Steps 01–02 · Customer
Know the Customer. Find the Real Pain.
Understand who does the work and who decides — then find where the work is hard, and confirm it with the customer.
Step 01
Understand the Customer
Understand who performs the work, who experiences the problem and who can influence or approve a purchase.
CustomerBengaluru Aerospace / Defence MSME
Approves the purchase
Business Owner
The Owner or Managing Director decides whether to spend. Cares about delivery, customers, cash — and whether the team will actually use a new tool.
Do
- Start with Bengaluru Aerospace & Defence MSMEs that make parts to drawings.
- Learn what the Business Owner, Quality Head, Quality Engineer and Manufacturing / Operations Head each do.
- Note where an Engineering Head is involved too.
- Separate who does the work, who feels the problem and who approves a purchase.
Avoid
- Don't call every aerospace company a target customer.
- Don't assume they need our software.
ResultA clear picture of the customer and the people inside it.
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Market mapping
Grouping organisations by what they do, from public sources.
Categories before companies · Sources and dates · No private data
Segmentation
Groups that share a problem, a buying process and a way to be reached.
Observable criteria · Findable in public data · Few, clear segments
Ideal Customer Profile
The accounts most likely to have the problem, value the solution and buy.
Signals and disqualifiers · Tiers focus effort · Versioned with evidence
Buyer personas
Roles in the decision: user, champion, evaluator, decider, economic buyer, gatekeeper.
Roles, not titles · Cares and fears · Who enters when
Step 02
Find the Pain
Map the customer's FAI workflow and find where effort, rework or delay may happen — then validate it.
01 / 07 · Drawing
- What happens here?
- The customer's engineering drawing arrives — for a new part or a revised one.
- What should we ask?
- What happens when a new or revised drawing arrives?
- How often do drawings change?
- What pain might exist?
- A revision may force earlier work to be redone.Hypothesis — Validate with Customer
Do
- Map the workflow: Drawing → Characteristics → Ballooning → Inspection → FAI Report → Review → Approval.
- Mark who performs each step.
- Write each possible pain as a hypothesis, not a fact.
- Plan how a customer could confirm or reject each one.
Ask
- How do you do this today?
- Who performs each step?
- How much time does it take?
- Where does rework happen?
- Where can errors happen?
- What happens when the FAI is delayed?
- What is most frustrating?
- What requires the most manual effort?
Avoid
- Don't assume the pain. Validate it.
- Don't criticise their current process.
Result3–5 pain hypotheses, each with a way to test it.
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The evidence ladder
How sure are we? Every claim starts as an assumption and moves up only with evidence.
- AssumptionBelieved but not validated.
- ResearchSupported by secondary research.
- Customer ValidatedConfirmed through customer conversation.
- Pilot ValidatedMeasured in an agreed evaluation or pilot.
- Commercial ProofSupported by a purchase, paid pilot, renewal or contracted outcome.
Pain hypotheses
Specific, testable statements of who suffers what, when and how often.
Proof and disproof conditions · Start at Assumption · Rank by cost if true