Integrating “The Honesty Pitch” in your user interviews

You should explicitly ask your users to be honest before user interviews. It makes all the difference in the world.

Illusionary art piece by Ukranian artist, Oleg Shupliak.

In the past 12 months since launching my startup, I’ve realized that much tactical startup advice quickly becomes obsolete. Yet, the one piece of advice that I have found myself sharing again and again is the significance of the “Honesty Pitch” in user interviews.

Everyone will tell you how important it is to talk to your users in order to find design, market, and build “something people want!”. Rob Fitzpatrick’s “The Mom Test” is a seminal guide on this, detailing how to approach potential users in the beginning for feedback and avoid false positives. I highly recommend “The art of user interviews” by Ant Murphy and “Lead better customer interviews” by Jackie Colburn as well.

But few discuss a key persistent issue: even regular users, who are asked the right questions, will often withhold honest feedback. I’ve observed this trend both in my startup as well as in companies with millions of users.

Through 150+ early-stage user interviews at my startup, I have found a simple yet highly effective technique to elicit genuine feedback from your users: the Honesty Pitch.

Introducing the Honesty Pitch

The Honesty Pitch is a short disclaimer that I share with my users before we start the interview. It functions as a nudging device to make your users comfortable in sharing every piece of criticism that’s on their minds.

These are three versions I’ve used in the past few weeks:

• “I think most users hold back on sharing honest feedback because they don’t want to hurt our feelings. I want you to be as honest as possible. We are so early in our journey that nothing you can say can offend us or hurt our egos.”
• “OK, before we continue the call, I want to say something. My hot take is that most people lie in user interviews because they don’t want to hurt the ego of the team. Please be as honest as possible about every little annoyance, small or big. Put on your Most Judgemental Hat.
• “One more thing before we continue on the call: please be as honest as possible. I am aware that there are many problems with the app that still need fixing, so please don’t hold back. I am curious to hear which problem you notice the most and are holding back on your experience.”

Frame it in any way that feels most natural to you. Fundamentally, a good Honesty Pitch communicates three key things to the user:

1. It communicates to the user that you and your team’s ego are not attached to your work, “…we are so early in our journey”
2. It recognizes early on that you are aware that there are things to improve; this makes the user more comfortable sharing the things they dislike. “I am aware that there are many problems with the app that still need fixing…”
3. It invites the user to switch their mindset from the default “nice, cautious, compliment-giving” attitude to a critical and honest one, “… Put on your Most Judgemental Hat.”

Most users chuckle when they hear this disclaimer, and they nod in agreement. The shift in their attitude is almost palpable and the invitation to “put on their Most Judgmenetal Hat” is always welcomed.

The feedback from users since adopting this technique has been transformative, reshaping our approach to UX, UI, and overall product strategy. For instance, we recently identified a minor issue that, once resolved, led to a 40% drop in uninstall rates.

The Honesty Pitch has worked wonders for me — and I hope it’s useful to you too. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Excellent resources on the topic:

“Lead better customer interviews with this downloadable guide” by Jackie Colburn, published on UX Collective.

“The art of user interviews” by Ant Murphy

“How to talk to users” by YC Partner Gustaf Alströmer. A great review of how to approach user interviews: the goal is to learn more about the user problem rather than get specific feature ideas.

The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. The book mentioned in the beginning and one of the most recommended reads for early-stage, pre-product, startups.

UX Laws by Jon Yablonski: one of my favorite reads on the psychology behind UX and user behavior.