Cristy Salanga
17Feb

Customer Discovery: The Core of NSF I-Corps

Cristy Salanga, Patent Manager, and I-Corps Program Director Northern Arizona University  Entrepreneurs and innovators often fall into a common trap: assuming they know what their customers want. While passion and conviction are essential, they can sometimes blind us to the realities of the market. That’s where customer discovery comes in. Whether you're thinking about developing a new technology or launching a niche product, customer discovery can mean the difference between success and failure. Here, we’ll explore what customer discovery is, why it’s crucial, and how NSF I-Corps helps teams master this critical skill. What is Customer Discovery? At its heart, customer discovery is a process of validating your assumptions about the market, your customers, and their problems. It involves directly engaging with potential customers to understand their needs, pain points, and decision-making processes in the use and adoption of new products (or services). Rather than building a product based on your own assumptions, customer discovery ensures you’re solving a real problem for a specific customer. The process is rooted in the lean startup methodology, which emphasizes iterating based on feedback rather than following a plan based on just what you think. Why is Customer Discovery Important? Avoid Wasting Resources: Building a product or service without validating your assumptions about the problem, the scope and scale of the problem you purport to solve and for whom, and market realities can be expensive and time-consuming. Customer discovery helps you refine your idea before committing significant resources. Understand Customer Needs: Talking to potential customers reveals their true problems and priorities, often uncovering...
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Ji Mi choi
28Jan

New year, same you (and that’s okay!)

Ji Mi Choi NSF I-Corps Hub: Desert and Pacific Region Director The beginning of a new year is often the time people make resolutions to start doing new things or stop doing old things. We often hear, read, and see things like New Year’s resolutions to exercise more or drink alcohol less—Dry January anyone? And at the beginning of the year, there is a proliferation of articles and lists like top ten lists—‘top ten ways to eat healthier’, or ‘top ten ways to stop procrastinating’, or ‘top five harmful habits to break’.  A concomitant part of the ‘new year, new resolutions’ narrative is failure—so much so that the second Friday in January has become known, harshly in my opinion, as “Quitter’s Day”.  Thank goodness we are past January 10th! Since failed resolutions are often attributed to setting unrealistic expectations, some resources advise us to start small: to commit to one step or one part of a larger objective to avoid becoming a quitter or getting derailed before we can even really start. In my experience supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, three commonalities I have encountered from people of all types are: 1) there’s a problem to be solved or an improvement to be made, 2) there’s a hope that someday, they’ll be the one to do that, and 3) there are pre-conditions whether it’s more money or more time for that someday to be today. The NSF I-Corps™ program is specifically designed to support that ‘someday’ being now. Through just a four-session, live online course,...
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23Sep

Exploring the Future of Innovation in San Diego

Former I-Corps participant Lu Yin credits the NSF I-Corps program and MedTech Accelerator for helping him transition from engineer to entrepreneur. With UC San Diego's support, Persperion Diagnostics has licensed its technology and used the ACTRI Device Acceleration Center for testing, preparing for greater independence. Read full article
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01Aug

U of A had record number of inventions in FY24

Doug Hockstad is a Project Director, NSF I-Corps Hub: Desert and Pacific Region and Associate Vice President, Tech Launch Arizona. Doug was featured in this article expressing continued success of the NSF I-Corps program within the University of Arizona and the Desert and Pacific Region. In 2024 the University of Arizona hosted a successful I-Corps cohort dedicated to social innovation. Read full article
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