Idea / problem / customer
- Idea and real problem
- Primary customer and early adopter
- Customer context, journey and current alternatives
- Biggest assumptions
- Specific customer-learning actions before Session 2
← All idea support
Build, test, move
Take the idea further than a document.
Spend four focused weeks turning the idea into a clearer customer, offer, first version, real-world test and route towards your first users.
On this page
The question this answers
How do I move from this idea into a real-world test and start finding users or customers?
PROGRESSION
Have a credible route towards your first users.
Best for
This is likely the right level if...
- You actually want to build and test this.
- You want support across research, offer, testing and first users.
- You do not want another six months of thinking.
- You need structure and accountability while you move.
- You need help finding realistic people to test with.
What you get
- 4 structured working sessions
- Focused market/customer research
- Competitor analysis
- Customer definition
- Offer + pricing direction
- MVP definition
- Validation test
- Initial customer targets
- First-contact approach
- Business-model direction
- Selective network support where useful
- DEV First 10 Launch Map
- 30-day direction
Bounded research, commercial preparation, between-session actions, test support and initial acquisition planning. No unlimited founder access.
Four-week progression
Four sessions are the spine, not the whole value.
Research, practical actions and evidence-gathering carry the work between each session.
Market / competition / offer
- Competitor landscape
- Market signals and customer language
- Positioning and value proposition
- Offer and pricing direction
- What not to compete on
- Why somebody might care now
MVP / test / evidence
- Smallest credible thing worth testing
- Validation test
- What we expect to learn
- Success, change and stop signals
- Actual customer or market evidence where practical
First users / customers
- Who the first realistic people are
- Best initial channels
- Approximately 10 to 25 realistic targets where the model allows
- Initial message, customer question and offer language
- Feedback capture and follow-up logic without spam
Five areas of value
A concentrated period of commercial movement.
Thinking
Clarify the problem, customer and business.
Research
Market, competitors, customer language, pricing and evidence.
Build / test
Shape the offer, MVP and real-world validation.
First users
Identify and approach realistic early users or customers.
Network
Where appropriate, use Devon's connections to shorten the route to useful people.
Build / test
Define the smallest credible thing worth testing.
Manual servicePrototypeLanding pageWaitlistNo-code MVPConcierge serviceDigital productCommunityPre-orderDemoPilot
First users
Build a realistic initial route.
Approximately 10 to 25 realistic initial targets, depending on the business model.
Warm networkLinkedInEmailCambridge ecosystemLocal communitiesRelevant online communitiesUniversitiesIndustry networksPartnersExisting relationships
Selective network support
You do not necessarily have to start from zero.
Where there is a genuine fit, the work may identify potential network routes or relevant introductions to explore. That could include someone who can challenge the idea, a possible early user, another founder, a useful specialist or an operator already working in the space.
Introductions are selective and made where they genuinely make sense. They are not guaranteed as part of the Sprint.
- Useful feedback
- Potential early user or customer
- Another founder or operator
- Relevant specialist
- Industry or problem-space connection
- Potential collaborator or partner
- Entrepreneurship, technology, university or Cambridge ecosystem connection
Business model
Keep the economics grounded.
- How money enters
- Pricing
- Delivery cost
- Margin
- What is manual first
- What can later automate
- Customer acquisition
- Repeatability
Bounded test support
- Prepare outreach messages
- Create customer interview questions
- Review initial responses
- Interpret feedback
- Adjust offer language
- Decide whether evidence warrants changing course
What you actually receive
DEV First 10 Launch Map
A substantial practical output built for action, not more notes.
It joins the customer foundation, live offer test, first-user route and 30-day movement plan in one practical working map.
DEV
PROGRESSIONIllustrative example
LAUNCH MOVEMENT
DEV First 10 Launch Map
SiteSignal
Business + customer
Progress is happening, but client proof is fragmented.
Owner-led fit-out firms with several active sites.
Operations lead already rebuilding updates by hand.
“I need the client to see movement without chasing the team.”
Offer + live test
A client-ready Friday brief made from the team’s existing notes.
Secure intake, manual assembly and a branded PDF.
Three paid two-week pilots. Measure time saved, material shared and repeat intent.
Whether voice notes reduce friction and clients value risks beside progress.
First-user route
12 owner-led fit-out firms, 5 project leads and 3 facilities partners.
Lead with the Friday reporting problem. Offer to make one real example.
Relevant construction founders and local operator communities to explore.
20 conversations → 5 samples → 3 pilots → evidence review.
WEEK 1
ListenWEEK 2
OfferWEEK 3
PilotWEEK 4
Decide
ListenWEEK 2
OfferWEEK 3
PilotWEEK 4
Decide
Customer foundationTHE PROBLEMLive testVALIDATION TESTNext 30 daysNEXT 30 DAYS
You should leave knowing
The next move should be clearer than the starting point.
- Defined customer
- Clearer problem and offer
- Pricing direction
- Testable first version
- Real market or customer learning where practical
- Initial user or customer targets
- Contact approach
- Route towards initial users or customers
- Potential useful network routes where appropriate
- 30-day direction
The goal is not 10,000 users. It is finding a small number of real people who care enough to engage with what you are creating. The Sprint builds a route towards those first ten. First ten users or customers are a target, not a guarantee.
DEV Idea to First 10 Sprint
Have a credible route towards your first users.
15 minutes to understand what you are working through and whether DEV can actually help.