Today I went to a pet shop, to get some aquarium plants for my fish tank. I've gone to other pet shops in the past but I always found it hard to get everything (fish, tank, sand, plants) from one shop. But this one was different, they had fishes, plants, drift wood, pebbles, fish food, and everything else you might need to setup an aquarium. This owner had thought about everything a fish owner might need to setup and aquarium.
That is in stark difference with some of the entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who did not think it worthwhile to research and understand their customer cohort. "Understanding the customer" is something that gets thrown around a lot and because of the frequent use of the term, the real meaning of it is understood. Because it is frequently used, anyone hearing it doesn't stop to think what it means or even try to apply it deliberately to their business.
Understanding the customer is to first understand what cohort of people is the business serving. No business serves the needs of all the humans in the world (8 billion). Just pause and think about that, do you think there is any business that serves all humans (babies, adults, elderly, educated, uneducated, men, women, city-dwelling, village folks... etc.. you can slice the human group in to a large number of cohorts). Entrepreneurs need to know what slice of the human population pie might need that entrepreneur's business. That is the first step one needs to think about. Everything else (unique value, investment, product design, features, vision, mission...) comes after that.
The moment one understands the cohort, everything becomes relatively easier. That one constraint narrows down your field of vision enough to now focus on the details about MVP, investment, differentiators, GTM, etc.
Once you understand the customer cohort you are targeting, then you can go deep into understanding the customer problem. That is a post for another day.