This is a simple explanation about how to go through the process of customer discovery and the difference between user interviews vs surveys

1. CUSTOMER DISCOVERY
AHMED KHALED/ PRODUCT MANAGER

2. WHY PRODUCTS
FAIL ?
#1 mistake: Build something
nobody needs.

3. “In god we trust, all
others must bring
data”
- W. Edwards Deming

4. CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT
1- Customer Discovery: First capture founders’ vision and turns it into a series of hypotheses. Then it develops a plan to
test these customer reactions to those hypotheses and turn them into facts.
2- Customer Validation: tests wether the resulting business model is repeatable and scalable or not. If not, we need to
get back customer discovery.
3- Customer Creation: is the start of creation. It’s about building demand and driving it to sales channel to fulfil
demand on the product or service you are building.
4- Company Building: transitions the organization from a startup to a company focused on executing a validated model.

5. HOW TO CREATE A PROBLEM HYPOTHESES ?
We use the same formula as user stories:
For example:
 As a homeowner, I want to use a smart thermostat so that I can save time and money. (NEST)
 As a sales-person, I want to manage all my contacts and leads in one place, so that I can close more deals. (Sales
force).

6. START WITH
SECONDARY
RESEARCH
Start from a general point of view research:
 Get total market size (TAM).
 Validate if people talked before about the problem.
 Check if there are other people who are trying to
solve the problem.
 User resources like (Google- Reach out to experts).

7. PRIMARY RESEARCH
We use two approaches:
 Surveys (Don’t).
 Customer Interviews
(Please).

8. SURVEYS VS INTERVIEWS
Surveys are for:
•Tracking changes overtime (before /
after a feature release)
•Quantifying issues seen in user
studies (We know [something] is a
problem, for how many ?)
•Measure attitudes, intents, or a task
success.
Interviews are for:
•Discovering underlying user
motivations and needs.
•Discovering wether people are
successful using a product.
•Uncovering usual user behavior and
habits.

9. GOOD SURVEY VS
BAD SURVEY
Good survey:
 Short- keep things on a need-to-know basis.
 Give an expectation upfront if they are longer than 5 mins.
 Start broad, then get more detailed.
 Group related questions together.
 Pre-tested.
 Use rating scales, or short questions.
Bad Survey:
 Try to justify answers.
 Use leading questions (would you use this?- would you like
this in a better way?)
 Ask “why” and expect insightful response.

10. SURVEY
EXAMPLE:

11. ANALYZING
SURVEY
EXAMPLES:

12. INTERVIEWS:
Where to start?
Create a screener:

13. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:
Good interview questions:
 What causes [a problem]?
 What are your top 3 overall problems?
 Can I follow up with you?
 Why?
 How do you do this today ?
 What is the most frustrating part ?
 Can you give me an example ?

14. CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS:
Tips for good interview:
 Get into character
 Try to make it face to face (Open camera on Zoom)
 Smile
 Be interested
 Open ended questions
 Keep it personal and ask for examples
 Watch for body language

15. ANALYZING INTERVIEWS OUTCOME
You want to see patterns in expressed problem (Demographic vs Psychographic) .
 Show awareness of the problem.
 Potentially show active search for a solution.
 Shows dissatisfaction with available solution.

16. AFTER THE INTERVIEWS
Summarize findings:
 What did you learn about your assumptions?
 What did you find regarding your hypothesis ?
 How does this further define your target user?

17. ANALYZING THREE OUTCOMES
 I was right ! (Move on to customer validation)
 I was almost right (Adjust your hypothesis and back to interviews)
 You were way off (back to drawing board and start over)

18. CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT
1- Customer Discovery: First capture founders’ vision and turns it into a series of hypotheses. Then it develops a plan to
test these customer reactions to those hypotheses and turn them into facts.
2- Customer Validation: tests wether the resulting business model is repeatable and scalable or not. If not, we need to
get back customer discovery.
3- Customer Creation: is the start of creation. It’s about building demand and driving it to sales channel to fulfil
demand on the product or service you are building.
4- Company Building: transitions the organization from a startup to a company focused on executing a validated model.

19. JOBS-TO-BE-DONE FRAMEWORK
 The jobs-to-be-done framework is an approach to developing products based on understanding both the customer’s
specific goal, or “job,” and the thought processes that would lead that customer to “hire” a product to complete the job.
 A framework for customer discovery and features priotrization.

21. BRIEFLY
 There is no magic pill or silver bullet for this.
 It’s about understanding your users (Meet them where they already spend time together- create conversations and
genuine relationship with them- Start by providing and obtaining value).