Three patterns for user involvement in startups

Creating products in software startups consists of a great deal of uncertainty combined with little resources. Rapid validation of created solutions with the potential customers is essential to startups. However, often startups lack people with skills needed for the validation. We present three patterns that help in involving users to gain meaningful feedback and learning. First, the feedback has to be gotten from the right people and the right questions have to be asked. Furthermore, if the feedback is collected with a prototype, often called a Minimum Viable Product, users should be able to give feedback of the actual idea, not to any roughness caused by the immaturity and the prototypishness of the product.