best practises of customer interviews
DESCRIPTION
"Best Practises of Customer Interviews". This is the presentation that I gave at the Lean Startup Machine Toronto event that took place at the Highline office on Nov 14-Nov 16, 2014TRANSCRIPT
CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS ARE
IMPORTANT
BEFORE
NOW
• Lead Prototyper at Manulife RED
Lab (Communitech, Kitchener)
• BSc Comp Sci / MBA
• 4 years in startups
• 4 years in large orgs
ALI RUSHDAN TARIQ
@alirtariq
www.artariq.com
Best Practises of
Customer Interviews
3 Stages of Interviews
Pre-Interview Interview Post-Interview
Prepare
Empathize
+
Learn
Reflect
+
Adjust
Pre-Interviews
• WHO - Go for a SPA treatment
• WHAT - Prepare your interview
• WHERE - Choose the right environment
Segment 1
Segment 2
Segment 3
A vague group of
seemingly
connected
customers
Results: conflicting/unclear
Segment 1
Segment 2
Segment 3
Results: patterns emerge
SPA Treatment
Size Pay Access
2 3 3
1 3 1
2 2 2
Wedding
videographers
Real estate agents
Hobbyists
=12
= 3
= 8
1: 100s
2: 10,000s
3: MMs
1: -$ or -P
2: $ or $
3: +$ or +P
1: Weeks
2: Days
3: Hours
PREP
• Decide before-hand what you want to know
• List your riskiest assumptions
• Set success criteria, e.g. “We expect 6 out of 15
people to not floss because they hate the experience
of it.”
• Write a loose script
Choose the env
• The closer to the interviewer the better
• Ideally, you want to be in their natural environment
• Fish where the fish are (and do not fish where there
are no fish)
In-Interview
• Don’t ask leading questions
• Don’t ask about future actions - ask about past (&
present)
• Pay attention to Say, Think, Do, Feel
• Take notes (recorder or written by your partner)
• Ask for referral
Leading questions can hurt
Tell me about the last time you …
What was the hardest thing about …
Ideally, someone should take notes for you
If not, then try to voice record
If not, then write your notes after
BlueprintShort intro
Brief description of your intent
Warm up questions (“what do you do?”)
Ask for a story
Ask about riskiest assumptions
Dig in!
Ask for referral
Thank them
Post-Interview
• Thank the interviewee (and ideally reward them)
• Review notes
• Adjust accordingly
Offer something in return for people’s time
(Coffee / early access / praise)
SAY THINK
FEELDO
Success Criteria Actual
Risky Assumption #1 At least 20% 25%
Risky Assumption #2 5 out of 15 people 3 out of 15
Risky Assumption #3
At least 3 of 10 people
spent $50 on this in
the past
Nobody spent $50 on
this in the past
3 Stages of Interviews
Pre-Interview Interview Post-Interview
Prepare
Empathize
+
Learn
Reflect
+
Adjust