Key Takeaway: Effective customer conversations require asking critical, sometimes uncomfortable questions that yield actionable insights and reduce risk.
Key Points (with Examples):
- Focus on Important Questions:
- Avoid trivial or inconsequential questions and aim for those that address business-critical risks.
- Example:
- Trivial Question: “How old are you?”
- Important Question: “What are the three biggest problems you’re currently facing at work?”
- Thought Experiment:
- Imagine your company fails: “Why did we fail?”
- Imagine it succeeds: “What must be true for us to succeed?”
- Embrace Bad News:
- Bad news clarifies whether a problem is worth solving. Lukewarm responses often signal disinterest, helping you avoid wasted effort.
- Example:
- Bad News Response: “This isn’t really a big deal for us. We just ignore it.”
- Use follow-ups to dig deeper: “Why isn’t this a big deal for you?” or “What other problems are more pressing?”
- Mistake:
- Chasing compliments: “Do you think this idea will work?”
- Instead: “What’s the biggest problem you face with X today?”
- Avoid Premature Zooming:
- Start broadly to uncover if the problem you want to solve matters before diving into specifics.
- Bad Example:
- Question: “What would make it easier for you to go to the gym?”
- Problem: Assumes they care about fitness, even if they don’t.
- Good Example:
- Start broad: “What are your biggest goals or challenges right now?”
- Customer Response: “I’m focused on work, fixing up my house, and spending time with family.”
- Outcome: Realize fitness isn’t a priority and move on.
- Distinguish Between Product Risk and Market Risk:
- Conversations are great for validating market risk but don’t solve product risk.
- Example (Market Risk):
- Question: “Would you pay for a solution that helps manage your farm animals’ fertility?”
- Finding: Farmers would pay if the product works.
- Example (Product Risk):
- The challenge lies in building a device that reliably tracks animal fertility—not in customer willingness to pay.
- Prepare a List of Three Big Questions:
- Pre-plan three critical questions for each interaction to stay focused and address key uncertainties.
- Example (for a fitness app):
- “What do you currently do to stay fit?”
- “What has stopped you from exercising regularly?”
- “What tools or services have you tried, and how did they work for you?”
- Tip: If you run into an ideal customer unexpectedly, having prepared questions lets you extract valuable insights on the spot.
Oneline Summary: Start broad, ask big questions, and always have a list of three key things to learn from each conversation.