Talking With Customers
Here’s a harsh truth: we can survive for a while with usability or performance issues, but without the core value of a product, we have nothing. Customers don’t have to buy our products, and users don’t have to use our features. They will only do so if they perceive real value.
That’s why we should spend the majority of our efforts accessing the value of our product. And, for this, we need to be an expert on the customer/user: their issues, their pains, their desires, how they think, etc. We’re shooting blind until we understand those.
One great tool we can use to get this in-depth knowledge is talking with them. It sounds straightforward on paper, but there are a few hacks we should know to make these conversations worth it.
1. Choose a focused segment
Before we can serve everyone, we have to serve someone. When we don’t have a clear sense of who we’re serving, we end up talking to many different types of people, which leads to confusing signals.
Getting specific about who our ideal customers are, allows us to filter out all the noise from everyone else. If we aren’t finding consistent problems and goals, we don’t yet have a specific enough customer segment.
2. Decide on learning goals
If we don’t know what we’re trying to learn, we shouldn’t waste now our conversation shots. We won’t be able to moderate the conversations, and we won’t make sense out of the answers.
First, we should think about the current big questions and make a point to face the scary ones. We should think about what would need to have happened for the product/idea to be a big failure. And, in the opposite direction, we should think about what would have to be true for the product/idea to be a huge success. Validating these might be our learning goals.
3. Figure out who to talk to and ask for help
We’ve sliced a specific customer segment, and we’ve got a tangible sense of who we can talk to and where we can find them. We also know what we want to learn from them. If conversations are the right tool, then it’s time to go and ask for conversations.
But how do we do it? Isn’t it awkward to start this kind of conversation out of the blue? Well, the right explanation and framing can do wonders.
Hi,
We're trying to [solve problem X]/[achieve the vision Y]/[fix Z]. We want to make sure that what we are building actually helps.
We’re having a hard time figuring out [specific problem related to your learning goals]. As you [reason why they’re the best person to help], you could save us from a ton of mistakes.
Do you have time for a chat?
The critical bit is to provide context without any bias. Our idea never needs to enter the equation and shouldn’t.
4. Make the best out of conversations
Great news, we landed a batch of conversations! People are willing to talk and help us. Now we have to make those conversations as useful and truthful as possible.
I have a few tricks and tips to help us with that. (Most of them, I read them first in the book The Mom Test, go on and read it as well.)
It’s easier to start with what we shouldn’t do:
❌ Don’t seek approval
Do you think it’s a good idea?
Awful question. Here’s the thing: only the market knows. Everything else is just opinion. And anyone will say our idea is great if we’re annoying enough about it. People will lie to us if they think it’s what we want to hear, that’s how nice they are.
We’re not here to collect compliments, and the primary source of compliment-creation is seeking approval. But people’s approval doesn’t make our product better.
❌ Don’t ask hypothetical questions
Would you ever […]?
Another awful question. Of course they might, someday. That doesn’t mean they will. Anything involving the future is an optimistic lie.
We don’t need to end up with what we wanted to hear to have a good conversation. We just need to get to the truth. To get toward this truth, we should reject generic claims and promises. Instead, we should anchor them toward the actions they’re already taking (more about this below).
❌ Don’t accept every feature request
We can’t count on customers to tell us what to build. They don’t know what is possible. Historically, in the vast majority of innovations, customers had no idea that what they now love was even a possibility.
We’ll hear a lot of requests, though. What should we do then? Instead of writing it on our to-do list and then move on, we should take a moment to understand the motivations behind the request.
Why do you want that?
What would that let you do?
How are you coping without it?
Customers might not know the best way to solve their problems, but they know what their problems are. We shouldn’t waste this opportunity to dig around to find the root cause.
Now onto what we should do:
✔️ Talk about their life
A useful conversation should give us concrete facts about our customers’ lives. The idea is to be fishing for their problems, cares, constraints, and goals. Addressing those, in turn, will allow us to improve our product.
What are your big goals/problems/focuses in […] right now?
What’s the worst part of […]?
Quick note: before zooming in into something they share, we should make sure it matters. Most people have lots of problems which they don’t actually care enough about to fix, but which they’ll happily tell us the details of if we ask them.
Why do you bother?
What are the implications of that?
How are you dealing with it?
If they haven’t looked for ways of solving it already, it’s not that big of a problem, and we shouldn’t spend much time on it.
✔️ Ask about specifics in the past
When diving into details, we already know that opinions on the future are worthless. To get real data, we need to ask about their life as it already is. We need to ask about concrete examples in the past.
When’s the last time that happened?
How have you solved it?
What’s the last thing you did on it?
Could you walk me through it?
What did you love/hate about that solution?
How much did it cost you?
How much time did it take you?
What else have you tried?
Have you ever tried […]?
✔️ Talk less and listen more
Last but definitely not least, we need to actively listen and give as little information as possible about our idea. The more we’re talking, the less we’re learning, and the more we are biasing the customer. Our responsibility is to ask good questions to nudge the discussion in a useful direction.
If we are ever stuck with nothing else to ask at an awkward timing, encourage them to keep going or pick up on something they were emotional about before.
Go on.
Tell me more about […].
[…] seems to bug you. Is there a story here?
You seem excited about […]. Is it a big deal?
5. Share learnings
After a batch of conversations, our goal should be to have the learnings in our team’s head and not only ours. Everyone will benefit from it: it will keep us all in sync, prevent arguments and lead to better decisions.
We should make sure to review the main takeaways of the conversations with them, as well as any problems we ran into. We’ll probably want to write them down as well, for future reference.
6. Adjust and start all over again
Does it end here? Sure not! We’ll have to update our beliefs and plans. Also, we’ll have to check what could be improved on the conversation’s process and decide on our next learning goals.
