How to Run Customer Interviews

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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.

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About Me •Entrepreneur (USERcycle, Ef cient Cloud, Soup.io) •Member of Spark59 (Lean Canvas, Running Lean) •http://founderswiki.com/

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Big Picture

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You can make Business Decisions based on: Quantitative Data Qualitative Data No Data

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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

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We want to learn fast. Quantity takes time. And you need a big audience. Qualitative customer development gives you the quickest path to learn.

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Gather qualitative data by talking with 20 potential customers.

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Stop interviews if you hit diminishing returns. That is, when people keep telling you what you already know.

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Interview customers again when you launched your product and it doesn’t work as expected.

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“What are you trying to learn?” Don’t learn for learning’s sake!

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Planning Your Interview

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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/

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Write down your beliefs about your customer.

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Preparing an Explorative Problem Interview

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Topic Maps

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Card Sorting

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Solution Interview & Product Test (Optional)

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Either: A) Test a (Paper) Prototype B) Pitch & get a Letter of Intent (LOI) signed NOT: C) Pitch & get feedback

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Finding Interview Prospects

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Your Extended Network Facebook, Twitter, Email, LinkedIn, etc

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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?”

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Blog post Teaser Page

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References from Interviewees

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This weekend: On the streets

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[ Let me show you a bad interview ] Would you do X? Is Y good? How much would you pay?

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Interview Techniques

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Shift yourself into the role of a researcher. detective. spy.

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Take Notes Using Index Cards

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Interview Setup ? ! Interviewee Interviewer Note Taker

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Interview Structure 1. Are they your customer? 2. Explore their worldview 3. Close & Collect Contact Info

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Everybody lies. Because they want to help you. Dr. House drawing by ~TortilloN

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You are looking for emotions. Frustration. Excitement. Things they care about.

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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.”

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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?

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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?”

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Ask about existing solutions. “What do you currently use for time tracking?” “Oh, we use Excel - that works ne.”

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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)

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Asking about what they are spending changes the conversation.

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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

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[ 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?

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Summary

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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

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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

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[ Group Exercise ]

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Imagine you want to build: Mobile app that helps people nd lunch

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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)

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Special Price: First person to GOOB & tweet about a customer learning with hashtag #lsmr gets the “Startup Owner’s Manual”.

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Questions? lukas@spark59.com @l ttl on Twitter PS: There are more tips & tricks in the LSM guidebook.