Scientific market discovery
We're Moneyball for
product-market fit.
Customer Illuminated drastically improves products' odds of success.
We hired Customer Illuminated to analyze opportunities for two separate product lines, and I wish they were around back in my days at Microsoft. Their insights are fast, smart, and actionable. And their scientific approach makes everything else look like guesswork.
Shawn Kemp (Serial startup founder, investor, former Microsoft exec)
Customer Illuminated’s systematic approach helped me avoid investing millions of dollars and years of development time to build a product that on the surface seemed like the logical next expansion for my business, but in reality the research showed was unlikely to provide a return on investment within a desired time frame. Sometimes it can be very difficult to kill a bad idea, but Customer Illuminated will make sure you only pursue the good ones. There is incredible value in knowing what not to build.
Brian Glaister (Director of Product & GM — Justice, Axon Enterprise)
I can't think of a better investment than Customer Illuminated to reduce the risk of a costly failure of a new product or startup. That alone would be sufficient reason for my returning to work with them over and over, but they're also a "batteries included" team that brings a genuine enthusiasm and care to every aspect of a project that moves everyone to a better place. Applying their framework to an innovation pipeline of 100+ teams resulted in massive and incalculable ROI.
Brian Howe (Venture Partner, Stand Together Ventures Lab)
ourteam
Rebecca Jackson
(she/they)
I practiced American Indian law for almost a decade — where I analyzed evidence and ran discovery for governments. Now, I apply that skill set to entrepreneurship.
We’ve taught heuristic versions of our approach to market discovery in incubators, accelerators, and universities (e.g., MIT Solve, Western Washington University), but we typically run discovery on clients’ behalf. We’ve run or supervised more than 10,000 hours of mixed methods social research on market behavior.
Here’s a statement about why we do what we do.
Jonathan Jackson
(they/them)
I’m a serial entrepreneur with a deep background in applied decision science. I’ve also consulted with a broad range of organizations — from early-stage startups to multinationals.