Key Takeaway: Early customer learning works best as quick, casual conversations rather than formal meetings. Avoid premature formality to reduce bias, save time, and maximize learning opportunities.
Key Points:
- Avoid Premature Formality:
- Formal meetings (as recommended by the traditional 3-meeting structure: problem/solution/sales) are inefficient and can lead to biases.
- Casual conversations, such as asking quick, well-framed questions during serendipitous encounters, are faster and more effective.
- Example: At a conference, ask, “How did you end up getting this gig?” rather than setting up a formal meeting.
- The Meeting Anti-Pattern:
- Over-relying on scheduled meetings wastes time and may prevent spontaneous insights.
- Example: Instead of asking for a coffee meeting with an office manager, ask casual questions at an event, such as, “Is X as frustrating as it seems?” or “How do you handle Y?”
- Keep Conversations Lightweight:
- Early-stage customer discovery can often be completed in 5–15 minutes.
- Casual chats help uncover concrete facts without introducing biases or pitching prematurely.
- Example: A casual question revealed that investors weren’t struggling with dealflow, saving time and invalidating an unviable idea.
- Adapt Conversation Length Based on Stage:
- Early discovery chats: 5–15 minutes.
- Industry deep dives: 1 hour or more with experts.
- Sales-oriented meetings (once a product is ready): Structured 30+ minutes to include introductions, product discussions, and next steps.
- Disprove Quickly:
- A key goal of early conversations is to identify invalid assumptions as quickly as possible.
- Example: A quick chat with an investor revealed they didn’t have the dealflow management problem the founder expected, disproving the product idea in minutes.
- Minimal Disclosure:
- Share as little information about your idea as possible to avoid influencing responses.
- Guide discussions with open-ended, problem-focused questions.
- Example: “How do you currently solve this problem?” instead of, “Would you use my app for this?”
Rule of Thumb:
- "Learning works better as a quick, casual chat than a long, formal meeting."
- "Give as little information as possible about your idea while nudging the discussion in a useful direction."