The Challenge
The founder came to us with a detailed product specification, a hiring plan for three engineers, and a funding timeline based on an 18-month runway to MVP. The product was designed to serve solo practitioners, small boutique firms, mid-size general practice firms, and regional commercial firms — four distinct segments with significantly different needs, workflows, and willingness to pay.
The instinct was understandable: cast wide, build comprehensive, maximise potential market. The problem was that it would consume all the runway before the product had spoken to a single customer.
What We Did
We spent three weeks in rapid customer discovery: structured interviews with twelve potential users across the four segments, analysed through the lens of problem intensity, willingness to pay, and sales cycle complexity.
The finding was clear: small boutique criminal defence firms had the sharpest pain, the shortest decision cycle, and the strongest willingness to pay — and the problem they needed solved was materially simpler than the founder's original scope.
10 wksTo first paying customer from start of engagementWe redesigned the roadmap around a focused pilot: one specific workflow, one segment, one pilot cohort of five firms, six weeks to validate. Pricing was remodelled from a broad access fee to a per-matter model that aligned cost to value — which also tripled the price point on the initial plan.
The Outcome
The founder ran the pilot. Four of the five firms converted to paid accounts. Two referred additional firms before the pilot had ended. The revised roadmap took ten weeks from our engagement start to a paying customer — against the original eighteen-month plan.
