3 key techniques to interviewing customers

Beware! Customer’s don’t mean what they say…Donna Imam | Feb 2014@donnaileaf #beware #pcatx12 @PCAustinListen to this presentation at: http://www.youtube.com/user/donnaileafLink to session description as submitted to Product Camp: http://productcampaustin.org/pca_sessions/beware-customers-dont-mean-what-they-say/Link to PC Austin 12 all sessions: http://productcampaustin.org/events/productcamp-austin-12/proposed-sessions/

© Inteleaf

@donnaileaf #beware #pcatx12

Beware, customers don’t mean what they say!

Description: If you're a product manager trying to define products that your customers will rave about you are probably talking to your customers a lot. Do you ever wonder if your customer really needs the features they say they want and must have? Do you wonder if they'll actually pay for these features? Do you live in fear that your competitor will get away with much less? In this session we will learn and discuss techniques to interview customers effectively and triangulate with different types of research to help you discern what features a winning solution must have.

Session Leader: Donna Imam is a Partner and Consultant at Inteleaf, a marketing and SW development firm focused on helping tech companies design and develop products and solutions. With leading roles in start-ups and large-global companies and millions of products shipped, she discovered that many companies are tech innovation driven and instead guides them to understand customer challenges and provide tech solutions.

Presented at ProductCamp Austin on Saturday, February 15th at the AT&T Conference Center on the University of Texas campus 1900 University Avenue Austin, TX

Closing the gap between what the customer said they want and what they need…


Every company claims they are market and customer driven

• Market Research

• Customer Interviews

• Big Data

• Voice of the Customer and Quality Data

• Use Case studies, Whitepapers

• Listen to sales and field marketing


Interviewing customers …and getting inside their heads

• Just because the customer said that’s what they want, it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea

• Customer’s know their needs but don’t have access to all the information to know the different ways in which their needs can be met


Only product marketing…has access to so many data points

Technology roadmaps from partners, suppliers and vendors

Multiple customer data under NDA

Know the competition inside out (teardowns)

inteleaf

Cost Data

Technical feasibility

Won Lost Data & Analysis

Core Competencies


Set the premise “shooting in front of the duck”

• When will your product or service hit the market?

• Where will your customers be then, and what will they need?

• Have the engineers shared the changes coming in the future with marketing?

• Do you know what your customer needs, to be successful in that future time frame?

Roadmap


Share information “sneak peak into the future”

• Giving customers visibility into roadmap information

• They can’t give you feedback unless they have an idea of where you are going

- It doesn’t have to be exactly what you will end up doing!

• Share tradeoffs “you can’t have everything” – the laws of physics don’t support it


Push them to the edge“but don’t throw them over!”

• Pressure test their needs

- Challenge

• Suggest alternative ways to solve their problem

- Most customers are not aware of all the options you may have in mind, give them different options

• Negotiate


Thank you!

Donna Imam | Feb 2014@donnaileaf #beware #pcatx12 @PCAustinListen to this presentation at: http://www.youtube.com/user/donnaileafLink to session description as submitted to Product Camp: http://productcampaustin.org/pca_sessions/beware-customers-dont-mean-what-they-say/Link to PC Austin 12 all sessions: http://productcampaustin.org/events/productcamp-austin-12/proposed-sessions/

© Inteleaf


3 key techniques to interviewing customers

Marketing