Download - Building Your Customer Development Plan
Building Your Customer Development Plan
Cindy AlvarezThe Experience is the Product - http://www.cindyalvarez.com
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
If you don’t have a plan...
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
• What should I ask and how?
• Is this working? Iterate.
• What does it mean? Finding patterns.
• Devil’s advocate.
What we’ll cover
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
• Here’s why it’s a problem.
• Here’s how we try to deal with it now.
• Here’s who is involved.
• Here are the contexts where it’s a problem.
• Here are our constraints.
• Here’s what we’re willing to pay to solve it.
If customers could talk...
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
Teasing out the information
• Who, what, where, why, how
• “Other customers have told me...”
• Expectations vs. realities vs. aspirations
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
•High-level•Don’t mention your solution•60 seconds of silence
“Tell me about how you do _________ ...”
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
•Mental model of ‘how it should be’
•Listen for emotion here
•If neither of these, IS there a problem?
“What did you originally hope to do be able to do with ______?”
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
•Don’t put customer on the defensive.
“What’s wrong with what you’re using / doing now?”X
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
“Are you able to do that as often as you’d like?”
“Are you able to do that as easily as you’d like?”
“How happy are you with the results?
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
•How will stakeholders change with your solution?
“Who works with you on doing ____?”
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
•This is your competition.•Value anchoring.•Why not X?
“What other tools or processes have you tried?”
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
•Explicitly grant permission to ask for the impossible.
“If you could wave a magic wandand do anything with _____, what would you be able to do?”
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
•Remember, it’s a conversation.
“Is there anything you’d like to ask me?”
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
“The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.”
“You[r product] is not a beautiful and unique snowflake.”
It’s not about you
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
• Ask for 20 minutes (Provide suggested timeslots or Tungle.me URL)
• Emphasize no preparation needed
• Phone or face-to-face
• Let customer lead, encourage tangents
• Take notes (silence is OK)
What I do (YMMV)
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
other tools
how often
what do they wish they knew?
stakeholders
do they use GA?
Customer nameCompanyDate
Freeform notes
Simple notetaking
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
surprises / trends / (in)validates hypothesis
(most companies skip this --> fail)
Summarizing is critical
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
after 3 interviews
• Am I getting the information I need?
• Do interviews feel comfortable?
• Am I talking to the right people?
• Am I getting yes/no answers?
Stop! Are you learning?
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
1 person might be a nutcase
2 people means keep listening (and start asking others)
3 people is interesting
Watching for Trends
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
•People tend to agree out of politeness
•Disagreeing = emotion = validation!
“I’ve talked with other people who said [the opposite]...”
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
•Dig deep.
“If you could do ______, how would that make your life better?”
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
• About 50 KISSmetrics interviews pre-MVP
• About 20 KISSinsights interviews pre-MVP
• No surprises in last 5 interviews? MVP.
How many is enough?
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Copyright 2010 Cindy Alvarez
More resources from my blog
• FAQ: Customer Development for Product Managers http://www.cindyalvarez.com/learning/faq-customer-development-for-product-managers
• The “Who” and “Why” of your Target Customer http://www.cindyalvarez.com/lean/the-who-and-why-of-your-target-customer
• The Plural of Anecdote IS Data http://www.cindyalvarez.com/learning/the-plural-of-anecdote-is-data
• Customer Development Interviews: What you SHOULD be learning http://www.cindyalvarez.com/communication/customer-development-interviews-how-to-what-you-should-be-learning
• Customer Development Interviews: Finding People http://www.cindyalvarez.com/best-practices/customer-development-interviews-how-to-finding-people
Tuesday, December 7, 2010