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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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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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.
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?
[email protected]
@l ttl on Twitter
PS: There are more tips & tricks
in the LSM guidebook.