After reading this on Reddit, I thought I'd share it here. I know we've talked about this before and some people have went slightly in detail, but not to this extent.
This is how you find million dollar ideas by talking to your customers.
BEWARE THIS POST IS 2.3k+ WORDS.
I've formatted it to make it more readable.
How many interviews is enough?
I recommend that you keep interviewing customers until you are rarely surprised by their answers. Of course, customers can surprise you even after a thousand interviews. But when you have conducted so many interviews you can almost predict their answers, you have probably completed enough interviews.
So how many interviews will it take until you are “rarely surprised”? Well that's like asking how you know when you're in love - when you know, you know (which is another way of saying that every case in unique and can’t be predicted).
Who to talk to
Other than the fear of hearing bad news, finding potential customers to interview is probably the hardest part of this process. But it really isn't that hard once you've done it a few times.
The key is to find people who you can reasonably expect to become customers when you start selling products. Some people get hung up on the fact that they don't have a product to offer. Remember, this isn't a sales call, it’s a way to gather research, so that isn't a problem.
So how do you find potential customers to interview?
Well if you have a list of contacts, say existing customers or an online following, you have a good starting point. This assumes that your contacts are knowledgeable about the interview topic and can give you reasonably unbiased feedback. (You should avoid interviewing friends and family, because they will tell you what you want to hear not what you need to hear.)
If you don't have existing contacts that you can use, or need more customers to interview, don't be discouraged. Finding people who will talk to you is actually easier than it sound - you just need to know where to look and how to ask for their time. That might sound daunting if you haven't done it before, but they are both skills that can be learned.
Finding customers to interview
These days almost every group or interest has a community online somewhere and these can be a goldmine for finding customers to interview.
If you get stuck finding a community, here are some tips for finding where potential customers hang out:
Related subreddits on reddit.com. There is always at least one subreddit that is related to the market you are researching and they are often frequented by industry professionals.
The interview
Once you've made contact with people, it's time to set up the interview and start learning!
Make the interview process as easy as possible
The easier you can make the process of attending the interview, the better the results will be. If setting up the meeting is a hassle, you will have more people will drop out and generally the interview won't be as informative as people will feel on edge. Because of this, I make sure that the process of being interviewed is as easy as possible.
To arrange a date and time for a meeting
I use an online scheduling service. These make it very easy to find a time when both of you are available without exchanging emails multiple times. You just enter your availability, send the details to the customer, they enter their availability and then you pick a time and date. There are a few sites out there that do this but I recommend Calendly, Doodle or needtomeet.
As for the call itself
Video chat is great because seeing someone talk about a problem gives you a lot of non-verbal communication clues that you obviously can't get from a phone call. I also like video chat because it’s easy to tell when someone on video chat is distracted and you can get them back on track. There has been a lot of debate about whether Google Hangouts is better than Skype. The argument for Hangouts is that there is less for them to set up if they already have a Google/Gmail account. I’m not convinced by that argument, instead I would offer people both options (and even Facetime too if that's what it takes to get them on a video chat).
If the customer will let you record the call, I would definitely do it
This lets you focus more on information gathering, rather than note taking, during the interview. If you can't record the call, you will have to gather information and analyze it to decide if you should make a note - all while the call is going on. If you explain what you only want to record the call so you don't have to take notes while you chat and that you will not share the video with anyone, most people are usually open to you recording it.
Recording the call
There are a lot of screen recording apps but Camtasia and Screenflow are the ones that most people seem to use. If the customer does not want you to record the call, do not be tempted to record it anyway! This is a massive breach of trust and if word got out that you are doing this, it would be very difficult to persuade more people to interview with you.
What to ask the customer
Learning about the customer
These questions help to confirm that the customer is in the market segment you are targeting; and they help you understand more about their role.
Learning about their problems
These questions help you find out what the customers problems are, or validate your hypothesis about their problems.
Problem Discovery
Problem Validation
If the customer doesn't talk about the problem you are interested in solving, you should ask these questions (otherwise, ignore them).
Discovering solutions
These questions can help you discover solutions to problems. They also help you identify problems with your competitors’ products, which can become part of your solution.
Ending the interview
I use these questions to make sure I understood the customers main problems and to see if the customer might want to become a beta user/early adopter.
Interview tips
Here are a few tips that you can use to get the most from your interviews.
[ Credit: http://www.reddit.com/r/advancedent...terviewing_customers_how_i_talk_to_customers/ ]
This is how you find million dollar ideas by talking to your customers.
BEWARE THIS POST IS 2.3k+ WORDS.
I've formatted it to make it more readable.
How many interviews is enough?
I recommend that you keep interviewing customers until you are rarely surprised by their answers. Of course, customers can surprise you even after a thousand interviews. But when you have conducted so many interviews you can almost predict their answers, you have probably completed enough interviews.
So how many interviews will it take until you are “rarely surprised”? Well that's like asking how you know when you're in love - when you know, you know (which is another way of saying that every case in unique and can’t be predicted).
Who to talk to
Other than the fear of hearing bad news, finding potential customers to interview is probably the hardest part of this process. But it really isn't that hard once you've done it a few times.
The key is to find people who you can reasonably expect to become customers when you start selling products. Some people get hung up on the fact that they don't have a product to offer. Remember, this isn't a sales call, it’s a way to gather research, so that isn't a problem.
So how do you find potential customers to interview?
Well if you have a list of contacts, say existing customers or an online following, you have a good starting point. This assumes that your contacts are knowledgeable about the interview topic and can give you reasonably unbiased feedback. (You should avoid interviewing friends and family, because they will tell you what you want to hear not what you need to hear.)
If you don't have existing contacts that you can use, or need more customers to interview, don't be discouraged. Finding people who will talk to you is actually easier than it sound - you just need to know where to look and how to ask for their time. That might sound daunting if you haven't done it before, but they are both skills that can be learned.
Finding customers to interview
These days almost every group or interest has a community online somewhere and these can be a goldmine for finding customers to interview.
If you get stuck finding a community, here are some tips for finding where potential customers hang out:
Related subreddits on reddit.com. There is always at least one subreddit that is related to the market you are researching and they are often frequented by industry professionals.
- Finding them can be a challenge as the search functionality on Reddit is still terrible, but there are a few sites that make finding related subreddits much easier. I recommend [redditlist](redditlist.com) and [metareddit](metareddit.com).
- Industry forums: You can find these by googling for “[related group] forums”. So if you’re want to interview realtors, you would google for “realtor forums”. Once you’ve joined the forum, you should be able to post a message asking for volunteers to be interviewed.
- Email lists: Again you can use Google to find these and Google Groups is also a good resource. As with forums, once you are a member of the list you should be able to post a message asking for volunteers.
- Social networks: Almost every social network lets you search for public groups that have been created on it. Most of these groups are public so you can immediately post a message; or they will let you join and you post after they have confirmed you as a member.
- Even private groups may be willing to post a message on your behalf, especially if you promise to send them the anonymized results of your questions. I find Twitter and Facebook the best, but people also have had good results from Google+ and Instagram.
- Paid ads: I haven't used this technique but have heard of people having success with it. My theory is that this probably works best in two cases.
The first is when you know what the customers’ pain points are and so can design an ad campaign designed to target that.
For example, a realtor is not going to google the term “realtor” but may google “finding first time buyers” if that’s their pain point.
For example, a realtor is not going to google the term “realtor” but may google “finding first time buyers” if that’s their pain point.
The second case is when you can advertise where you know they hang out, for example on industry forums or Facebook.
- Referrals. I ask everyone I interview if there is someone they can refer me to that has the same (or similar) role as theirs. Assuming that the interview went OK, a lot of people are happy to refer you.
The interview
Once you've made contact with people, it's time to set up the interview and start learning!
Make the interview process as easy as possible
The easier you can make the process of attending the interview, the better the results will be. If setting up the meeting is a hassle, you will have more people will drop out and generally the interview won't be as informative as people will feel on edge. Because of this, I make sure that the process of being interviewed is as easy as possible.
To arrange a date and time for a meeting
I use an online scheduling service. These make it very easy to find a time when both of you are available without exchanging emails multiple times. You just enter your availability, send the details to the customer, they enter their availability and then you pick a time and date. There are a few sites out there that do this but I recommend Calendly, Doodle or needtomeet.
As for the call itself
Video chat is great because seeing someone talk about a problem gives you a lot of non-verbal communication clues that you obviously can't get from a phone call. I also like video chat because it’s easy to tell when someone on video chat is distracted and you can get them back on track. There has been a lot of debate about whether Google Hangouts is better than Skype. The argument for Hangouts is that there is less for them to set up if they already have a Google/Gmail account. I’m not convinced by that argument, instead I would offer people both options (and even Facetime too if that's what it takes to get them on a video chat).
If the customer will let you record the call, I would definitely do it
This lets you focus more on information gathering, rather than note taking, during the interview. If you can't record the call, you will have to gather information and analyze it to decide if you should make a note - all while the call is going on. If you explain what you only want to record the call so you don't have to take notes while you chat and that you will not share the video with anyone, most people are usually open to you recording it.
Recording the call
There are a lot of screen recording apps but Camtasia and Screenflow are the ones that most people seem to use. If the customer does not want you to record the call, do not be tempted to record it anyway! This is a massive breach of trust and if word got out that you are doing this, it would be very difficult to persuade more people to interview with you.
What to ask the customer
Learning about the customer
These questions help to confirm that the customer is in the market segment you are targeting; and they help you understand more about their role.
- Tell me about your job.
- How much time do you spend on [process you are improving]?
Learning about their problems
These questions help you find out what the customers problems are, or validate your hypothesis about their problems.
Problem Discovery
- What are the top three challenges of your job?
- Do you have processes for solving these challenges?
- Which tasks take up most of your time?
- Do you have a process for solving those tasks?
- Is there a product or service that you wish existed?
Problem Validation
If the customer doesn't talk about the problem you are interested in solving, you should ask these questions (otherwise, ignore them).
- Do you find it hard to solve [the problem you are interested in]?
- How motivated are you to solve this problem?
- What’s the hardest part about [process you’re improving]?
- Tell me about the last time you solved [the problem you are interested in].
- How important is [the value that you are delivering] to you?
- What would fixing [the problem you are interested in] mean to you?
Discovering solutions
These questions can help you discover solutions to problems. They also help you identify problems with your competitors’ products, which can become part of your solution.
- What do you think could be done to help you with [the problem you are interested in]?
- What would be your ideal solution to [the problem you are interested in]?
- What would that let you do?
- What are you currently doing to solve [the problem you are interested in]?
- What else have you tried?
- What do you think of the products you are using to solve [the problem you are interested in]?
- Have you seen any other products that could solve [the problem you are interested in]?
Ending the interview
I use these questions to make sure I understood the customers main problems and to see if the customer might want to become a beta user/early adopter.
- So based on the conversation, it sounds like [the problems they mention] is really difficult for you, but [any potential problems that they did not mention] is not. How accurate is that?
- Is there anything you think I should know but didn’t ask about?
- Do you know anyone else who might also have this problem that I could talk to?
- Can I keep you in the loop on how the product develops?
- Can I follow up with you if I have more questions?
Interview tips
Here are a few tips that you can use to get the most from your interviews.
- Don't tell the customer why you are conducting the interviews as this can lead to bias in their answers. Instead say “I’m working on a project and would like to ask you some questions”.
- Interviewing enough customers will take longer than you think. But don't be tempted to rush the process by interviewing anyone who happens to express an interest. If you do this, your data may be skewed and you won't learn the right lessons. Only interview people who you genuinely think would buy the product.
- Don't ask if people would buy your product, you won’t get an accurate answer. People will be too polite to tell you that they wouldn’t buy it. The only accurate way to know if people would buy a product is to give them an opportunity to do so and measure what happens.
- Don't ask about the price of your product for the same reason you shouldn’t ask if the customer will buy it - you won’t get an accurate answer.
- At the end of each section and the end of the interview, summarize what you think you heard and ask them to confirm that you are correct. This ensures that you understand what the customer is saying. And it shows the customer that you are listening, which will encourage them to keep being open.
- If a customer asks if you are going to add a feature, don't say yes (even if you are). Answering yes stops the conversation dead in its tracks without you learning as much as you could. Instead, ask them if that’s important to them and ask what they would expect the feature to do.
- Try to get the customer to tell you stories, instead of statements. Stories contain more information and tend to be more honest.
- After you ask a question, stop talking. People have a natural need to fill an empty space in a conversation. If you ask a question and then stop talking, the customer will feel obligated to answer.
- Remember this is an interview, not a conversation, so follow your script. If you go off-script, or your customer strays from your questions, try to get the interview back on track as quickly as possible.
- Email the customer after the interview and thank them for their time, even if it went badly or they don't want to be a beta user. It’s the polite thing to do and it may persuade the customer to share more information.
[ Credit: http://www.reddit.com/r/advancedent...terviewing_customers_how_i_talk_to_customers/ ]
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Membership Required: Upgrade to Expose Nearly 1,000,000 Posts
Ready to Unleash the Millionaire Entrepreneur in You?
Become a member of the Fastlane Forum, the private community founded by best-selling author and multi-millionaire entrepreneur MJ DeMarco. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has poured his heart and soul into the Fastlane Forum, helping entrepreneurs reclaim their time, win their financial freedom, and live their best life.
With more than 39,000 posts packed with insights, strategies, and advice, you’re not just a member—you’re stepping into MJ’s inner-circle, a place where you’ll never be left alone.
Become a member and gain immediate access to...
- Active Community: Ever join a community only to find it DEAD? Not at Fastlane! As you can see from our home page, life-changing content is posted dozens of times daily.
- Exclusive Insights: Direct access to MJ DeMarco’s daily contributions and wisdom.
- Powerful Networking Opportunities: Connect with a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs who can offer mentorship, collaboration, and opportunities.
- Proven Strategies: Learn from the best in the business, with actionable advice and strategies that can accelerate your success.
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most..."
Who are you surrounding yourself with? Surround yourself with millionaire success. Join Fastlane today!
Join Today
... Apmitt vjiz iyqisoipdif vji qsucmint vjintimwit us vemlif vu vji qiuqmi xovj vji qsucmint.
