ready.

• They share your prototype internally.

• They introduce you to colleagues or other potential customers.

• They giving you more time or follow-up questions

• The ultimate sign: customers asking to pay for your product

Signals of “pull” usually show up as:

• Time (spending more time with you).
  
  
• Access (opening their network).
  
  
• Money (willingness to pay).
  
  

Step 5. Document and Iterate

• Create a structured template for discovery calls to ensure consistent questioning
  
  
• Centralize feedback in one workspace (Notion’s linked databases are ideal).
  
  
• Establish clear personas before beginning outreach

• Revisit personas regularly if signals aren’t consistent

• Time-box prototype development to avoid overthinking or overbuilding

• Look for signs of customer "pull" through time, access, and money

• Consider attending industry conferences to meet potential customers in person

• Plan for 9-15 touchpoints before expecting responses from cold outreach

• Keep discovery ongoing — even post-launch.
  
  

Step 6. Fundraising Considerations

• Keep casual investor conversations going before you need to raise.
  
  
• Share progress updates to build long-term trust.
  
  
• Raise when you’ve validated PMF and need capital to accelerate hiring or growth.
  
  

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