MGT420 - Module 02 Important Topics and Study Guide (2024-2025).pdf

Module 2: Customer Discovery - Talking to Humans Dr. Kipp A. Krukowski MGT 420 – New Venture Creation Why is today’s topic important? Many of the most important decisions you make will have to be based on information you obtain from potential customers… …before you invest your money and time...

Module 2: Customer Discovery - Talking to Humans Dr. Kipp A. Krukowski MGT 420 – New Venture Creation Why is today’s topic important? Many of the most important decisions you make will have to be based on information you obtain from potential customers… …before you invest your money and time into a strategy… …so, you better learn how to best extract this info! Talking to Humans Get out and talk to your customers! Talking to Humans Be a good listener and confirm what is being said! Talking to Humans Talk to customers before developing the solution! Talking to Humans Tell me about the case… Lessons Learned 1. Customer discovery is about gaining much deeper insight into your customer, your partners, or your market 2. Being told your idea is cool is not useful; seeing behavior that validates your customer’s willingness to buy is very useful 3. Prepare an interview guide before you get out of the building 4. To ask the right questions, you need to understand your risks and assumptions 5. Get creative when trying to recruit people — if at first you don’t succeed, try something new 6. Sometimes observation is as powerful as interviews 7. Take good notes, especially on your key risks, so that you can calculate metrics later. Even better, set your target goals ahead of time! 8. Bring learning back and analyze your patterns as a team 9. Never stop asking hard questions about your business Who Do You Want to Learn From? Don’t take the easy path…line up quality interviewees since you will make decisions based on their feedback. Who Do You Want to Learn From? Who will be your typical customer if you get traction? Who will be the early adopters? B2B – Who will be your champion within the organization? What Do You Want to Learn? Spend time and develop quality questions to get high quality results. Who, What, Why, and How?...and Feedback Get Stories and ask Open-Ended Questions Testing for Price: How much do you currently spend to address this problem? What budget do you have allocated to this, and who controls it? How much would you pay to make this problem go away? (this can lead to interesting answers as long as you don’t take answers too literally) Feedback on Ideas or Prototypes If you could wave a magic wand and solve any problem, what would you want to solve? An interview guide is not a script Watch direct purchases through observation How Do You Find Interview Subjects? Don’t interview those that you know who are going to tell you what you think you want to hear. How Do You Find Interview Subjects? Three general rules: 1. Try to get one degree of separation away (don’t interview your mom, your uncle, or your best friends) 2. Be creative (and don’t expect people to come to you) 3. Fish where the fish are (and not where they are not) Make referrals happen When you end an interview, ask the person if they know others who face the problem you are trying to solve. Get leads at conferences for follow—up interviews Don’t sell…ask “My name is Steve and [dropped name] told me you were one of the smartest people in the industry and you had really valuable advice to offer. I’m not trying to sell you anything, but was hoping to get 20 minutes of your time.” How to ensure an effective session? Don’t “lead” in your questions causing the interviewee to respond in a specific way. How to ensure an effective session? Do your interviews in person (body language and build rapport) Talk to one person at a time Add a note taker Start with a warm-up & keep it human Disarm your own biases (Be prepared to hear things you don't want to hear) Get them to tell a story Listen, don’t talk Follow your nose and drill down (ask for clarification and “why” behind the “what”) Parrot back or misrepresent to confirm Do a dry run Getting feedback - Don't trust that they SAID they like your product Making Sense of What You Learn Understand what your data and feedback is telling you. Making Sense of What You Learn Take good notes Calculate metrics, but don't become obsessed Look for patterns and apply judgement Expect false positives – Be careful: People will want to be helpful and nice, and your brain wants to hear positive things How many people to talk to? (In a consumer space it might be 50 to 100 as a rough estimate) Talking to Humans Creating a new business is tremendously challenging. The ways you can fail are numerous. – You have to get the customer and market right – You have to get the revenue model right – You have to get the cost structure right – You have to get customer acquisition right – You have to get the product right – You have to get the team right – You have to get your timing right Screw up any one of those and you are toast. There is a reason why entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart… But we’re not here to be faint of heart. We are here to change the world. 3 Key Take-aways Customer discovery is about gaining much deeper insight into your customer, your partners, or your market. It is all about the questions. Spend serious time thinking about and crafting the right questions. Follow the ideas presented to ensure an effective session, with emphasis on disarming your biases, getting them to tell a story, listening (without talking), and drilling down. Questions? Dr. Kipp A. Krukowski MGT 420 – New Venture Creation