Use the points below to guide you in conducting effective customer discovery conversations:

Do the following:

✅ Prepare an interview guide

✅ Be flexible - Go off the interview guide when customer tells you interesting things worth exploring (yes, this requires active listening)

✅ Get the customer to share stories

✅ Ask ”why”(and not just once)

✅ Ask about their emotions and motivations

✅ Ask open-ended questions (who, what, why, how)

✅ Ask them to explain terms they use to describe their needs – you want to make it as quantifiable as possible, and definitely how they define the terms (i.e., safe, comfortable, good, etc.)

<aside> 🧠 TIP: Use this problem-interview worksheet to record notes from your conversation with stakeholders. Keep a copy of the notes from your interviews in a folder so that you can come back to them as you learn more about customers!

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Avoid doing the following:

❌ Pitch your product idea

❌ Ask leading questions