1. Stanford
Engineering
E245
–
The
Lean
LaunchPad
Team
Agora
-­
Customer
Discovery
Questionnaire
General
Customer
Discovery
Questioning
principles
Ask
open-­ended
questions:
• Tell
me
more
about…
• What
do
you
mean…
• How
so…
• Why
is
that…
• What
are
your
thoughts
on…
• Elaborate
more
on…
• Give
me
some
examples…
• Say
more
about…
Then
follow
up
by
asking
about:
▪ Impact
–
what’s
the
impact
of…
▪ Examples
–
What
would
be
some
examples
of…
Quantifying
questions:
▪ How
would
you
quantify…
(e.g.
ease
of
use
-­‐
if
customer
says
ease
of
use
is
important)
▪ How
did
you
come
up
with…
▪ How
would
you
measure…
▪ What
was
your
thinking
behind…
▪ What
was
their
thinking
behind…
Only
ask
one
question
at
a
time.
Stanford
Lean
LaunchPad
Team
Agora
–
Customer
Discovery
Questions
Page
1
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1

2. Questions
for
Buyers
in
Startups
Things
we
want
to
find
out
▪ How
much
do
you
spend
on
cloud
infrastructure
per
month?
▪ How
fast
is
the
expense
growing?
▪ Have
you
thought
of
optimizing
it?
If
so,
what
have
you
tried?
If
not,
why
not?
▪ Why
did
you
choose
your
current
cloud
infrastructure
provider?
What
are
the
main
factors
in
your
decision
making
process
when
choosing
a
cloud
infrastructure
provider?
How
easy
is
it
to
evaluate
and
purchase
cloud
services?
▪ How
does
the
purchase
process
work?
Who
is
the
end
user?
Who
is
needs
to
approve
the
decision?
Where
does
funding
come
from?
▪ How
is
your
experience
working
with
your
cloud
service
provider?
Is
there
a
single
point
of
contact
for
all
your
needs?
Are
you
happy
with
their
service?
What
would
it
take
(i.e.how
much
savings)
for
you
to
consider
switching
to
a
different
provider?
▪ How
are
the
service
priced?
What
is
the
unit
of
trade?
How
much
capacity
did
you
purchase?
How
much
did
you
end
up
using?
Did
you
overbought?
Specific
questions
to
ask
▪ Tell
me
about
how
you
use
cloud
infrastructure
in
your
business.
▪ Could
you
give
me
an
example
on
how
you
handle
demand
variability?
▪ How
do
you
manage
the
infrastructure
cost?
Stanford
Lean
LaunchPad
Team
Agora
–
Customer
Discovery
Questions
Page
2
of
2

3. Questions
for
Buyers
in
Established
businesses
Things
we
want
to
find
out
▪ What’s
your
IT
strategy
regarding
cloud
infrastructure?
Are
you
using
it
in
any
way
today
–
as
a
pilot
or
for
production?
▪ What
are
your
frustrations
or
concerns
with
cloud
infrastructure,
if
any?
▪ How
do
you
manage
your
cloud
infrastructure?
▪ Are
there
any
tools
that
you
have
built
in-­‐house?
▪ How
does
the
purchase
process
work?
Who
is
the
end
user?
Who
is
needs
to
approve
the
decision?
Where
does
funding
come
from?
▪ What
are
your
cloud
infrastructure
goals
for
2011?
Specific
questions
to
ask
▪ If
they
are
already
using
cloud
infr,
ask
the
following:
▪ Tell
me
about
how
you
use
cloud
infrastructure
in
your
business.
▪ Could
you
give
me
an
example
on
how
you
handle
demand
variability?
▪ How
do
you
manage
the
infrastructure
cost?
▪ If
not,
ask:
▪ What’s
your
IT
strategy
regarding
cloud
infrastructure?
▪ What
impact
do
you
expect
it
to
have
on
your
business?
▪ Tell
me
about
any
concerns
you
have
around
adopting
cloud
infrastructure.
Questions
for
General
Buyers
▪ If
there’s
an
online
market
for
you
to
procure
cloud
infrastructure
services
from
multiple
vendors
to
reduce
cost,
and
you
can
seamlessly
move
your
workload
across
different
clouds,
would
you
use
it?
What
value
do
you
see
in
such
a
market?
What
else?
▪ How
are
cost-­‐saving
projects
justified
in
your
organization?
Stanford
Lean
LaunchPad
Team
Agora
–
Customer
Discovery
Questions
Page
3
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3

4. Questions
for
Sellers
–
Public
clouds
Things
we
want
to
find
out
▪ How
much
does
utilization
vary
(peak
to
trough)?
▪ How
do
you
respond
to
variability
in
demand?
▪ What
do
you
do
with
unused
capacity?
▪ Would
you
consider
a
solution
that
helps
you
sell
unused
capacity,
and
you
pay
only
if
there’s
a
sale?
Why
or
why
not?
▪ If
such
a
solution
works
for
you,
could
you
consider
using
it
for
more
than
just
selling
unused
capacity?
e.g.
use
it
to
drive
additional
customers
to
your
cloud?
▪ Do
you
have
a
direct
salesforce
to
sell
your
cloud
service?
Would
you
consider
doing
sales
thru
other
channels
such
as
selling
them
on
an
exchange?
▪ Who
would
have
authority
to
sell
the
capacity?
How
are
they
compensated?
What
are
their
goals
in
their
job?
What
issues
are
top
of
mind
for
them?
Specific
questions
to
ask
▪ How
do
you
create
demand
for
your
service?
▪ How
do
you
handle
demand
variability?
▪ How
do
you
determine
how
fast
to
scale
your
supply?
General
Seller
Test
Questions
▪ If
there’s
an
online
market
for
you
to
sell
unused
capacities,
would
you
use
it?
What
value
do
you
see
in
such
a
market?
What
else?
▪ How
are
projects
like
this
move
ahead
in
your
organization?
Sellers
–
private
clouds
Things
we
want
to
find
out
• Why
did
you
decide
to
build
a
private
cloud?
• What
are
your
top
3
challenges
in
building
and
managing
your
private
cloud?
• What’s
the
model
you
use
to
plan
your
resources
needs
(e.g.
a
multiple
of
current
Stanford
Lean
LaunchPad
Team
Agora
–
Customer
Discovery
Questions
Page
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4

5. production
load
with
a
X%
of
buffer)?
How
much
buffer
do
you
usually
allocate
to
account
for
your
computation
needs?
How
much
unused
resources
do
you
current
have
in
your
cloud?
• How
much
does
utilization
vary
(peak
to
trough)?
• If
there’s
a
mechanism
to
monetize
your
unused
compute
capacity
to
offset
your
infrastructure
cost,
would
you
consider
it?
Why
or
why
not?
• Would
there
be
additional
cost
to
operate
these
unused
compute
capacity?
If
so,
how
significant
are
they?
• Would
you
be
willing
to
lend
your
infrastructure
for
3rd
party
usage?
Would
there
be
any
security
concern?
Specific
questions
to
ask
• Why
private
cloud?
How
do
you
scale
and
manage
the
cloud?
• How
do
you
manage
infrastructure
cost?
• How
are
cost-­‐saving
projects
justified?
Questions
for
Technology
Partners
▪ What’s
your
go-­‐to-­‐market
strategy?
▪ Tell
me
about
your
sales
model.
▪ Do
you
see
any
benefits
to
partner
with
a
marketplace
exchange
that
leverages
your
technology
Stanford
Lean
LaunchPad
Team
Agora
–
Customer
Discovery
Questions
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