3. On Customer Discovery Flashcards
“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them.
New ideas come from observing something, listening to people, experimenting, asking questions, and getting out of the building!”
- Steve Jobs
What is customer discovery?
Learning from your customers by listening to them.
Get out of the building. Get out of your comfort zone. Do it a lot!
Do 100+ interviews.
Talk to people you don’t know.
Who is a customer (that I should talk to)?
A customer is not only someone who pays you or who uses your product or service.
A customer is anyone who could be involved in any way in the adoption of your offering.
And you need to talk to all of them!
How is this idea an innovation?
innovation = a novel match of a solution to a need that creates value
In a Value Proposition, an idea transforms into a solution.
In a Customer segment, the customer determines the need.
The core opportunity of a startup is how the idea transforms into a solution that the customer needs.
We can’t design the value proposition without knowing the customer.
What is this idea good for? -> Who is it good for? -> find potential customers
Hypothesis Framework
A [specific person] makes a [decision/behavior] because of a [reason] = Who? What? Why?
Example:
v1: [Battery manufacturers] value [performance characteristics] more than [cost].
v2: [Lead acid battery engineers] value [charge acceptance] more than [other performance criteria]
v3: [Start-Stop lead acid battery manufacturing engineers] require [50% increase in charge acceptance] before considering [adopting a new technology]
Questions Guidelines
Good Questions
- Ask about process
- Ask about actions
- Ask why
- Ask what and how
Bad Questions
- Ask for opinions
- Ask customers to speculate
- Talk about your tech
- Leading questions
Keep in mind what you want to learn? Which hypothesis are you testing?
Phrasing should be open-ended - resist a yes/no question. e.g., is lower cost important to you? VS what role does cost play in your decision-making?
Conducting the interview
Introduce yourself and teammate, explain roles in the interview.
Reiterate interview will take only a few minutes.
Make clear that:
- you are not there to sell anything
- you don’t want to discuss anything proprietary or confidential
Begin, asking your first question.
Listen, clarify understanding. Be open to surprises and insights.
Do a time check at about 15 minutes. Continue if OK.
“Can you suggest others I/we should speak with?”
“May we say you referred us to them?”
Within 12 hours of the interview, send a thank you email. You want to be remembered in a positive light.
After each interview
- Debrief as a group
- Summarize your learning
- Refine hypotheses and questions
- Send a thank you / follow up
How to find customers
Ask about your idea/tech/innovation…
What is this good for? => Who is this good for?
Customer Types
Decision Mater - decides to adopt
Economic influencer - issues the po / signs check
Influencer - drives adoption / sways decision
End user - day to day users
Early evangelist - early adoption / advocate for solution
Saboteur - undermines adoption
