Customer-Side 10x Test
Reject technology-led copies unless customers receive dramatically more value
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
The customer-side 10x test begins by ignoring the implementation technology and examining the user’s existing job, frustrations, and alternatives. A proposed product must solve an unmet problem or create a substantially better outcome on a dimension customers actually value, such as earnings, control, convenience, safety, quality, or functionality. Benefits to creators, suppliers, or investors are evaluated separately and cannot compensate for a weak consumer proposition when the product requires a large audience. Decentralization, tokenization, and ownership qualify only when they translate into a tangible customer result. If the new product is merely an incumbent clone with different infrastructure, the idea fails. Passing concepts promise an experience customers perceive as dramatically more valuable.
Origin
The hosts formulated this decision rule while challenging proposals for decentralized copies of YouTube and Airbnb that offered no additive customer functionality.
Core principles
- 01Customers adopt outcomes, not architectural ideology.
- 02A new technology must create a customer-visible advantage.
- 03Replicating an incumbent with tokens is not meaningful innovation.
- 04Creator or supplier benefits cannot substitute for consumer value.
- 05A replacement product should be dramatically better on dimensions customers care about.
How to run it
- 1
Define the customer’s job
Describe what the target customer is trying to accomplish and why the incumbent is currently chosen. Exclude implementation terms from the description.
Pro tip Separate creators, suppliers, and consumers when they have different jobs.
Watch out A platform can delight suppliers yet fail because consumers have no reason to arrive.
- 2
Locate the unresolved problem
Identify where the incumbent is expensive, slow, unfair, inaccessible, risky, or functionally inadequate. Verify that customers recognize the problem.
Pro tip Prioritize problems demonstrated through behavior, switching attempts, or spending.
Watch out Founders often overestimate how much ordinary users care about abstract decentralization.
- 3
Translate technology into value
Explain exactly how the proposed architecture changes the customer’s outcome. Examples might include retaining more earnings, gaining transferable ownership, or accessing an impossible feature.
Pro tip Complete the sentence, “Because of this technology, the customer can now…”
Watch out If the sentence ends with “use a decentralized version,” no outcome has been defined.
- 4
Apply the 10x threshold
Estimate whether the improvement is dramatic enough to overcome switching costs, network effects, and incumbent quality. Evaluate the claim from the customer’s perspective.
Pro tip Quantify the gain where possible, such as keeping 90% instead of 70% of revenue.
Watch out A 10x supplier benefit does not automatically create a 10x consumer experience.
- 5
Validate or reject
Test the value proposition with target users before building the full system. Reject, reshape, or narrow concepts that rely mainly on technological novelty.
Pro tip Prototype the customer outcome with the simplest available technology first.
Watch out Adding tokens to a weak concept can create temporary attention without durable demand.
In the wild
A founder proposes a decentralized YouTube. The architecture alone gives viewers no better discovery, playback, or content, so the concept initially fails. The founder then identifies a creator segment losing 30% of revenue and designs a model that lets creators retain 90%, while also giving committed viewers valuable access and participation. Both sides are tested separately.
→ The product advances only if the creator economics and viewer experience together overcome the incumbent’s network advantage.
A team wants to rebuild Airbnb with tokens but cannot identify a guest or host problem that tokens solve better than the incumbent. The customer-side 10x test rejects the concept before engineering begins.
→ The team avoids building a costly technology demonstration without a compelling market proposition.
Common mistakes
Selling decentralization itself
Most users care about the result produced by decentralization, not decentralization as an abstract property.
Ignoring the consumer side
A marketplace with improved supplier economics still fails if consumers receive no reason to join or remain.
Copying before finding the wedge
Replicating an excellent incumbent compounds network and execution disadvantages unless the new product owns a strong unmet need.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for founders evaluating decentralized versions of established marketplaces, media platforms, and consumer applications.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for infrastructure migrations that deliberately preserve the user experience while improving invisible operational properties.
From the transcript
“I don't think the average user really gives about decentralization”
“Regardless of the technology you use, if you're going to do something a new version of something, it has to be 10x better.”
“at the end of the day, for the customer, for the customer, not for the has to have a 10x better, more valuable experience.”
From the episode
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