{"id":41390,"date":"2021-05-06T15:42:18","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T19:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jumpstartinc.org\/?p=41390"},"modified":"2025-02-19T16:43:03","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T21:43:03","slug":"5-tips-for-conducting-your-first-customer-discovery-interviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jumpstartinc.org\/sme\/5-tips-for-conducting-your-first-customer-discovery-interviews","title":{"rendered":"5 Tips For Conducting Your First Customer Discovery Interviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a business founder, that \u201clight bulb\u201d moment is very exhilarating. You\u2019ve seen an opportunity to create a new or improve upon an existing process, product, platform, service or retail environment. And off the top of your head, you aren\u2019t aware of anything else that comes close to being as awesome as what you have just dreamt up.<\/p>\n

Congrats! It\u2019s the birth of a new business idea.<\/p>\n

Whatever the idea might be, the most important early insight you can have as a founder is to recognize that, no matter how revolutionary or necessary it may seem at first, you\u2019re making A LOT of assumptions. Who your customer is, what problems they are actually experiencing, how big of a problem is this for them, what prevents them from changing to another solution\u2026 the list goes on. That\u2019s why\u00a0customer discovery<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0a\u00a0form of market validation that involves\u00a0gathering feedback from potential customers,\u00a0is such an important step\u00a0early in\u00a0your entrepreneurial journey.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s great to have that first grand vision in your back pocket, don\u2019t get too attached! And don\u2019t start pouring a lot of time, tremendous amounts of money and an intense level of emotional investment into building anything just yet. What you\u2019ve imagined becomes much more actionable from a market validation perspective if you can distill it down to \u201cMy customer has\u00a0THIS\u00a0problem and\u00a0would be very excited if\u00a0they were able to accomplish THIS task differently\u201d.<\/p>\n

Market validation is ongoing, and it never really stops. So embrace the process! Even if you aren\u2019t at the very beginning, the earlier you build up and then keep flexing those particular customer feedback muscles, the more you will ensure that your solution represents what your customers actually want and are willing to pay for. And hopefully, the validation process will help save you time, money, and energy in the long run.<\/p>\n

That said, here are the top five tips for conducting your first round of customer discovery interviews:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DO NOT mention your idea\/invention\/solution<\/h3>\n

This seems counterintuitive at first, because how are you supposed to get feedback on your product\u00a0or service if you don\u2019t even tell people what it is?\u00a0It\u2019s surprisingly easy.\u00a0Right now,\u00a0your\u00a0goal\u00a0is to focus\u00a0not on the proposed solution, but\u00a0instead on the problem\u00a0that your customer is experiencing and the current solutions they are using today. If it\u2019s truly a \u201chair-on-fire\u201d problem for your customers,\u00a0and they are not able to sufficiently get around it,\u00a0they will passionately share insights such as \u201cIt would be so much better if I didn\u2019t have to worry about x\u201d, or \u201cIf only\u00a0I had a way to do this\u201d.\u00a0If you need some ideas on what to ask, check out our Sample Market Validation Questions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also,\u00a0an added bonus: Every business founder thinks at some point\u00a0\u201cbut what if someone steals my idea<\/a>?\u201d.You shouldn\u2019t be overly concerned about this\u00a0at any point, but there’s no\u00a0need to worry about\u00a0it at all\u00a0if you\u2019re not even mentioning\u00a0your potential solution!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

always Have a Hypothesis Going In<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s impossible to\u00a0test every assumption in one conversation.\u00a0Before you speak with a\u00a0specific\u00a0individual, take stock of which assumptions you are testing in this particular case, as well as\u00a0what you\u00a0expect to hear.\u00a0It\u2019s much\u00a0more actionable to\u00a0evaluate\u00a0what you\u2019ve learned from a perspective of \u201cWhat I thought I\u2019d hear vs. What I actually heard\u201d versus \u201cHere\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned, now what am I going to do with this information?\u201d\u00a0The hope is that whatever they are telling you, is what your hypothesis initially stated \u2013 and if that happens, you\u2019ve struck customer discovery gold! And if they get to that point without you leading them in any way, even better!\u00a0But, it\u2019s equally valuable if your potential customer tells you something completely unexpected.<\/p>\n

Also,\u00a0It\u2019s not necessary to remember every word that was said. It\u2019s far more important to be able to describe a few main takeaways. Three pages of notes are far too many \u2013\u00a0a three-bullet-point summary of what you learned will be much\u00a0easier for you to compare\u00a0with other responses\u00a0over time.\u00a0If you\u2019re having trouble deciding which assumptions\/hypotheses you should focus on testing first, check out our Building a Value Proposition Statement Guide.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Emphasize current and past behavior over future behavior<\/h3>\n

People\u00a0are\u00a0notoriously bad at predicting their\u00a0future\u00a0behavior.\u00a0Not to mention, there\u2019s\u00a0usually a\u00a0pretty\u00a0large\u00a0gap between\u00a0what people say\u00a0they will do vs. what people actually do. <\/a>In general, no matter who you\u2019re talking with, they\u2019re likely\u00a0much better at telling you\u00a0about\u00a0what they are currently doing or what they\u2019ve already done or tried.\u00a0So focus your questions around these topics.\u00a0If you probe further, you can probably also learn what they like or what works\u00a0with\u00a0these\u00a0solutions, as well as what they wish was different.\u00a0Either way, stick to asking about\u00a0current and past\u00a0behaviors and your insights become immediately more valuable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Show some weakness<\/h3>\n

A customer discovery conversation is many things, but a sales\u00a0pitch\u00a0is NOT one of them! You don\u2019t need to appear as the utmost expert in whatever industry or space you are focusing on. In fact, showing that you don\u2019t have all the knowledge\u00a0you need just\u00a0yet\u00a0and\u00a0that\u00a0you\u00a0really\u00a0just\u00a0want\u00a0to learn,\u00a0is a\u00a0great\u00a0way to get people to\u00a0let their guard down\u00a0about talking with you and sharing their thoughts.\u00a0Flattery also helps!<\/p>\n

To go more in-depth on the effectiveness of showing some weakness or vulnerability, the\u00a0great\u00a0two-hour read The Mom Test<\/a> by Rob Fitzpatrick dives in on this and many other\u00a0aspects of talking to your customers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Embrace the \u201csee what happens\u201d mindset<\/h3>\n

If your mindset going into each interview is \u201clet\u2019s see what happens\u201d, the moment you reach out to the person, you will always succeed in seeing what happens next! If that something happens to be that person turning you down, or simply ignoring your message, so be it! Onto the next.<\/p>\n

Even at this early stage, customer discovery is a great stand-in for what it will be like to fill your sales funnel<\/a> and\u00a0eventually\u00a0execute on your early go-to-market strategy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Remember, the earlier you can start talking with potential customers, the better. Never stop flexing those\u00a0customer discovery\u00a0muscles.\u00a0And happy\u00a0validating!<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a business founder, that \u201clight bulb\u201d moment is very exhilarating. You\u2019ve seen an opportunity to create a new or improve upon an existing process, product, platform, service or retail environment. And off the top of your head, you aren\u2019t aware of anything else that comes close to being as awesome as what you have just dreamt up. Congrats! It\u2019s the birth of a new business idea. Whatever the idea might be, the most important early insight you can have as a founder is to recognize that, no matter how revolutionary or necessary it may seem at first, you\u2019re making A LOT of assumptions. Who your customer is, what problems they are actually experiencing, how big of a problem is this for them, what prevents them from changing to another solution\u2026 the list goes on. That\u2019s why\u00a0customer discovery,\u00a0a\u00a0form of market validation that involves\u00a0gathering feedback from potential customers,\u00a0is such an important step\u00a0early in\u00a0your entrepreneurial journey. While it\u2019s great to have that first grand vision in your back pocket, don\u2019t get too attached! And don\u2019t start pouring a lot of time, tremendous amounts of money and an intense level of emotional investment into building anything just yet. What you\u2019ve imagined becomes much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sme"],"yoast_head":"\n5 Tips For Conducting Your First Customer Discovery Interviews - JumpStart Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The most important early insight you can have as a founder is to recognize that you\u2019re making A LOT of assumptions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jumpstartinc.org\/sme\/5-tips-for-conducting-your-first-customer-discovery-interviews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Tips For Conducting Your First Customer Discovery Interviews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The most important early insight you can have as a founder is to recognize that you\u2019re making A LOT of assumptions.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jumpstartinc.org\/sme\/5-tips-for-conducting-your-first-customer-discovery-interviews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JumpStart Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-06T19:42:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-19T21:43:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jumpstartinc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/5-tips-for-conducting-your-first-customer-discovery-interviews.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"825\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"420\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jwilliams\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The most important early insight you can have as a founder is to recognize that you\u2019re making A LOT of assumptions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jumpstartinc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/5-tips-for-conducting-your-first-customer-discovery-interviews.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jwilliams\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jumpstartinc.org\/sme\/5-tips-for-conducting-your-first-customer-discovery-interviews\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jumpstartinc.org\/sme\/5-tips-for-conducting-your-first-customer-discovery-interviews\",\"name\":\"5 Tips For Conducting Your First Customer Discovery Interviews - 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