Recently, I was assembling a cabinet at home and once again sadly recalled the instructions from the departed IKEA, and at the same time, an interesting story came to mind. Everyone was surprised to hear that a furniture designer at the Swedish company first determines the cost and only then starts creating the product to fit that cost. I was also surprised along with everyone else, but not because they do it at IKEA, but because it causes surprise, meaning it's not done everywhere. Of course, this is a simplified anecdote, and the designer doesn't just get a price written on a sticker, but a full set of research where price is key, but it also includes audience requests, product type, consumer profile, usage scenarios, etc. The designer gets acquainted with this and then designs the product.

What is this, if not the first stages of CusDev? Corporate specialists do everything right - first they define the problem, then they try to solve it, not the other way around. By the way, IKEA also releases MVPs, tests them, and continuously improves them. All the thoughtfulness we love in their products is born not immediately, but after the product-market fit is found, they end up on store shelves worldwide for many years.

So let's take this on board and check today - have we already defined the problem and made a thick folder like for an IKEA designer, or did we start making a product without it?