The 15 minute conversations you will forever cherish
I am a sucker for methodology. I like frameworks. And guidelines. Blame it on the way my brain cells are wired. Startup accelerator programs teach you methodology. And they introduce you to tools. Lots of tools, ranging from the (lean) business canvas to the “mom test” (developed by Rob Fitzpatrick). The list goes on.
In my experience, the Founder Institute teaches customer development very well.
Let’s dive into some of the ways the Founder Institute’s concise customer development questionnaire can help. Once you have conducted a handful of these highly structured interviews, you have a better idea of whether your idea hits the spot. Or whether it is time to abort the mission. To re-evaluate.
The beauty of it all: it does not take long.
All you need are 15 minutes with potential customers.
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The customer interview structure as provided by the Founder Institute follows a standard scheme:
State the initial problem
Validate it with the customer (you may ask “According to your experience, does this problem exist?”)
Inquire whether the customer is aware of any existing solutions for the problem
Present your solution
Explore whether your approach would solve the problem
Discover whether the customer would pay for your product/ service.
This may appear trivial to you. It is not. I know many enthusiastic founders (myself included) who did not ask these questions early on. The result: Online classes that no one buys or only purchases for a fraction of the price. Dresses that get tailored and no one wears. Software solutions that die a slow death of never having been implemented.
The beauty of the customer development questionnaire is its brevity and the fact that one has to be precise.
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By focusing on a few numbers of questions, the interviewer has to be concise. One can only state one problem — not three. Many startup founders do not have clarity regarding their problem in the beginning. They name several problems. I created a clickdummy for a marketplace that solved at least two problems! But you shouldn’t address more than one. Whenever I see a business canvas that contains three or more problems, my first piece of advice is: focus on one pain point (= problem) only. Using this questionnaire teaches you to hone in on your problem.
The responses to questions #2 and #3 can shatter your dream.
And that is ok. It is better to early on be informed that an issue you identified is not perceived as one by others. That it is a non-issue. Who knew?
Finding out that other founders have already crafted a solution might also temporarily put you in a bad mood. Again, it is better to know early on.
The response to question #6 provides you with a reality check.
By asking a potential customer whether he or she would pay money for your solution / product, you get *real* market feedback. If, after a number of customer development interviews, none of your interviewees respond they’d renumerate you, you may have to change course.
As part of the Founder Institute program, I had to conduct a total of 15 of these 15 minute conversations. They covered three different sets of problems, with 5 interviews per pain point. At first, I was quite uncomfortable having to reach out to acquaintances and lead these conversations. I did not want to appear naive or like I didn’t know what I was doing.
But in fact, conversing with potential customers early on was savvy. And I highly recommend it.
Why limit this methodology to startup issues? You could also use this guideline to “interview” your next romantic partner (are we on the same page, do we have similar goals in life?). Or use it to start a difficult conversation with your child’s Kindergarten teacher about sub-optimal playground conditions. There are many use cases.
Sources:
Founder Institute: “Interviewing Customers is a Special Kind of Torture. Here’s How to Fix That.” 07 November 2018. Link.