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Mastering the Customer Discovery Process with Shelby Stephens of GrowthMatch

Shelby Stephens

Navigating the complexities of building a business requires more than intuition—it demands a strategic approach to understanding your customers. Shelby Stephens, the CEO of GrowthMatch, emphasizes the significance of customer discovery in guiding companies through pivots, product design, and sustainable growth. In this post, we explore the process Shelby and his team developed to ensure businesses create products customers not only need but are willing to pay for.

 

The Evolution of GrowthMatch: From Service to Software


GrowthMatch began as a productized service focused on helping B2B companies extract valuable knowledge from their internal experts and transform it into high-quality content. Shelby explains that this initial version emerged from months of customer discovery:


“We designed GrowthMatch as a service first, not a product. We thought of it like a software product with hook and retention features, but built it as a service model. That way, we could validate customer demand without heavy up-front development.”

 




Over time, this process provided essential insights that informed the shift toward developing a software product, demonstrating how deeply understanding customer needs can shape business strategy.

Why Customer Discovery is Essential


Shelby’s experience highlights that challenges in sales, marketing, and product development often trace back to one core issue: a lack of understanding of the customer. He stresses:


“If your customer doesn’t currently pay to solve the problem you aim to address, it’s going to be hard to convince them to start.”

 


This insight came from a previous venture where the team misjudged the demand for a freelancer management system. The takeaway? Even customers who complain about their existing solutions may not be willing to pay for a new one if they aren’t already investing in solving the problem.


Two Key Stages of the Customer Discovery Process


Shelby outlines a two-stage approach to customer discovery, ensuring businesses align their solutions with market needs.


1. Validate the Customer Problem

  • Create a Need Narrative: A document describing who the customer is, what problems they face, and what outcomes they desire.

  • Conduct Customer Interviews: Collect feedback to refine the narrative. Look for enthusiastic validation—if customers aren’t nodding or asking for more information, it’s time to iterate.


Shelby advises focusing on customers who are either enthusiastic or have some level of affinity for your product:


“You can ignore the ones who don’t love you. Focus on the ones who at least kind of love you.”

 




2. Validate the Solution and Pricing

  • Develop a Solution Statement: Describe the core features and benefits of the solution.

  • Get Feedback: Conduct interviews to confirm the solution resonates and elicit early buying behavior—such as requests for pricing details or demo access.


Shelby emphasizes the importance of gathering factual evidence of customer intent to pay:


“If they aren’t already spending money to solve the problem, that’s a red flag.”

 




Aligning with Customers to Drive Growth


Shelby believes that businesses thrive when they build customer discovery into their operations:


“Once you know your customers, every other decision—marketing, product, even pricing—becomes easier.”

 




At GrowthMatch, this focus has enabled the team to maintain agility through pivots, such as transitioning from service offerings to software products. Their process helps companies continuously collect and analyze customer feedback, creating a feedback loop that informs future strategies.


Conclusion: A Continuous Process of Discovery


The success of GrowthMatch reflects Shelby’s commitment to keeping customers at the center of business decisions. His advice to entrepreneurs emphasizes the value of continuous learning and iteration:


“Your most important task as a founder is to study your customer. Do that right, and every other challenge becomes more manageable.”

 




For founders and marketing leaders, mastering the customer discovery process is not just a launch strategy—it’s a sustainable practice that ensures long-term success.

 





Interested in learning more about GrowthMatch’s approach to content creation and customer discovery? Stay connected with Shelby Stephens or schedule a call to learn more about GrowthMatch.


 










 




 







 








 






 
Shelby Stephens

Shelby Stephens

Shelby is a techstars alum, a mentor for several accelerator programs, and is the founder & CEO of GrowthMatch where he helps B2B companies hire fractional growth teams.