You process your customer data differently depending on market type.

I talk about this in my book and there is always a discussion at the Lean Startup Group at http://groups.google.com/group/lean-startup-circle.

steve

Common answers are: (a) talk to the customer to establish the facts, and/or (b) particularly in the Consumer Digital space, ship the first version of the product to see customer response.

But.. (a) does the customer always know she needs something. Did we know that we needed twitter.. or google?, and (b) if the first version fails to receive good response, is that fact enough that the product need not exist? Are there times when the first version was rejected through-and-through, but later versions succeeded, either because the later versions were built much better or because the customer grew or both?

In this light, can we always trust facts, particularly for new-market products?

Please respond with insights from your entrepreneurial experiences. The last thing I want is for new entrepreneurs to read my comment and get dismayed about the importance of facts.