How to design a survey method of customer development (Customer Development) and to make the most of it

Management of a startup involves great responsibilities. Marketing and sales, Amateur HR and accounting, development and project management, in one word, you must be a master of all trades. We all understand the importance of the approach of the Lean startup (Lean Startup) and methods of customer development (Customer Development), however, they are difficult to implement in practice. By the way, if you haven't stumbled upon CustDev.com, run there now and grab a book Brant'and Patrick and The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development (or Russian translation of the book — Startup around customer).

Once you made a promise to myself to "get out of the office" to talk with their clients and truly explore the question about the demand for the proposed product in the market (Profit-Market Fit), it is very important to get the most out of this event. For newcomers to the methodology of the development of the client one of the most difficult things is a compilation of interviews, so I'd like to share how I give structure to the interviews to achieve maximum impact from them.

How to structure surveys according to the method of development of the client (and make the most of them)

There are those who have already written about how they are in the polls, so it's definitely worth to read the opinion Cindy Alvarez and Sachin Aggarwal regarding this question.

I share your polls into 3 parts – People, Problems and Your Solution. depending on the person, on average, on all about all it takes me 30-45 minutes. (Note: This structure is best suited for B2B products, but with a little ingenuity it can be adapted to B2C)

1) People – or – Who are you?

Before proceeding to the problems and your proposed solutions, you need to find out who you are dealing with. It simultaneously heats your partner with simple questions and also gives you the opportunity to build a rapport with him.

Examples of questions you could use:

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what is your name and what is your role in the company?

What place you occupy in the structure of your Department? The entire company? the

• How is your budget? Who needs to approve your purchase?
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• How do you find new products for your work? Do you need any approval for their use?
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• have you Tried something new recently?
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• Describe your typical work day.
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• How much time do you spend doing [task X]? (Task X being anything released during their normal working day)

Do not neglect this introductory part of your survey! You certainly don't need a novel describing the daily lives of your companions, but you should know enough to understand their role in the company, who is a key person and their overall technological level. All this will help you in the future to analyze which users are most receptive to you are interested in the problem and your proposed solution.

2) the Problems or What are your biggest challenges?

This is the section where you try to figure out whether a person is faced with a problem as you think, you decide. Your task is to not let them down to your problem! the less you show the problem, which is mentioned, the more reason to believe that you are on the right track!

Examples of questions you could use:

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• Name 3 challenges you had to face on your work.
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• Name 3 problems related to [sector X], with whom you had meet on your work. (Sector X is the sector that relates to your startup)
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• Learn more about anything time-consuming or costly in their daily work. (Here you can add a slight exaggeration to evoke an emotional response, like "that sounds inefficient..." or "it looks like it's expensive...")
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• How did you cope or decided to [Issue X]? (You should check to see if they've found the solution yourself. If Yes... then ask for a copy of this decision!)

People love to talk about themselves, so let them vent and let them speak about their problems (in other words – Shut up and listen!). Usually people propose a terrible solution, but you need to hear their views on these solutions or to see what they came up with themselves.
Attention, you haven't mentioned your solution or problem. If they won't tell about your problem specifically, then, ending this section of the survey, you need to ask is whether the problem that you think a problem for them. Whether they agree with the fact that this is a problem or not, you need to know why it's not included in the top of their problems.

3) Your decision or View, survive your idea of meeting with the client.

If during the interview based on the questions of the second part, the other person he mentions about the problem that you are working on, then you are on the right track! Even better if they described a solution using the "magic wand" remotely resembles what you do.

Despite the fact that it was in the second part, you should discuss what you think is the problem and the solution to this problem. To confirm that this idea uninteresting as important as to know that they like it; as a result, you find out for yourself, or that they are not your customers, or if they are still your what you want these clients of yours.

Examples of questions you could use:

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• Familiarize them with the problems that, in your opinion, you have the solution. If they agree with your vision of the problems and their solutions?
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• Suitable whether [your decision] to any of their problems?
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• You would pay for our solution? How much? (do Not be afraid to call you are interested in the price...", whether [X] is reasonable?")
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• If they are willing to give your price and they like your idea... "are they Ready to start immediately?"

If everything goes as it should, and you really solve the problem, then your customer may want to immediately start the product. And You probably have to learn a lot about what I want and what I don't want your customers and then your idea will evolve.

This basic structure can give you surprisingly accurate information about your ideas and about the wishes of the customers.

And finally, a few important things:

1) Take good notes or record everything!
After talking to 8-10 people, you need to go back and review your notes on the subject of coincidences. This is especially true of the first part, where you need to find out what is common among people who agree that you can solve their problem. Then you need to add up all recordings and share results with your team.

2) make Sure that at some meetings there are other team members
A good company with a focus on customer-centric development involves every employee in the work process. At Performable, to acquire them HubSpot, engineers spend 30% of their time communicating with customers over the phone. Nothing helps to do a better job than understanding, for whom they build/sell/move the product.

3) keep it simple
It doesn't have to be a poll! They should feel like they are talking with a friend about their problems at work. The more comfortable they will feel when talking to you, the more they will reveal to you.

4) Go beyond script
The best results are obtained when you delve a little bit into something that is interesting to your interlocutor. The script is a kind of map of the area, but there is no reason why you can't go back to him after a 5 minute retreat, on specific challenges or how the company operates.
5) If they have MVP... ask him to show you!
Nothing gives you a greater understanding of the client than what they invented themselves in relation to the decision problem. The best thing you can do is ask them to show you is that will help you to understand what they hope to gain from this decision. These people are also the best candidates for the allies to your product.

6) Stay in touch
Common courtesy to thank people for their time and help that will give you the opportunity to contact them in the future if your product will change and become suitable for them; or invite them to test your product.

7) Finish by request
Always finish your surveys with gratitude and request for anything. It can be please provide a copy of their MVP or even better ask them to introduce you to someone who may be interested in what you're working on. In my experience, similar experience in 80-90% of cases, further surveys at the time, as only 1 in 10 dry email has continued.

8) Be open to new challenges! Thus are born great products.
As Steve Blank said, "there is No such idea, which would have had a first meeting with a client". Don't be afraid to deviate from your initial idea to the fact that in reality your customers want. If the second part have you tried and found hot problem... find out how they cope with it in the moment and how much they are willing to pay for her decision.

In conclusion, you want to find a "hot" problem, not "just a cool problem." Think about it this way: if I lit up a hair (literally), and you would sell buckets of water, and I would definitely buy your product. But if I would get wet and I would have been cold, I would hardly have right now bought your bucket of water, but would have this in mind for the future.
Find such difficulties and their solutions, for which customers want and will pay.

Do you have advice for entrepreneurs who conduct surveys on a method of development of the client?

Some time ago on habré there was a whole controversy, which nearly passed in the scuffle, is all the same to translate Customer Development. And although I'm still closer to the term "customer oriented development", at the same time began to appear "official" translations of books that use the term "customer development". In these books use the term "economical start-up" as a Russian analogue of the Lean Startup. Following the formal logic English term would translate as "lean startup" — similar to "lean manufacturing". In General, the terminology is a complete disaster. To invent their terminology and the coordinate system is not exactly I want, so I will continue to be a footnote to indicate its position.

the Translation is done in the framework of the summer school start-UPS Tolstoy Summer Camp.

Article based on information from habrahabr.ru