Customer Discovery Sprint
7-week cohort programme | Investment: £4,000+VAT
Spring 2026: 7 Apr - 25 May | Autumn 2026: 8 Sep - 26 Oct
In seven weeks, working with and experienced Entrepreneur and Leader, Dr Chloe Sharp, you’ll learn best practice in customer discovery, based on her book Make Products that Matter.
You’ll learn how to do interviews avoiding bias, to get honest feedback on your product and turn your insights into an actionable plan to reduce your commercial risk.
Don't waste your time building something nobody wants
What you’ll walk away with?
After seven weeks you’ll leave with:
20-25 interviews completed with target customers, not just polite friends and family opinions
Evidence-based customer segments showing who makes buying decisions and what influences them
A validated problem-solution fit, proof of market or the signals to pivot
Documentation ready for grants, pitch decks, marketing and product roadmaps
Validation skills you will use repeatedly as your product evolves
You'll also get access to our Grant Funding Fundamentals online course and Chloe's book Make Products That Matter to support you.
Our track record:
Delivered or trained validation in 100+ start-ups and SMEs
£10M+ in grant funding secured for clients
Author of Make Products That Matter
Worked with Accelerators: Amazon Sustainability, Science Creates, Carbon13, Natwest
"She really challenged our guesses and gave us something concrete to work with. We felt reassured that the iterations of the product are in line with user needs and our future product roadmap is based on evidence."
— Founder, Moses
"Dr Chloe Sharp's work has been invaluable in helping us assess and understand our market opportunity better and provided a level of professional support that we could never have imagined."
— Founder, TOME
"The team managed to glean insights that have been instrumental in steering our direction on a path that is wholly differentiated and giving us the edge on our competition, hands down."
— Marketing Manager, Redstone Connect
Who’s it for?
Early-Stage Founders
You have an early MVP, prototype, or proof-of-concept.
You need evidence of problem-solution fit to strengthen grant applications (Innovate UK, Horizon Europe) or early investment pitches but you don't have time to figure out customer discovery on your own.
University Spinouts
You have world-class IP from academic research.
You need to bridge the "lab-to-market" gap with commercial evidence showing buyers actually need what you're building, not just that it's technically impressive.
Technical Founders
You're brilliant at building, but customer discovery isn't your strength.
You need to avoid the "build it and they will come" trap that kills 42% of start-ups. Test demand before scaling engineering effort.
Not sure if this is right for you?
If you're looking for product-market fit and asking "will customers actually pay for this?" You're in the right place but we’re happy to chat.
The 7-Week Journey
Get your foundations right before you speak to anyone. Before you get started on the programme, you'll map your business model, value proposition, network contacts, and core assumptions.
This prep work means you enter discovery with clarity on what you're validating and who you need to speak to, and not wasting interview time figuring out your questions.
Weeks 0: Strategic Preparation
Format
Cohort-based, hands-on learning:
12 founders max per cohort
Weekly 1-hour group training via Zoom
Weekly 1-2-1 coaching sessions
5 shadowed interviews with live feedback
Self-directed fieldwork (you do the interviews)
Peer learning and support
Use a research approach that distinguishes productive interviews from pointless conversations.
Through 1-2-1 workshop and group training, you'll define what "validated" means for your product, create an unbiased interview guide, and map your network to identify actual customers (not just people willing to chat). You'll understand why social capital beats cold outreach and how to structure discovery around problem-solution fit and proof-of-market.
Weeks 2 - 5: Complete Customer Discovery
Conduct 20-25 interviews with weekly accountability and coached sessions.
Week 2 focuses on AI-first desk research to understand competition and market context.
Week 3 teaches you to run interviews without pitching or selling your product and to actively listen.
Week 4 shows you how to identify early patterns and PMF signals while you're still gathering data.
Week 5 prepares you for analysis by organising transcripts and artefacts.
Throughout this period, you're held accountable through 1-2-1 coaching and shadowed interviews, so you can do the hard bit of customer discovery, but with support rather than trying to do it alone.
Time commitment:
1-2 days per week for 7 weeks
Weekly training 1-hour + coaching 30 mins
Self-directed interviews and analysis, most time-intensive in Weeks 2-5
Not got 1-2 days per week?
Explore our Consultancy services where we do the validation work for you.
Tools
Make sure you have a paid plan for your AI:
Miro for canvases and affinity mapping
AI for transcription and analysis using our prompts
Zoom for group sessions
Slack/WhatsApp for community
Week 1: Build Your Discovery Approach
Week 7: Consolidate and Plan Forward
Review your findings, present key insights to the cohort (if not commercially sensitive), and receive written feedback on your validation report.
You'll understand what you've validated, what remains uncertain, and what your next validation activities should be with transition to the alumni community alongside clear next steps for you and your business.
Convert your interview data into actionable insights using AI-assisted analysis and affinity mapping. You'll generate insights that directly feed your product roadmap, investor deck, market evidence, grant applications, and marketing messaging.
The output is a comprehensive validation report that gives you defensible evidence for your next decisions, whether that's building, pivoting, or seeking funding.
Week 6: Translate Data Into Decisions
Eligibility Criteria
Have developed an early proof-of-concept
You’re beyond just an idea, with an MVP, prototype, demonstrator, or detailed product vision that you can explain to potential customers.
You're seeking funding or validation
You need evidence for grants (Innovate UK, Horizon Europe) or investor pitches, or you just want to prove demand before committing resources.
You're open to feedback on your innovation
You'll test your beliefs, not defend them and if evidence says pivot, you'll consider it.
You can reach target customers
Using existing networks, industry connections, LinkedIn, or if necessary, via cold outreach. We'll teach you the recruitment techniques but you need access to potential customers.
You have the time
You need 1-2 days, per week for, 7 weeks. If you can't commit, this isn't the right programme but check out our Consultancy services where we do the validation for you.
How to Apply
Three-Step Process:
Complete the application form
Takes about 10-15 minutes and tells us about you, your motivations, business and innovation.
Discovery Call
If shortlisted, we'll invite you to a 30-minute conversation to explore your goals and confirm programme fit.
Cohort Placement
Successful applicants receive an offer and are placed in the next available cohort.
2026 Cohort Dates:
Spring Cohort: April 7 - May 25, 2026 | Autumn Cohort: September 8 - October 26, 2026
Cohorts run quarterly from 2027 onward.
Investment: From £4,000 +VAT
(includes tools, materials, and coaching. Additional costs for interview incentives if needed, typically £30 per interview and subscriptions to Zoom and an AI tool).
Meet Dr Chloe Sharp
Dr Chloe Sharp literally wrote the book on validation: Make Products That Matter, but that's not why founders trust her with validation for their business.
She's secured over £10M in grant funding across Innovate UK, Scottish Enterprise and other competitions. She knows what evidence investors and funders actually need to see because she's written the applications that won. She's coached founders who went on to raise from SFC Capital, Octopus Ventures, and others, not because she taught them how to pitch better, but because she helped them validate properly first.
Chloe combines the rigour of academic research (PhD methodology) with the reality of commercial execution. She's grown businesses from £0 to £100K+ in year one. She's worked with 100+ startups and SMEs across product development, from idea to launch. She's coached and trained up-and-coming companies through Amazon Sustainability Accelerator, Science Creates, Carbon13, and Natwest, plus government-backed programmes like Help to Grow, TechUp, and Women in Innovation. She's ILM7 qualified in coaching and mentoring at master's level, but qualifications aren't why this programme exists.
This programme exists because Chloe speaks with early-stage founders regularly, and validation is consistently their biggest problem. Not because they don't understand the theory, but because most founders have read the same books and frameworks like The Mom Test and Lean Startup. They struggle because they don't know how to execute systematic customer discovery. They can't get people to respond to their outreach on LinkedIn. They don't know when they've done enough. They don't know how to turn interview data into decisions.
Chloe knows that theory has its place, but this is about execution and results. That's why the programme focuses on actually doing the 20-25 interviews, not just learning how to do them. It's why there's weekly accountability and shadowed interviews. It's why you leave with validated evidence that you can defend and use to help reduce commercial risk.
Frequently Asked Questions
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That's a successful outcome. Better to discover this in 7 weeks under £5K than after 18 months and £200K. We'll help you identify pivot opportunities based on what you learned.
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No. You need access to potential customers (ideally through networks or, if absolutely necessary, cold outreach). We'll train you in recruitment techniques and interview methods.
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Perfect. We'll review what you've learned, identify gaps, and build on existing insights. Most founders have talked to a few people informally. We'll help you increase that to 20-25 interviews with structure and techniques that reveal patterns you can't see from small samples.
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Plan for 1-2 days per week: weekly group training (1 hour), weekly coaching (30 mins), and self-directed fieldwork (interviews, analysis). The heaviest weeks are during customer discovery (Weeks 2-5) where there will be approx. 5 interviews a week, lasting 30-60 minutes. Most founders do interviews during evenings or weekends.
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No. Early prototype, concept, or detailed product vision is sufficient. The programme helps you validate before committing to full development.
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No. But if you're grant-eligible (Innovate UK, Horizon Europe, etc.), the customer evidence you gather will strengthen your application. You'll understand buyer urgency, willingness-to-pay, and market demand, these are the commercials that grant assessors want to see. You also get access to our Grant Funding Fundamentals course.
We can point you in the direction of grant writers and we can also help you with a grant review if you’re interested.
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Up to 12 founders per cohort. Where possible, we group by shared problems or sectors (climate tech, deep tech, B2B software), but cross-sector learning often sparks the best discussion and brings in diverse perspectives.
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If you complete Week 1 and feel the programme isn't the right fit, we'll refund 80% of your fee (minus Week 1 training and materials). After Week 2, the fee is non-refundable as we've committed resources to your cohort.
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You'll join Sharp Signal, our alumni community for ongoing peer support. You can also book follow-on services: grant funding coaching, Product Market Fit Sprint, or consultancy where we do the work for you.
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We run a number of Masterclasses, online courses and Chloe’s book “Make Products that Matter” are all available.