How to talk to your potential customers?

YC Talk

Talk to customers -

  1. Anyone using the current solution - if any? Ask for their review, feedback, what they’re happy about? What are they unhappy about?
  2. Check in linkedin, FB groups, the current user sentiments

How to talk to your users?

  1. In person, phone, video call
  2. Build rapport
  3. DO NOT INTRODUCE YOUR PRODUCT, or introduce it only at last, To ensure they’re not biassed.
  4. Listen more and talk less
  5. In follow up, Ask open ended questions

Questions to ask potential customers about X

  1. Tell me how do you do X today?
  2. What is the hardest thing about doing X?
  3. Why is it hard?
  4. How often do you have to do X?
  5. Why is it important for you/your company to do X?
  6. What do you do to solve this problem today?

Follow up questions

  1. What do you mean by that?
  2. Can you tell me more about that?
  3. Why is it so important to you?

Questions NOT to ask

  1. Will you use our product?
  2. Which features will make the product X better? Instead understand their problem using X
  3. Yes/No questions
  4. Two questions at a time

Important points

  1. Focus on Problems and not the features/solutions
  2. Collect all the problems/features, then decide, which ones are gonna solve majority of their problems?
  3. Categories each meeting, take notes, create problem-solution hypothesis
  4. Start sketching the MVP
  5. Once MVP/Design is ready, give it to user, don’t guide them. Figure out the problems they face while onboarding/using the MVP.
  6. Make slack/whatsapp group with initial customers

This is a sapling 🌱 in my digital garden 🏡.

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