The Best Customers to Study When Scaling Into a New Market

Companies trying to scale tech products know the hard truth: An offering that connects with people in one environment may fail in another. How can you avoid such an outcome? Leaders must learn quickly and iterate on products using lessons from their organization’s earliest customers, but they often undervalue the strategic choice of which early customers to prioritize. Learn from new research that shows how to choose, and real-world examples illustrating the approach in action.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
MIT Sloan Management Review
Published
2026-04-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.63383/xomh4097
Primary Topic
Business Strategies and Innovation
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

The Best Customers to Study When Scaling Into a New Market

Nataliya Wright
MIT Sloan Management Review
Business Strategies and Innovation
article

The Best Customers to Study When Scaling Into a New Market

Nataliya Wright
article en

Abstract

Companies trying to scale tech products know the hard truth: An offering that connects with people in one environment may fail in another. How can you avoid such an outcome? Leaders must learn quickly and iterate on products using lessons from their organization’s earliest customers, but they often undervalue the strategic choice of which early customers to prioritize. Learn from new research that shows how to choose, and real-world examples illustrating the approach in action.

MIT Sloan Management Review
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Openalex Percentile: Top 15%
Business Strategies and Innovation
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