Video · ~30 min

How to Talk to Users

Eric Migicovsky · Y Combinator Startup School Free Beginner

How to Talk to Users

Finding your ICP starts with interviews you are not allowed to sell in, and this is the clearest guide to running them. The rule about avoiding hypothetical questions alone will save you from a fake ICP.

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It answers 3 questions

  1. What is an ICP and how is it different from a persona? People use both words for the same thing.
  2. I am a founder and I have never sold anything in my life. Where do I actually start?
  3. We have about fifteen customers and they are all different. How do I find an ICP out of that?

Read with it

  1. A real company showing its ICP before and after, including the messy middle where they were guessing. The point that narrow... Product for Engineers (PostHog) Newsletter · ~12 min read Defining our ICP is the most important thing we ever did Andy Vandervell
  2. Five questions you can answer this afternoon from data you already have, including the underused one about what objections... Andreessen Horowitz Article · ~10 min read A Framework for Defining and Refining Your ICP Michael King
  3. The story of an Indian company arriving at a very specific ICP, founder-developers at zero-to-one startups facing a build... SeedToScale (Accel India) Article · ~10 min read How Chargebee Made its First Million Shekhar Kirani
  4. Video · ~30 min How to Get Your First Customers Gustaf Alstromer
  5. Abel has coached 300+ early founders through their first sales, and this walks the whole path from cold outreach to procurement... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · ~90 min The ultimate guide to founder-led sales Jen Abel
  6. The clearest single hour on how positioning, segmentation and personas differ and how they connect to the sales call. Dunford... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · ~60 min April Dunford on product positioning, segmentation, and optimizing your sales process April Dunford
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