This is a quick introduction to customer development interviews. This technique is used to identify: -problems customers will pay you to solve -a solution that people will pay use and pay for -messages that communicate clearly to customers -the buying process a customer employs

1. Am I About to
Soar or Crash?

2. Quick Introduction to
Customer Development
Interviews
January Indianapolis Lean Startup Circle Meetup
by Frank Dale

3. Ever tried. Ever failed.
No matter. Try again.
Fail again. Fail better.
- Samuel Beckett

4. Goal is to validate
or invalidate
Hypothesis

5. Test Our Vision Against The Market

6. Some Use Cases
Problem Discovery
Solution Validation
Message Testing
Understand Decision Process

7. Why You Probably Won’t Do Them?

8. You love your idea too much
You don’t want to be “wrong”
It makes you uncomfortable
It takes too much time

9. If you are ready to try…

10. Identify the hypothesis you want to test:

11. Write Them Down

12. Write 4-5 Open Ended Ques. That Align to Each Hypothesis
v
What
How
Why
Who

13. Problem Discovery
&
Solution Validation
Should Be
Separate Interviews

14. Find People You Don’t Know

15. Let them know you are doing research.
Speak only with a stated purpose.
If you ask for 15 minutes, you will get 30.
Ask for 30 minutes and you get 45.

16. Make it feel like a conversation not
an interview:
Gather demographics if appropriate
“Tell me about yourself…”
Engage in “small talk” to get them
to relax (yes, it works)

17. BE CURIOUS
Open-ended questions help make it a
conversation
Probe for behavior
Let them in/validate don’t lead them to your
desired conclusion

18. If possible, bring a co-pilot
A second opinion helps prevent
Confirmation Bias

19. Take notes
At the end, ask if you can contact them
again to follow-up

20. Thanks to the photographers for sharing!
All photos used under a Creative Commons License
Credits
1. “IMG_1427” by Liam Ryan http://www.flickr.com/photos/liam_ryan/2205258640/
2. “20070919_001” by RadialMonster http://www.flickr.com/photos/radialmonster/1436548828/
3. “Going Down” by Motograf http://www.flickr.com/photos/motograf/939192240/
4. “Goal” by Robert Van Hilten http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogodoun/2059275363/
5. “Sunset at Snowbird” by Frank Dale
6. -
7. “Roadside Sign on the Ring of Dingle” by Frank Dale
8. CHF’s Library by Geekadelphia http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekadelphia/2781333941/
9. “leaping” by beccaplusmolly http://www.flickr.com/photos/beccaplusmolly/3286709587/
10. “Holmes” by GrahamC 99 http://www.flickr.com/photos/schnappi/2321628609/sizes/o/in/photostream/
11. “Flickr Handwriting Meme” by Zadi Diaz http://www.flickr.com/photos/karmagrrrl/3196441086/
12. -
13. “The Fork in the Road” by i_yudai http://www.flickr.com/photos/y_i/2330044065/
14. “Crowd” by Marc Wathieu http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcwathieu/4102945874/
15. “Ask for Peace” by Ask? http://www.flickr.com/photos/ask-for-peace/1824414133/
16. “Costa Conversation” by Lovestruck http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovestruck94/4080022888/
17. “Curious Canine” by mpantluce http://www.flickr.com/photos/uncommonly_common/3602846134/
18. “Happy Co-Pilots” by Randy Cox http://www.flickr.com/photos/randycox/303968489/
19. “Nice Follow-Through!” by Dean6921 http://www.flickr.com/photos/33294494@N05/4667439962/

21. Resource List for Further Study
Books:
“The Four Steps to the Epiphany” by Steve Blank
“Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development” by Brant Cooper & Patrick Vlaskovits
“Running Lean” by Ash Maurya
Blog Posts:
“Tips for B2B Customer Development Interviews” by Sean Murphy
“12 Tips for Early Customer Development Interviews (revised)” by Giff Constable