Video · ~20 min

Customer Discovery: What Do You Ask

Justin Wilcox · YouTube Free Beginner

Customer Discovery: What Do You Ask

Wilcox runs through his own question list on camera and explains why words like would and will ruin an answer before it's even given. Watching him do it live is more useful than reading his rules, since you see the follow up questions he actually asks.

  • Never ask a question containing the word would.
  • Ask more questions than you answer, and count them if you have to.
  • Chase the emotion behind an answer, not just the fact.
Watch on YouTube ↗

It answers 3 questions

  1. What questions should I actually ask in a customer interview?
  2. How do I get honest answers when the person I'm interviewing is a friend or someone in my network?
  3. How many customer conversations should I do before I start building versus building a rough version to learn faster?

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. A deep conversation on why direct questions fail and how story-based interviews surface real behaviour. Torres names the common... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · ~75 min Teresa Torres on how to interview customers Lenny Rachitsky and Teresa Torres
  5. 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
  6. Ash Maurya, author of Running Lean, argues you can always find how a customer solves a job today, and that existing workaround... LEANFoundry Article · About a 10 minute read Find Better Problems Worth Solving with the Customer Forces Canvas Ash Maurya
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