Validate the problem

However good our ideas are, we do have to admit that we have no proof - that is the hard part. If you don’t admit that uncertainty is at its maximum at the beginning, you’re going to go off and implement something that nobody wants.

The first step is to figure out whether the problem you are trying to solve is a real one that actually needs solving.

Your best option is to adress potential users directly, focusing on getting qualitative validation of your product idea. At this stage, you want to ask open-ended questions and listen and learn from user responses.

Start with a smaller number of representative users and verify that the problem exists for them. Later, we will carry out more sophisticated experiments on users on a greater scale by trying to provoke and validate wanted behavior in users.

Your initial learnings at this stage will provide confidence to move your idea forward – or teach you that you will need to pivot your iedea as come to understand the real underlying problems.

Don’t ask for opinions

Asking for opinions, you get opinions. People have opinions on everything, and those opinions doesn’t necessarily reflect what people are actually doing in the real world.

Questions like “Would you…” or “Do you think…” are not ideal ways to start a customer discovery interview.

It’s better to ask for facts.

Questions like “When was the last time you googled…” or “Tell me about a time when you…” shows whether they thought about the proble before you triggered them. If you ask “Would you” or “Do you think”, people will very likely answer positively – with their opinions.

The following question openers help respondents refer to a concrete instance:

• “When was the last time you struggled with…?”
• “When was the last time you talked to … about…?”.
• “When was the last time you thought about…?”
• “Why did that bother you…?”

You want to aim for collecting facts and concrete instances when you ask.

Don’t focus on the solution

You do not want to focus on the solution. Taking a starting point in the solution – a future implementation of the idea you have ind mind – will be framing the conversation around what you think is important. Not what is important for your potential users.

Asking whether a particular feature would solve a user problem might give you positive acknowledgements in return. However, asking about a particular feature will not answer whether that feature would solve the user’s most important problem.