077: Using Prospective Customers to Develop a Product
West Stringfellow, former Head of Product at Amazon and Executive at Target, PayPal, and Visa, explains how to use prospective customers to develop products through his platform HowDo. He advocates for deep qualitative research and open-ended questioning to remove founder bias and identify true customer needs before building. Stringfellow emphasizes that customer validation is an ongoing process that continues through launch, ensuring product-market fit and efficient marketing. He shares examples from his time at Amazon and Target, highlighting how iterative testing with real users leads to better design decisions and stronger brand loyalty.