Article · ~20 min read

A founder-friendly playbook for early customer discovery

First Round Review (Jeanette Mellinger) · First Round Review Free Intermediate

A UX-research leader (ex-Uber Eats, BetterUp) gives founders a concrete three-step discovery process, including how to recruit and take notes. First Round Review is a top-tier operator source.

  • Start with a research plan that narrows who you talk to and what you want to learn
  • Record every interview and use a note-taker to stay present
  • You understand the problem when you can predict ~75% of what a customer will say
  • Keep iterating on both the customer profile and the problem you're solving
Open on review.firstround.com ↗

It answers 4 questions

  1. What questions should I actually ask in a customer interview?
  2. How many customer interviews do I need before I trust the signal?
  3. Where do I find people to interview when I have zero audience?
  4. How do I run customer discovery as an Indian founder building for Indian users?

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