Perform a customer interview.

Objective: Get a deep understanding of your potential customer segment to expose

problems or needs they have.

Directions:

1. Visit your interviewee onsite. I always recommend meeting people

onsite to help them feel more natural and "in their own habitat." Bringing them into your office makes them feel like they are really being interviewed, and the last thing you want is for someone to be stressed!

When I conducted interviews for BizeeBee, I met yoga studio owners at their studios, and I learned a lot from being in their environment in addition to hearing their responses.

It might not be possible for you to do this, and you might have to instead do a call or a remote interview via video chat. That’s OK too, but I’d encourage you to visit if you have the means to make it happen, because you’ll probably learn a lot from observing people in their settings, just like my student Renee did.

2. Tell them what’s going to happen. You want to let them know how

long the interview will last (usually 30-60 minutes) and whether they need to sign a release or waiver. You’ll also want to mention that you will keep anything they tell you during the interview confidential.

I recommend taking an audio or video recording, because I like to be engaging during the interview and keep the other person’s attention (think Barbara Walters). So the last thing I want to be doing is taking notes. If you

are going to do this, make sure the interviewer knows that you’re recording and is OK with it. If they aren’t, then you need to bring someone to take notes with you.

The other reason I recommend recording is that you can share the interview with teammates. It’s much easier than handing them your handwritten notes, even if you have good handwriting, because it’s hard to understand the context of a question and answer.

3. Be present during the entire interview. Remember, you are NOT

going into the interview to validate your idea. Think about Hermione again: she walked out with results that were contrary to what she thought was the problem!

You have to keep your personal biases aside and instead have a mindset of curiosity. People may convey behaviors that are odd to you. It’s not your place to judge, only to know and understand that you’ll need to consider these as you build your product.

4. Ask different types of questions. In the book Interviewing Users,31

author Steve Portigal talks about the technique of asking naïve questions. For example, he’ll walk in and ask someone, "When is tax time?" It might seem like a really obvious question to most, and you might feel like you’re wasting someone’s time asking them that, but the reason that you do this is to learn about their behaviors.

Someone may respond with, "I think it’s April 15th, but I always file a month in

It’s great to know that’s the behavior of one user, especially if you’re creating tax software and trying to appeal to those who file early! I’ve also talked a lot about asking about people’s pains and needs, but another important set of questions to ask are aspirational questions. For example, as we were conducting interviews for Mint.com, we’d ask people why they aspired to make more money. Surprisingly, not everyone had a greedy mindset. A lot people said it would let them lead a fuller life. They could do things like take a trip to a far-off land or pay for their child’s college tuition. Others said they’d love to donate to causes they believed in. I got similar responses when I interviewed studio owners for BizeeBee and asked them what their goals were for starting a business. Many said they opened up their studio to be free from cubicle-land, and they really needed a system in place to help them achieve that goal!

You’re asking aspirational questions to get a deeper understanding of your customers. That deeper understanding will eventually translate to product design and marketing materials.

5. Tease out responses. By now, you can tell that the responses you get are

going to have some emotional weight to them, which is great! You want to note the language your subject is using and whether they are talking about positive or negative emotions.

Sometimes you might get an interviewee who is a little reluctant to share. This is why it’s important to start each interview by establishing some rapport. It will help loosen them up a bit. Do an icebreaker and get to know them without coming off as invasive.

You may also get a flat or dead-end answer. In that case, it’s OK to dig in a little bit deeper.

Back in 2010, I’d ask yoga studio owners, "Do you use social media?" Usually, they’d just respond yes or no. Some would be a little bit more emotional about it: "Oh yes, I just LOVE Facebook," or "Only for personal use." Then I’d have to dig in a little bit deeper with a follow up question like, "Please tell

me, why don’t you use it for your business?"

One time, someone responded, "I don’t know how to set up a Twitter account." That was pretty telling! Even a tool like Twitter, which I might find easy to use, wasn’t easy for some yoga studio owners back in 2010, which meant I’d have to build a product that was easier than Twitter. Since some of you might be interested in creating products that automate people’s tasks, you want to make sure people take the time to explain all the steps they perform, whether those are the steps in an ideal condition, and whether anyone else performs those steps. It’s better if they show you so that you can see what they’re doing, because sometimes an explanation can leave out key details that you may need to incorporate into your product’s solution!

For example, I’d have yoga studio owners tell me all the steps that were involved with signing up a new student, but it wasn’t until I saw them do it that I understood what was going on. It was eye-opening. There were a LOT of steps involved, and it would take anywhere between 1 to 10 minutes. Based on what I witnessed, I was able to create a simpler and more efficient workflow for them within BizeeBee that still helped them achieve the end goal of signing up a new student.

I call the initial interviews the "get-to-know you" phase. Your goal should be to establish enough rapport with potential customers so that you can do follow-up interviews.

In the initial interviews, you want to focus on behaviors, beliefs, and tasks. I advise against digging into specific products and even talking about the competition because you’ll really limit the scope of the conversation. However, in subsequent interviews, you can get a little bit more product- centric.

6. When you think you’ve dug deep, dig a little bit deeper. When

interviewing, too often people stop at surface-level sentiments. A surface- level sentiment might be something like, "Oh, I hate the competitor’s product." While this is great, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll be willing to use yours. You have to dig in to understand what they hate about the competitor’s product.

Basically, you are trying to understand their level of need. There are three types of needs, and once again, these are similar to characteristics of early adopters:

• Latent need: they have a problem and know they have a problem. • Active need: they are actively searching for a solution.

• Vision: they have an idea for a solution and might have cobbled one together, but are prepared for a better one.

Here’s a sample set of responses from an interview I conducted early on with BizeeBee to determine whether potential customers had a need for a new solution or were happy with the competitor’s.

Me: If you don’t mind me asking, why do you hate the competitor’s solution? Interviewee: Because it’s really hard to use, and it’s clunky.

Me: Why is it hard to use?

Interviewee: Because it takes a long time to set up and you have to go through a number of

steps to complete a single task like taking attendance.

Me: Is there anything else?

Interviewee: Yes. I have to pay to get trained on it, and I also have to pay to train my employees.

Me: So you’re concerned about the cost? Interviewee: Yes.

Me: Why?

Interviewee: Well, it’s not so much the cost as it is about how much time it takes up. Time

that could be spent with customers and doing sales. And even after the training, the product is still hard to use. There’s just too much functionality in it. It takes a long time to learn.

Me: What functionality do you not need? (And, I’d follow this up with questions about what they do need and whether they’d be willing to switch products to meet that need.)

Through this interview I was able to get some deep insights into why a customer felt the way they did about the competitor’s product. This customer was clearly interested in making a switch. However, there are some customers who may show signs of interest but then have a level of loyalty to an existing solution that holds them back from trying something new.

Once again, this is a sign of a mainstream customer versus an early adopter. I performed the first- and second-level interviews and listened to the customers’ responses. From their responses, I was able to understand their needs and sentiments. Ultimately, this is the level of understanding you need in order to gain deep insights that can be translated into the design and marketing of a product.

Just as people fall in love with other people who get them and care for them, the same holds true for products. People fall in love with products that meet their needs. In order to fulfill a customer’s needs, we need to know what they are, which is why we conduct customer interviews!

If you’ve jumped into building your product, I’d encourage you to take a step back. Remember, if your goal is to build a product that customers love, then you must have a deep understanding of your customer, and you need to find people who are in need of your solution. To do this in a way that is effective and efficient, start by creating a qualification questionnaire and sending it out to your audience. Using this questionnaire, you’ll save time by finding a good set of prospective customers who are willing to take the time to work with you during your customer and product development processes. Follow up with those folks and schedule a customer interview with them. Go into the interview with curiosity and leave behind any biases that you may have. Remember: you are NOT your user!

Getting and conducting the interview may seem time consuming and daunting, but hopefully the case studies of students who have benefited from this approach will help you realize that you too will benefit from it.

What you’ve validated in this chapter

If you completed the exercises, then you should have validated the following:

• There is an initial early audience (a subset of your broader target market) who may be interested in your idea. • There are online and offline channels you can use to

Chapter 6

Identifying Your