Customers & Research

How many customer conversations should I do before I start building versus building a rough version to learn faster?

A starting point

There's no magic number, but the honest rule is: keep interviewing until you can predict the answers, and switch to building the moment talk stops teaching you new things. As a starting point, if you've heard the same problem described the same way several times running, a rough prototype will now teach you more than another call. Interviews find the problem; a scrappy build tests whether your solution actually lands.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

2 resources 1 link-checked Watch Read

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▶️ Video

✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it This is the canonical talk on learning by shipping a rough version instead of only talking. Ries lays out the build, measure, learn loop and the minimum viable product: the smallest thing that lets you learn the most from real behaviour, not just stated opinions. His rule of thumb (take your first MVP idea, cut it in half, then cut it in half again) is a useful counterweight when you are tempted to keep interviewing forever.

The Lean Startup | Eric Ries | Talks at Google

On Talks at Google (YouTube) by Eric Ries About 55 minutes

A minimum viable product exists to maximise validated learning with the least effort, so a rough build often teaches you more than another round of interviews.
Interviews capture what people say; a build measures what they actually do, and the two frequently disagree.
Most founders overbuild the first version, so aggressively cut scope and get something real in front of users faster.

Watch on YouTube youtube.com →

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✍️ Essay

Free Beginner

Why we picked it Most founders either stop at two chats with friendly users or interview forever and never ship. Seaman, a UX researcher, gives you a concrete starting formula (begin at 5, add more for complex domains, multiply by personas) and a clear stop signal: when interviews start repeating and stop teaching you anything new, that is saturation and it is time to move. It reframes the real question from a magic number to noticing when you have stopped learning.

The Right Number of User Interviews

From Medium by Mitchel Seaman About a 10 minute read

Start around 5 interviews per persona and add more only if the domain is genuinely complex or the users vary a lot.
The point to stop is saturation: when new conversations mostly echo what you already heard, more interviews are wasted time.
There is no single correct number, so treat any count as a planning tool, not a target to hit before you are allowed to build.

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