1. Designing Your
Experiments

2. How to Find Customers
First, consider how you identified the perceived problem:
- Where were you (an event, store, office, etc)?
- Who else was there (frustration, complaints, etc)?
- What was your experience or what did you observe?
Next, go back to those places and see if the problem still exisits?
- Begin interviewing people.
- Idenitfy other similar locations.
●
●
●
●
●
●
Google Alerts
Topsy -- it can provide insight into a world of conversations. ‘Social listening’ tactics allow you to see who is talking about a topic or
problem.
Industry related blogs to see who is commenting on a particular subject and join in on the conversation. See who engages with you, they will
probably be willing to speak with you.
Linkedin to target individuals who work in the industry of your concept and message them.
Blogging allows you to share what you’ve learned, your opinions, or are currently doing, and is a great way to build an audience -- and
subsequently, potential customers.
Utilize video content marketing as a means to attract people to you. Specifically, a Wistia video embedded in a Launchrock page can be a
powerful way to get a people excited enough to share their email address with you and be willing to speak about their experiences in more
2
depth.

3. How to Gain Customer Insight
Spend time preparing before speaking with anyone - people value their time, so don’t waste it.
Spend time preparing before speaking with anyone - people value their time, so don’t waste it.
• Know your elevator pitch or at least be able to explain what you
are trying to learn and why;
• Write out your interview and remember, You are not selling!
– #1 Explain the hypothesized problem (what you’ve observed)
– #2 What hypotheses are you testing? Write them down so you don’t forget
or fall of script!
– #3 Determine pain level - if you could solve this pain what would that
mean for them? Would they pay for it?
– #4 What do you hope to accomplish (interview goals)?
[Teams: 10 minutes]
3

4. Understanding the “Why”
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great
4

5. 12 Tips for Early Customer
Development Interviews
http://giffconstable.com/2012/12/12-tips-for-early-customer-development-interviews-revision-3/
http://giffconstable.com/2012/12/12-tips-for-early-customer-development-interviews-revision-3/
1. One person at a time
2. Know your goals and questions ahead of time
3. Separate behavior and feedback in discussion (testing the problem or
functionality)
4. Get psyched to hear things you don’t want to hear
5. Disarm “politeness” training - Be Socratic
6. Ask open ended questions
7. Focus on actual behavior, not speculative or abstract feelings
8. Listen, don’t talk
9. Follow your nose and drill down (pull out interesting threads)
10. Parrot back or misrepresent to confirm
11. Ask for introductions
12. Write your notes as quickly as possible
AFTERWARDS: Look for patterns and apply judgement
5

6. Developing Your Approach
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Begin by practicing your opening approach with other
teammates and overtime you will become more comfortable.
Be humble in your interviews...
- You are a startup;
- You don’t know everything - so don’t pretend to;
- Be socratic but don’t be insulting - remember, you asked for their time!
- Learn as much as possible (80/20 rule);
- Come prepared;
6

7. Conducting a Customer Discovery
Interviews
http://startupweekend.wistia.com/medias/tao3s
7

8. Letting the Customer Interview
Flow
http://startupweekend.wistia.com/medias/py
8

9. Sample Interview Questions
Create a customer case study
Create a customer case study
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
“Can you tell me the story about that?”
“And then what happened?”
“Why [or how] did you do that?”
“What did you love [or hate] about that?”
“Who made those decisions?”
“How long did it take to implement that system?”
“If you could wave a magic wand, what would it be like?”
Tell me about an experience when ...
What are the best/worst parts about ...
Can you help me understand more about ...
Would you mind making an introduction to [person] to learn
9

10. Gain Empathy
●
Listen - You are not selling, rather learning from what people have to say. So, whether you
agree or not don’t interupt or ignore what you don’t want to hear.
●
Create a Story - The best way to understand a customers “pain” or “need” is to get them to
tell a story (see next point)...
●
Ask “Why” AND “How” - Always dig deep into a story and ask WHY. You may have
heard of the ”5 Why’s” technique which is ultimately if someone expresses something
asking why 5 times will usually get them to express a deeper need which they may not have
understood initially.
●
Immersion - If you have only observed the problem try to experience it - shaddow your
customer to gain a better understanding of their day-to-day life.
●
Observation - One straightforward observation technique is to actually ask the customer to
physically demonstrate to you how they are currently solving a particular problem.
Additionally, you can have them draw the process flow of how they are currently conducting
a specific job.
10

11. Your Business Model Canvas
Your Business Model Canvas
Your Business Model Canvas
Your Business Model Canvas

12. Be Aggressive in
Customer Interviews!
http://startupweekend.wistia.com/medias/xxj6xin5f

13. Run Your Experiments
GETTING OUTSIDE THE BUILDING

14. Day 1
Conclusion
Conclusion
Conclusion

15. DAY 2
Analyze, Modify
Analyze, Modify
Analyze, Modify

16. Communicating Your Discoveries
http://startupweekend.wistia.com/medias/3p
16

17. How to Analyze Feedback
Mapping a ‘Day in the Life’ of a Customer.
Being able to map the day of a customer is really powerful and can provide some great
insight.
- Can you pinpoint the exact spot of the pain or need?
- Is their significant behavioral patterns that need to change?
- Who really is effected by the pain? Your customer’s customers? The bottom line of the
business?
Pick out threads:
●
Quotes/Defining Words
●
Thoughts & Beliefs
●
Actions & Behaviors
●
Feelings & Emotion
17

18. Interview for Empathy
dschool.Stanford.edu
18

19. Empathy Map
19

20. Finding Patterns
http://startupweekend.wistia.com/medias/tg
20

21. Pattern Recognition
Determining the problem types can be difficult, and you might be tempted to overstate a problem to validate your
own desired solution. Ask yourself the following questions to determine which problem type the customer
actually experiences:
1. Pattern Recognition
● What was the most memorable and interesting story?
● What did the person care about the most? What motivates him or her?
● What were they frustrated by the most?
2. Developing a Pattern Recognition Matrix
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Problems -- what problems did you hear or observe?
Emotions -- what were the reactions to some of your questions (pupels dialate?)
Processes -- buying? decision making? testing?
Roles -- are you talking to the right person? Who is the buyer? influencer? saboteur?
Tools -- what are they using today?
Contexts -- Are your assumptions in the ball park?
Needs/Motivations -- The “Why” is what your looking for not the “how” or “what”
21

22. Connecting Anecdotal Evidence
Scientists observe data, notice patterns, develop hypotheses, and then test those hypotheses. Pattern recognition is only a step
along the way to developing hypotheses about the underlying cause. -- Chris Dixon
22

23. Customer Types
Customer analysis starts with understanding what types of customer to approach. Chances are
that several people in a number of categories have problems that your product can solve.
- End Users
- Influencers
- Recommenders
- Economic Buyers
- Decision Makers
- Saboteurs
B2B and B2C may differ significantly. Often in a B2B you be required to identify all of
these players versus B2C where your customer often makes the decision by his or
herself.
23

24. Problem Type
Customers care about their problem NOT your solution!
Latent - they have a problem but don’t recognize it (MASS MARKET)
● Passive - they know the problem exists but aren’t motivated or aware of the opportunity to
change (MASS MARKET)
● Active/Urgent - they recognize a problem or passion and are searching for a solution but
haven’t done any serious work to solve the problem (EARLY ADOPTER/INNOVATOR)
● Vision of a Solution - they have an idea for solving and even have cobbled together a homegrown solution, but are prepared to pay for a better one (EARLY ADOPTER)
●
24

25. Sample Problem Recognition Matrix
Customer Name:
John Doe
Customer Type:
Economic Buyer
Type of Problem/Need
Latent Problem/Need
Passive Problem/Need
Active/Urgent Problem/Need
Vision of a Solution
Must-Have
Nice-to-Have
X

26. “Weekly” Customer Discovery
Scorecard
An aggregate of all customer interviews conducted on a weekly basis. Provides a sense of
whether there’s enough customer excitement to warrant further motion. Additionally, it can
help you spot trends and recognize patterns.
The analysis should help gauge whether the right people were contacted and whether
enough earlyvangelists candidates were identified.
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Excited and Urgent Need?
Problem clearly identified?
Business-Impact?
Is there a work-around?
How is the current solution bought today (Channel)?
“Get” pattern? “Keep” strategy?
Key Decision Maker?
Buying process?
Market size?
26

27. Customer Insights
http://startupweekend.wistia.com/medias/p
ygn8b90g8
27

28. Pivots and Iterations
(require constant customer engagement)
(require constant customer engagement)
Pivots are LARGE changes to your
business model - often strategy
(boys - women)
Modify are smaller modifications to
your business model - often tactics
($99 - $79)
28

29. EXERCISE
TEAMS PRESENT THEIR EXPERIMENTS
29

30. Run Your Experiments
GETTING OUTSIDE THE BUILDING