Customer Needs Discovery by Greg Twemlow

LEAN
Customer Interviews &
Analysis
Jan 2015
More information ? about.me/gregtwemlow

- Innovation Accounting by Ash Maurya
This presentation based on you being at
Problem/Solution Fit stage of LEAN startup

You are about to conduct research to test your “problem”
hypotheses. This stage is critical and the MVP
without a clear problem statement is almost certain
to fail. This is the stage where most startups fail.
Historically that has been around 90% of startups.

The Process of Testing Hypotheses
Starts with Customer Research
1. Customer Research - prepare questions with your
report in mind, i.e. how will you analyze ?
2. Clarification process - extend research, refine
3. Founder team analysis/brainstorming of solutions to
confirmed problems - extend research, Pivot?
4. Determining features for your MVP or landing page
tests

This guy didn't do customer research and built the wrong
product to solve a problem people didn’t care about

1. Talk about their life instead of your idea
– The Mom Test
by Rob Fitzpatrick http://robﬁtz.com/
Google “mom test ﬁtzpatrick"
4 Rules of Customer Research
(distilled from 125 pages of The Mom Test)

The Mom Test:
2. Ask about speciﬁc use-cases in the past instead
of generics or opinions about the future

The Mom Test:
3. Never jump in and interrupt with your conclusion

The Mom Test:
4. Talk less and listen more
if you fail to follow these 4 rules, then you WILL deal
with Mom

Research = Discovering
what you don’t know
How ?

Research = Discovering
what you don’t know
In-context observations/interviews - observing behavior &
possibly intercept (question them for a few minutes) or plan to
ask them “can you ask questions for maybe 10-15 minutes”
Group interview (via a friends & family recruiting drive) - time
efﬁcient but not information rich. Role is to facilitate an open
discussion. (May need an incentive - cheese & Pinot Noir)
Research prompts - diaries, surveys
Research using Google - become an expert

Discovery Requires Discipline
Have a plan - we need to speak to ?? people and ask a
standard list of (rehearsed) questions
Make an effort to establish rapport - use empathy
It's all about them not you (or your product)
Patient listening not interrupting - allow for long pauses
Don’t be judgmental - clarify to ensure you understand
Ideally the audience gets value from the conversation -
reciprocity

Scenario
A discovery interview is ideally held in a work setting
like the interviewees ofﬁce. Cafes and curbside are
often noisy and have too many distractions.
It’s a good idea to have a support person.

If YOU are the Support Person
Be alert to level of engagement, body language, tone,
level of detail in responses
Quick debrief after each conversation - give feedback
to the questioner
What expressions and emotions are evident
Anything surprising ? Maybe questions should change
or extend

Example F2F Discovery Conversation
“We are interested in your view of what’s the hardest
part about [problem context] ?
“We are asking for your help and are really interested
in your perspective about [problem] - and thank you
very much for giving up your time.”

“What are the implications of that?”

"How often do you experience this problem?"

"Can you tell me about the last time it happened?"

"What, if anything, have you done to solve that
problem?"

“How do you feel about spending money to solve the
problem ?”

“What other solutions have you tried?”

“How effective are these solutions?”

“What would your dream solution be?”

“Is there anything else I should have asked?”

and a few Survey Don’ts

Don’t ask…
I’m creating a solution to solve world poverty - do you
think that's a good idea ?

Could I interrupt your day with a few questions ?
Don’t ask…

I have an idea for a business — can I run it by you?
Don’t ask…

“So, how old are you?”
Don’t ask…
The reaction may surprise you.

The Overall Research Process
Initial discovery (probably the F2F part)
Clarify, extend and test the research - possibly by survey/email/
phone - further discovery with people who are interested/willing -
leads to the team discussion on results/insights
Team discussion - what insights became apparent through our
research, did our testing conﬁrm customer behaviors, how does that
impact our idea - do we proceed or pivot
Brainstorm what features you need to address the actual problem of
your core target market - leads to creation of an MVP and the true
test of the customer research

How to run a great survey
Agree your survey questions - pay attention to how you
will analyze the responses
Build an email list
Format the online survey - Use a cool presentation, i.e.
makes you look like pros (like typeform.com)
Manage the emails - tools like https://www.intercom.io

Some Relevant Links
http://psr.iq.harvard.edu/ﬁles/psr/ﬁles/
PSRQuestionnaireTipSheet_0.pdf
http://blog.fastmonkeys.com/2014/06/18/minimum-
viable-product-your-ultimate-guide-to-mvp-great-
examples/
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/26-customer-
development-resources/

There is a caveat…
“….don’t simply believe what your customers say, but try to
dig deeper to learn about their real-world behavior before you
accept an idea or hypothesis as validated.”
http://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2015/1/15/dont-believe-your-customers
More information ? contact Greg Twemlow
gt@gregtwemlow.co

Customer Needs Discovery by Greg Twemlow

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