Article · 5 min read

Customer Discovery Basics

Harvard Business School, Rock Center for Entrepreneurship Free Beginner

A concise reference sheet that names the exact failure modes this question is about: leading questions like wouldn't you agree and hypothetical ones like would you buy this, with the fix, ask about the last time it happened, spelled out plainly. It's short enough to reread before every batch of interviews. Good as a one page checklist alongside the longer books on this list.

  • Avoid leading questions (wouldn't you agree) and hypothetical questions (would you buy) entirely.
  • Ask tell me about the last time you, instead of asking for an opinion or a prediction.
  • Watch for emotion and frustration in the answer, that's the signal, not the words themselves.
Open on entrepreneurship.hbs.edu ↗

The question it answers

  1. How do I talk to customers without them just telling me what I want to hear?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. A YC partner turns 'talk to users' into a repeatable 5-question interview script you can use this afternoon. It's The Mom Test... YC Startup Library Video · ~25 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky (YC / founder of Pebble)
  3. A short, practical field guide to customer discovery: who to talk to, how to find them, and how many. Pairs perfectly with The... talkingtohumans.com Book · ~80 pages (free PDF available) Talking to Humans Giff Constable
  4. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  5. The foundational text of customer development, 'get out of the building' started here and became the backbone of the Lean... steveblank.com Book · ~370 pages The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win Steve Blank
  6. Video · ~25 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky
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