This is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL
This is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL.
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In Part 1, Ryuta Hamamoto Shared the Three Key Figures
In Part 1, Ryuta Hamamoto shared the three key figures who drew him into new business and the mindset essential for success. In Part 2, he narrows it down to seven practical points: concrete methods for launching new ventures, deepening customer understanding, and leveraging AI.
- Who is your customer?
- Segmenting your customers
- How to uncover customer challenges
- Structuring customer challenges
- Leveraging generative AI
- Improving your questioning and field observation skills
- The key to pricing
- Final Message from the Session
- Who Is Your Customer?
The customers who pay you are the ones you must address first. Especially in platform businesses, you need to solve challenges on both the supply side and the demand side—but you should prioritize customers who have a problem they are willing to pay to solve.
Consider the example of a platform for large-company employees who want to do side work. Many people would assume those employees are the customers. But the real counterpart to focus on is the companies accepting side workers—because those companies are the ones paying for the platform. Without solving the companies' challenges, you don't have a viable business. By prioritizing the challenges of the paying side, you increase the value of your service and grow the business.
That said, the non-paying side—in this case, employees who want to do side work—also matters. Their challenges are important, too. But in terms of priority, solving the paying companies' challenges comes first. The question I'd like you to ask yourself: in your own business, who is the customer who will actually pay you? If you're building a platform business, take a fresh look at this point. Identifying the true customer and focusing on solving their challenges is the key to business success.
Segmenting Customers Finely Is Critically Important
Segmenting customers finely is critically important. Broad segmentation like "large-company employees in their mid-20s to early 30s" lacks resolution. Ideally, you should segment customers finely enough that you could actually go meet them. It's wise to start with a narrow segment and gradually expand the market.
You might worry that fine segmentation makes the market too small—but that's actually fine. Start from your initially targeted market and expand segments gradually. Identifying which market is easiest to resonate with or easiest to expand into requires fine customer segmentation. There are several approaches.
For example, a left-brain approach involves carving up segments by attributes, challenges, behaviors, and similar axes. A right-brain approach involves setting up a persona and refining it through repeated interviews. Whichever approach you take, the key is to segment finely and make the persona concrete. Doing so clarifies which customers to go after first. Once you have a vivid picture of your target market, the speed at which you move forward accelerates significantly. Start by making your customer segmentation as fine as possible.
Correctly understanding customer challenges is the key to business success. But drawing out a customer's real challenges is not easy. Ninety-five percent of people cannot articulate their true feelings. During interviews, customers sometimes do not tell the full truth. For example, ask someone if their refrigerator is clean and the person with a messy refrigerator might say, "Oh, it's just a little messy."
Also, Even If Someone Feels Annoyed by a Tangled Vacuum Cord
Also, even if someone feels annoyed by a tangled vacuum cord, they might say "there's nothing particularly wrong" when asked. Unconsciously they've accepted the inconvenience as normal. That's precisely why interviewers need to sharpen their observation skills and read the true intent behind the words. Perceiving the real challenge from the customer's expression, body language, and nuances of speech demands genuine insight.
Furthermore, interviews are not the only tool. Going to the field and observing user behavior in person is equally important. The field reveals challenges that interviews simply don't surface. Or you can immerse yourself in the customer's shoes—actually use the service, find the inconveniences, and identify points for improvement. This is how you discover challenges from the customer's perspective.
Uncovering customer challenges is a continuous cycle of hypothesis testing. Build hypotheses from interviews and observations, then go back to the customer to test them. This patient, ongoing work is what opens the path to true problem-solving. It doesn't happen overnight. But by genuinely listening to customers, going into the field, and experiencing things firsthand, the essence of the challenge will inevitably come into focus. From there, a truly valuable solution is born—of that I am certain.
To correctly understand customer challenges, structuring those challenges is indispensable. Structuring challenges means stepping back to see the full picture and identifying the essence. Start by investigating the context in which the challenge arose. Ask what caused it—what is the root cause. Next, identify specific scenes where the challenge occurs. Map it on a timeline and pinpoint in which scenes it arises most frequently. The most critical challenge is likely lurking there.
Further, unpack the mechanism behind the challenge. Observe carefully for psychological barriers and structural hurdles. For example, consider a digital service for the elderly. Anxiety about operating it might be a psychological barrier. If small buttons make physical operation difficult, that's a structural hurdle.
Unpacking These Psychological and Structural Barriers
Unpacking these psychological and structural barriers one by one brings the full picture of the challenge into view. Structuring challenges is hard to do alone. It's important for the team to put their heads together and look at the challenge from multiple angles. Don't forget to listen sincerely to the voice of the field.
A structured challenge becomes a guiding light for generating solutions. Vague challenges cannot produce precise solutions. Only by identifying the essence of a challenge and making its structure clear does the path to a truly valuable solution open up. Structuring challenges is difficult work that doesn't happen overnight—but it's exactly there that the seeds of innovation lie dormant. Engage deeply with the challenge, cut into its structure. That, I believe, is the royal road to new business success.
Generative AI is a powerful ally in new business development. It is especially well-suited to the hypothesis-testing stage. For example, you can leverage generative AI for business hypotheses, persona development, competitor analysis, challenge hypothesis formulation, and much more. Generating many different hypotheses on your own is exhausting—but with generative AI, you can efficiently produce a wide variety of ideas.
Using generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude dramatically expands the breadth of your thinking. It becomes possible to ideate flexibly, unconstrained by fixed assumptions. However, generative AI is ultimately just a tool. Rather than accepting its outputs at face value, it's important to process them through your own mind and be selective. Using generative AI effectively requires a certain level of experience and knowledge.
Relying Too Heavily on Generative AI Is Also a Problem
Relying too heavily on generative AI is also a problem. It is effective as a supplement for generating ideas, but final decisions must be made by humans. The task is to use AI suggestions as a reference while you yourself determine the direction.
Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize new business development. But using it effectively requires creativity and judgment from the user. Borrow the power of AI—but think it through yourself. That sense of balance, I believe, is indispensable for new business development going forward. Try using generative AI as an ally and expanding the possibilities of your new venture.
Interviews are an important tool for understanding customer challenges. But depending on how questions are asked, the real challenges may never surface.
Focus on actions happening now, not hypothetical future ones.
Ask about the process, not the outcome.
In particular, questions related to time and place—such as "Where were you at that moment?" and "What were you doing before that?"—are highly effective at drawing out specific customer behavior.
Examples of useful questions include:
How do you currently do X? Walk me through the specific process. Show me.
How long have you been doing X?
3. When You Do X, Are There Any Challenges, Hassles, Inefficiencies
When you do X, are there any challenges, hassles, inefficiencies, or frustrations?
How are you currently handling X to get it done?
Can you walk me through the specific steps of that approach?
How much time and cost does it take, and what's the most inconvenient part?
Through these questions, you can get closer to the customer's behavior patterns and the essence of their challenges. But some challenges can't be seen through interviews alone—that's where field observation becomes essential.
They keep asking questions and show passion around dealing with the challenge.
They lean forward with energy as they talk (readable from body language).
They show a willingness to pay to solve the challenge.
Field observation should reveal the customer's real challenges and their expectations for a service. Rotating the two wheels of questioning and observation enables a deeper understanding of the customer. Don't be misled by surface-level responses—get to the essence of the challenge. That is the first step toward new business success.
Appropriate Pricing Is Indispensable for Business Success
Appropriate pricing is indispensable for business success. Pricing is a critical element that determines the value of a service, and at the same time has a major impact on your relationship with the customer. First, understand that pricing is the only process in service development that is in tension with the customer. Naturally, customers want things cheaper—the cheaper the better. But if you chase cheapness to the point of undermining your service's value, that defeats the entire purpose. As a provider, you need to receive compensation commensurate with the value you deliver.
This is where it becomes important to set the highest price you can theoretically justify. When in doubt, go with the higher price. Because you can lower a price, but raising it is hard. Choosing to lower the price too readily means either that you lack confidence in your product or that the value you're delivering isn't sufficient. Winning customers through price cuts may be effective short-term, but if you're thinking about building long-term customer relationships, setting an appropriate price and communicating that value to the customer is essential.
Also, don't underestimate the importance of unit price. Lowering the unit price means you need more customers—which drives up the cost of sales activities and erodes business efficiency. Acquiring one customer is not easy. That's precisely why treating each customer with care and building long-term relationships matters. And that's exactly why appropriate pricing is indispensable. Pricing is a moment that tests your conviction as a business owner. It requires the courage to have confidence in your service and to properly value what you offer. Don't fall back on easy price cuts—keep delivering genuine value to your customers. That, I am convinced, is the path to sustainable business growth.
How Was That?
How was that? The path of new business is not a smooth one. There will be setbacks and failures. But it's precisely there that the seeds of innovation lie dormant. Creating new value and changing the world—that is both the privilege and the mission of every entrepreneur. Whatever happens, the only way forward is action. Don't fear failure; take that first step. Everything begins there.
I sincerely wish each of you success in your new ventures.
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