jacobdawson
New Contributor
Hi, I'm new here but I'd like to jump straight into it. As you know, we all have a million ideas for new businesses, but the most important thing is solving a pain-point for a market. I've been reading a lot of material from Steve Blank / Eric Ries about Lean Startup and Customer Development methodology lately, and they swear by the mantra 'get out of the building' (talk to real customers, 'No Plan Survives First Contact with Customers').
What I'd like to know is: how do you conduct customer research for your new ideas? Do you talk directly to prospective customers? It seems that for basic startup ideas we can use free tools (Google Keyword Tool, Quora, free market research reports, etc), but nothing beats talking to real customers.
I've looked at some online research tools like Instant.ly, Survey Monkey, etc, but still haven't found a great way to talk to a large number of people (~200) in a target market aside from the slow process of meeting them face-to-face. Have you come across this same issue? How have you solved it?
Cheers in advance!
Jake
What I'd like to know is: how do you conduct customer research for your new ideas? Do you talk directly to prospective customers? It seems that for basic startup ideas we can use free tools (Google Keyword Tool, Quora, free market research reports, etc), but nothing beats talking to real customers.
I've looked at some online research tools like Instant.ly, Survey Monkey, etc, but still haven't found a great way to talk to a large number of people (~200) in a target market aside from the slow process of meeting them face-to-face. Have you come across this same issue? How have you solved it?
Cheers in advance!
Jake
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