how to fail at customer interviewing
DESCRIPTION
Presented at Leanconf 2014 http://leanconf.co.uk. To build the right product you need to understand the people who use it. Good interviewing should be one of your core skills—whether you are a designer, an entrepreneur, a product manager, or an innovator. Yet I see people making the same mistakes again and again when they go and talk to customers. This talk will help folk get the most from conversations with customers — by showing you how not to do it. I’ll walk through a series of examples of how I’ve seen people do it wrong, and advice on how to avoid their mistakes.TRANSCRIPT
How To Fail AtCustomer Interviewing
Leanconf, Manchester, November 18 2014
Adrian Howard (@adrianh)
Don’t do them
“If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse”
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_ford_1919.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_ford_1919.jpg
“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own”
Don’t get somebody elseto do the interviews
buildlearn
measure
productdata
ideas
build
learn
measureproduct
data
ideas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eames_Lounge_Chair
–Charles Eames
“Never delegate understanding”
Don’t stop doing them
–Bill Vaughan
“We learn something every day, and lots of times it's that what we learned the day before was wrong.”
Don’t interview people who are not your customers
https://www.flickr.com/photos/artfulone/14206229674/sizes/l
https://www.flickr.com/photos/joncandy/5561310462
Go where your customers are
Use your organisation
Use recruiters
Use social media
Don’t do things that only look like interviews
An interview is not a… quiz survey negotiation pitch date conversation
Rapport & Empathy
Learn from your customer
Don’t just use interviews for validation
buildlearn
measure
productdata
ideas
buildlearn
measure
productdata
ideas
buildlearn
measure
productdata
ideas
Don’t talk
SHUT THE F**K UP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Christopher_Macsurak_Fran_Lebowitz.jpg
– Fran Lebowitz
“The opposite of talking isn't listening
The opposite of talking is waiting”
Can you tell me more about … ?
– Arthur Bloch
“Every clarification breeds new questions”
Don’t ask for your fortune
https://www.flickr.com/photos/svenstorm/4452323687/sizes/o/
Ask for stories
STALKbefore you
TALKbefore you
SELL before you
BUILD
Don’t lead the customer
Open questions
Don’t disrespectthe customer
Be polite
Don’t be scary
Consider compensation
Remember body language
Don’t trust your memory
Work in pairs
Consider recording
Write up your notes straight away!
Observations vs Insights
Don’t keep the results to yourself
http://memegenerator.net/instance/54379154
You should interview your customers regularly
You should interview your customers regularly
You should interview your customers regularly
You should interview your customers regularly
You should interview your customers regularly
You should interview your customers regularly
Practice, practice, practice
Do retrospectives
DO LESSTOGETHERMORE OFTEN
to do
MOREAdrian Howard (@adrianh)
quietstars.com
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