Podcast

Mastering Customer Interviews with Michele Hansen

Rob Walling with Michele Hansen · Startups For The Rest Of Us Free Intermediate

Hansen, a bootstrapped SaaS founder herself, talks through the practical mechanics of running interviews as one more task in an already full founder week, not as a separate specialist skill. Walling, also a solo minded bootstrapper, pushes on the parts that feel hardest for a builder rather than a marketer. A good listen for the exact audience this question describes.

  • Treat interviews as a normal, recurring part of running the business
  • Small talk and rapport building are learnable skills, not fixed traits
  • Batch scheduling removes the dread of finding time for calls
Open on startupsfortherestofus.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. As a solo technical founder who hates sales calls, how do I do user research without it draining me every week?

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 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
  3. 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
  4. Video · ~25 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky
  5. If live calls drain you, Clarity lets you watch how real people actually use your product without ever getting on a call. You... Microsoft Tool Microsoft Clarity Microsoft
  6. Rob Fitzpatrick is a self-described techie who taught himself to talk to customers, and his whole point is that good research... Indie Hackers Podcast · About 1 hour The Right Way to Talk to People About Your Business with Rob Fitzpatrick (Indie Hackers Podcast #154) Rob Fitzpatrick (host Courtland Allen)
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