How to Run Customer Interviews

At Lean Startup Machine Rotterdam.

Transcript

1. Lean Startup Machine Rotterdam LUKAS FITTL @lfittl spark59.com CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS Lean Startup is trademarked by Eric Ries and used with permission. Business Model Canvas is created by Alex Osterwalder and licensed under CC-BY-SA.
2. About Me •Entrepreneur (USERcycle, Ef cient Cloud, Soup.io) •Member of Spark59 (Lean Canvas, Running Lean) •http://founderswiki.com/
3. Big Picture
4. You can make Business Decisions based on: Quantitative Data Qualitative Data No Data
5. Quantitative Qualitative Generative Surveys Interviews Contextual Inquiry Mental Models Interviews Diary Studies Evaluative Automated Card Sort Surveys Automated Studies Analytics A/B Testing Multi-Variant Testing Usability Testing Moderated Card Sort Wizard of Oz By @JohannaKoll, based on work by Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt & Christian Rohrer
6. Quantitative Qualitative Generative Surveys Interviews Contextual Inquiry Mental Models Interviews Diary Studies Evaluative Automated Card Sort Surveys Automated Studies Analytics A/B Testing Multi-Variant Testing Usability Testing Moderated Card Sort Wizard of Oz By @JohannaKoll, based on work by Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt & Christian Rohrer
7. Quantitative Qualitative Generative Surveys Interviews Contextual Inquiry Mental Models Interviews Diary Studies Evaluative Automated Card Sort Surveys Automated Studies Analytics A/B Testing Multi-Variant Testing Usability Testing Moderated Card Sort Wizard of Oz By @JohannaKoll, based on work by Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt & Christian Rohrer
8. We want to learn fast. Quantity takes time. And you need a big audience. Qualitative customer development gives you the quickest path to learn.
9. Gather qualitative data by talking with 20 potential customers.
10. Stop interviews if you hit diminishing returns. That is, when people keep telling you what you already know.
11. Interview customers again when you launched your product and it doesn’t work as expected.
12. “What are you trying to learn?” Don’t learn for learning’s sake!
13. Planning Your Interview
14. Your Product Will: A) Solve a Problem / Get a Job Done B) Ful ll a fundamental human need (friendship, dating, entertainment, networking, gambling, etc.) http://steveblank.com/2012/04/19/how-to-build-a-billion-dollar-startup/
15. Write down your beliefs about your customer.
16. Preparing an Explorative Problem Interview
17. Topic Maps
18. Card Sorting
19. Solution Interview & Product Test (Optional)
20. Either: A) Test a (Paper) Prototype B) Pitch & get a Letter of Intent (LOI) signed NOT: C) Pitch & get feedback
21. Finding Interview Prospects
22. Your Extended Network Facebook, Twitter, Email, LinkedIn, etc
23. Send Targeted Traf c To Teaser Page with “Signup to be noti ed when we launch” “Can we call you to ask a couple of Qs?”
24. Blog post Teaser Page
25. References from Interviewees
26. This weekend: On the streets
27. [ Let me show you a bad interview ] Would you do X? Is Y good? How much would you pay?
28. Interview Techniques
29. Shift yourself into the role of a researcher. detective. spy.
30. Take Notes Using Index Cards
31. Interview Setup ? ! Interviewee Interviewer Note Taker
32. Interview Structure 1. Are they your customer? 2. Explore their worldview 3. Close & Collect Contact Info
33. Everybody lies. Because they want to help you. Dr. House drawing by ~TortilloN
34. You are looking for emotions. Frustration. Excitement. Things they care about.
35. Ask about concrete past experiences. “When was the last time you wrote a blog post?” “Umm, 3 months ago.” NOT future behaviour: “How often do you write blog posts?” “I’m trying to write one every couple of weeks.”
36. Ask about frequency and details. “When was the last time you went to a club? Can you remember the time before that?” And if recent enough: “Did you spend over 50 Euros that night?
37. Ask “Why?” & be naïve! “Why do you care about getting more traf c to your blog?” “It will help me with my consulting career.” vs “Um, I guess its good to have an audience?”
38. Ask about existing solutions. “What do you currently use for time tracking?” “Oh, we use Excel - that works ne.”
39. The Mom (or Dad) Test Credit to @rob tz for the idea If you asked your parents, could they lie to you? (never ask people their opinion)
40. Asking about what they are spending changes the conversation.
41. After Completing A Set of Interviews: 1. Look at your notes! 2. Validate/Invalidate your Assumptions on the Validation Board 3. Marketing Magic: Write down phrases & words your customers used 4. Identify next experiment and actions
42. [ Let me show you a good interview ] When was the last time you did X? How did you solve this challenge? Why did you care about Z?
43. Summary
44. Do: - Create a topic map - Figure out who you are interviewing - Allow the interview to go off-track (a bit) - Take notes! - Respect their time - Ask for their email address
45. Don’t: - Ask everybody - Interview Mentors, Investors or Your Friends - Explain how amazing your idea is - Write down a line-by-line script - Send out a survey
46. [ Group Exercise ]
47. Imagine you want to build: Mobile app that helps people nd lunch
48. 5min Interview •What kind of customer? (9-to-5, work from home, etc) •How often do they go for lunch / week? •Where do they nd out where to go? (Yelp/Qype/Tupalo, Google, etc)
49. Special Price: First person to GOOB & tweet about a customer learning with hashtag #lsmr gets the “Startup Owner’s Manual”.
50. Questions? lukas@spark59.com @l ttl on Twitter PS: There are more tips & tricks in the LSM guidebook.