In my journey as a startup founder and early employee, I’ve accumulated many stories related to customer research.
The funny thing is, when I founded my own startup, I thought I was doing customer research, only to realise later in future roles that I did almost everything wrong when it came to validating our product idea.
I’ve already shared this in a previous blog post—we were very fast in launching the product to market, and we learned a lot from real customers, which was good. However, we also had to change many of our initial assumptions—something that could have been avoided with the right approach to customer research.
Later in my career, I had the opportunity to conduct customer research with product teams at established startups, and I learned there is a method to do this properly.
Although I haven’t created another product since then, I now know what I would do differently – and this is the advice I give to the founders I mentor at Techstars and Startup Lisboa, among others.
Understanding your potential customers—what drives them, what problems they face, and how they might react to your solution—is critical, if not mandatory, for success in your entrepreneurial adventure.
This is the guide I wish I’d had 10 years ago when I founded my own company.
Since I found only some of this information in one place, I wrote it for all the entrepreneurs out there who are looking to conduct customer research in a structured way.
Contents
Market Research vs. Customer Research
Before diving into customer research, it’s essential to distinguish it from market research.
Market research focuses on understanding the broader market environment—trends, competitors, and overall industry dynamics. It helps you size the market and identify potential opportunities.
On the other hand, customer research is about deeply understanding the specific individuals or businesses you plan to serve. It’s about getting into the mindset of your target customer, understanding their pain points, and figuring out how your product can solve their problems.
Both of these are important, but for this blog post, I will focus on customer research.
The Lean Startup Methodology: Validating Product-Market Fit
In the Lean Startup approach, the primary goal is to validate the need for your product before investing heavily in its development. This is particularly crucial for new product ideas but can also be applied when introducing new features or iterating on an existing product. The Lean approach emphasises starting small, learning quickly, and iterating based on real customer feedback.
Before you even think about developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or a prototype, you must validate your idea.
The best way to do this is through customer research, specifically by conducting interviews that focus on the problems your potential customers face. For this reason, usability tests, sales interactions, or support conversations shouldn’t happen at this stage.
Here are some key points to remember:
- Separate Problem and Solution Interviews: When you’re in the early stages, focus solely on understanding the problem. Once you have a prototype or MVP, you can then conduct solution interviews to refine your product based on real user feedback.
- Structured Approach: Without a structured approach, your research can become a time-consuming and costly endeavour with little to show for it. A clear process is essential to derive valuable insights efficiently.
Types of Research: Qualitative vs. Quantitative
Understanding when and how to use different types of research is critical.
Qualitative Research
This is your starting point. When you’re still discovering your target audience’s problems, qualitative research is invaluable. Conduct in-depth, one-on-one interviews (avoid surveys at this stage since you don’t yet know what questions to ask).
These interviews should be exploratory, helping you uncover insights into the challenges and pain points your potential customers face. A sample size of 10-20 interviews is typically sufficient to start identifying trends and patterns.
Quantitative Research
After gathering qualitative insights, you can validate these findings with quantitative research.
Surveys can help confirm whether the problems identified are widespread and significant enough to warrant building an MVP.
Then, if they are significant enough, data gathered from your MVP can help you improve your end product.
That said, surveys will never be as good as having a conversation with your potential users.
Quantitative research helps prove the conclusions derived from qualitative research on a larger scale.
Why is Qualitative Research Crucial?
Qualitative research allows you to understand your potential customers deeply. It helps you uncover the nuances of their problems, which are essential for developing a product that truly meets their needs.
Of course, you may fit your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and experience the same problem, but you’ll want to validate that you’re not the only one feeling that problem.
And if you aren’t the ICP, you have an extra reason to talk with people, as you see the problem as an outsider and don’t understand it well enough to build the right solution.
Moreover, qualitative research informs not just your product development but also your marketing and sales strategies.
Understanding how your customers talk about their problems and the emotions they associate with them can guide your messaging and positioning.
In the past, product development was often separate from marketing and sales, with the latter only coming into play after the product was finished. However, this is a mistake.
Integrating marketing and sales early in the development process ensures the product meets market demands and customer needs, leading to better alignment, stronger messaging, and a smoother launch.
While you are developing your prototype or MVP, you should also be selling and building the marketing machine. This will allow you to get the right messaging when you launch your product, and while you’re selling or marketing, you may also learn a few insights that could influence your product development.
The goal of customer interviews is essentially to get the maximum information possible from your potential customers and learn from them. You’re not validating anything; you’re just discovering. And the more uncertainty you have about your customer profiles and problems, the more relevant customer research interviews become.
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The Customer Research Process
To effectively gather insights that will drive your product’s success, it’s crucial to follow a structured customer research process.
Below are the key steps that you should include.
1. Set Clear Goals
Your research should begin with a clear goal in mind. You may want to discover the top three pain points your product idea addresses, and define the primary target segments based on customer feedback and interest levels. Or you may want to simply confirm that a certain percentage of interviewees see value in the product concept and recognise its potential to solve their problems.
As you can see, this goal can influence the set of questions you prepare for interviews.
Even during the conversation, it’s important to keep this goal in mind, especially when the interviewee provides a lot of insights and you need to stay focused.
2. Prepare Thoroughly
Write down everything you already know or assume about the problem and your ideal customer. This will help you build an effective interview script. At this stage, it’s also crucial to create personas for your ideal customers. Even though these are based on assumptions, they will help you target the right people for your interviews.
Decide on the number of interviews you need to conduct. Typically, 10-20 interviews are enough to start seeing patterns.
If you need to interview different types of customers, you might need more interviews to ensure you’re capturing diverse perspectives.
Bear in mind that to land five to eight customer interviews within a week or two, you’ll typically need to ask double, if not triple, if not 10 times, that amount of customers.
3. Build Your Interview Script
Your script should encourage open conversation. Ask open-ended questions that allow interviewees to provide insightful information about their problems.
Start broad and, depending on the responses, narrow down to more specific issues. I can’t stress this enough—you want to listen more than talk.
Before asking any questions, introduce yourself, explain what you’re building, and outline the goal of the interview.
Try to remove any pressure and create a relaxed environment where the interviewee feels comfortable sharing personal details with a stranger. Better yet, call this a conversation rather than an interview.
Once you’ve set the tone, you’re ready to pass the mic to your guest.
Let’s consider an example where your product aims to help people manage their time more effectively.
Here are some examples of effective interview questions (in no particular order):
- “Tell me a bit about yourself.” While not a question per se, it encourages the interviewee to start sharing. It’s a great way to begin building a demographic and psychographic profile of your ideal customer. For instance, if they mention they’re a working parent with young kids, you’ve already gained insights into potential time management challenges.
- “Tell me more about your life at the moment. What challenges are you currently facing in managing your time?” This question helps uncover specific obstacles, like balancing work with family responsibilities, that the interviewee deals with daily. It encourages them to share their struggles, such as finding time for self-care, and their motivations for seeking change.
- “What has been your experience trying to manage your time effectively?” This explores how they’ve dealt with time management in the past and what tools or methods they’ve used. For example, they might talk about using multiple calendars, sticky notes, or digital apps, and how those solutions either helped or fell short.
- “Who else is involved in your daily routine and time management decisions?” This helps you understand who influences their time management choices—whether it’s a partner, children, or coworkers. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for tailoring your solution to fit into their existing routines.
- “How does it feel when you struggle to manage your time effectively?” Asking this prompts the interviewee to articulate their emotions. For example, they might describe feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or guilty, which provides valuable language for understanding their emotional state and the pressure they experience.
- “If you could manage your time better, how would your daily life change? What would be different?” This question encourages them to imagine the positive impact of solving their time management issues. They might talk about feeling more relaxed, having more time for hobbies, or being more present with their family. This feedback offers insight into their desired outcomes.
- “Would others around you notice a difference if you managed your time better?” This question allows you to explore external influences. For instance, they might mention that their partner would appreciate them being less stressed, or their boss would notice improved productivity. This helps determine whether they are motivated more by personal desires or by the expectations of others.
- “If there were no limitations, what would the ideal time management solution look like for you? What kind of support or resources would you want?” By asking them to describe their ideal solution, you gain insights into their true needs and preferences. For example, they might want a tool that integrates seamlessly with their existing apps and sends gentle reminders, or perhaps they desire a more holistic approach that includes stress management tips. However, take this feedback with a grain of salt—Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses,” which shows that people often struggle to think ahead. That’s your role!
When you’re satisfied with the answers you’ve gathered, or you’re running out of time, give the customer a chance to ask you questions. This allows them to voice any concerns or thoughts they’ve been holding onto. It also opens the door to questions or problems you hadn’t considered (which can be good content for future research!).
Finally, say goodbye and thank your interviewee for their time.
Let them know you appreciate their feedback and time, and give them whatever incentive you offer.
4. Define the Compensation
This is a topic for debate. Depending on what stage you are in and your resources, it might make sense to compensate people who are giving their time to answer your questions.
However, in my opinion, when you’re still validating your product idea, you should explore the free options available for two reasons: first, the obvious one – to save resources for other initiatives (trust me, every dollar saved is precious)
Secondly, you may attract people who are more interested in the money than providing honest feedback.
If you’re new to customer research, the open-ended nature of your questions might lead to challenges down the line.
Your future first customers will be early adopters, and these types of people are more willing to help an entrepreneur build their idea for free than the average person. You just need to find the right people to interview (more on this below).
If you’re unable to find people to interview and feel the lack of compensation is the issue, here are some ideas for compensating your interviewees:
- Money: The simplest option, but the one I recommend the least. Money will always be useful, but $50 is $50, while other options may cost you less and have a bigger value for your interviewee (see options below). In terms of how much you should pay, it depends on the profile of the people you’re talking with, but a good rule of thumb is between $50 and $100 for a 1-hour conversation.
- Early Access to Your Future Product: This costs you nothing today, and you may gain a future customer. The only issue is that you are offering nothing at the time of the interview, but if you find people with an early adopter profile, this may attract them more than a monetary reward.
- Lifetime Discount Deal: Similar to the previous option but with a certain monetary incentive. This can be risky if you don’t do the math correctly (which may happen as you have yet to figure out your product’s pricing, margins, etc.), but it may be worth it in some specific cases. One workaround is to time-bound the deal.
- Amazon Gift Card: Very similar to the money option but with the significant benefit that you’ll have much less bureaucracy to offer this compensation. Since Amazon is widespread and offers almost everything, this shouldn’t be a problem.
- Non-Profit Donation: This may resonate with some people, especially those for whom $50 or $100 would not make a difference. It also shows that you are committed to a specific mission.
- Exclusive Merchandising: This may be difficult at this stage as your brand is not yet known (or may not even exist). However, this is a good case where you could spend less money on something that people will value more.
- Special Deals with Partners: This may be too early, but if you have volume, you can try to negotiate a deal with a startup that has a complementary product to your future offering. Everybody wins here—you spend less, the interviewee gets access to something more valuable, and your partner gains new users.
- Exclusive Access to Events: You can create an educational webinar and offer access to that content to your interviewee. This also creates another opportunity for you to showcase your expertise and the potential of your future product.
To convince people to talk with you, you can also create a sense of scarcity, especially with your future product deals. For example, offering 10 slots for beta testers when you launch your product. This creates FOMO, which can sometimes be more valuable to some people than any monetary incentive – especially early adopters.
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5. Find the Right People to Interview
You can find interviewees through various channels, both free and paid. Here are some ideas:
Friends & Family
You should be cautious of biases, but it may be a good starting point. Even better if it’s friends of friends, as they don’t have such a close relationship with you and may be willing to give you more honest answers.
Online Communities
This one is more for B2B products. You should start leveraging your personal connections and network before you search more broadly.
On LinkedIn, you can search and contact individual people, segmented by job title, industry, location, and other criteria. For example, if your product idea is software for lawyers in your country, you’ll easily find people matching that profile here.
While on LinkedIn you can find the right people on a 1:1 approach, on Facebook you can find thousands of groups about literally anything.
This may be a good place to start if your product is B2C. And if you correspond to your ICP, you probably already are part of some of these groups, so it’ll be easier to get involved. Be cautious about being spammy or salesy; you’ll want to approach the group with total transparency about your intentions.
Twitter, Reddit, and Quora
Not as organised as the previous options, but here you can find valuable nuggets in threads full of insights about the problem you’re aiming to fix.
Where people are talking about this problem, there are potential interviewees to invite to a conversation.
Work Communities
Again, this depends on the industry you’re targeting. For example, as a Marketing professional for over 10 years, I’m part of a community of other Marketing experts called GrowthMentor.
If I wanted to develop a product targeting Marketing experts, I’d probably meet lots of people there willing to help.
Attend Relevant Conferences and Events
Find the big events and the small meet-ups where your target audience usually goes. Use platforms like Meetup or Eventbrite, go and mix with them. Once again, don’t be too salesy and don’t be afraid to share your idea as a way to convince people to talk with you later.
Panel Companies
These companies are especially useful if you have a specific job title and industry you’re targeting. It comes with a cost but helps a lot in your prospection process. I’ve never used one of these panel companies, but the most known in the market are User Interviews and Wynter. You can also search for local market research boutiques if you’re targeting a specific region.
Your Customer Database (if you’re not starting from 0)
You know they are customers, you know what kind of customer they are, and you have their contact information. If they are/were happy customers, even better.
Referrals
After each interview, you can always ask if that person knows somebody willing to have a conversation with you. Chances are this person knows an interesting prospect for you.
Remember, the key is to go where your persona is already hanging out, whether that’s online or in specific physical locations.
6. Pre-Qualify Interviewees
Before diving into a full interview, pre-qualify your candidates with a brief survey or a 5-minute conversation.
This ensures you don’t waste time on interviews that won’t yield valuable insights. Usually, with one or two questions, it’s very easy to know if they fit the type of person you are looking for.
7. Set Up the Meeting for the Interview
It’s always better to conduct interviews in person, but this can be time-consuming, so I’m a big fan of doing this via video call (Google Meet, Zoom, FaceTime, etc.).
Reach out to people and don’t overcomplicate the process—email or message them, and if they accept, just send an invitation with a link to join the video call (no need to install software or apps).
It’s also important to send reminders, even an hour before the call, and allow them to reschedule if needed.
8. Conduct and Analyse Interviews
Try to conduct all interviews within a one- to two-week span. This helps you stay immersed in the customer’s world and spot patterns more easily.
But don’t overdo it! Conducting interviews one after the other can be overwhelming. Do two interviews a day, three at most, and allow some time between them to breathe and prevent any delays.
While working for a growing startup as Head of Marketing, we talked with 10 different customers in a day to optimise the process, and I felt completely exhausted at the end. The worst part was that the last conversations were probably not as valuable. Avoid this at all costs.
It’s also helpful to bring a team member along—one person can focus on the conversation while the other takes notes. If you’re by yourself, try using a note-taking tool to help you capture all the insights while paying attention to the nuances and non-verbal cues.
One tool I have personally used is TimeOS, which also allows you to record the call—something I highly recommend (but only when you get prior authorisation from the interviewee).
After each interview, start analysing the insights immediately. Don’t wait until all interviews are done, as this can be overwhelming.
Identify key moments where opportunities or unmet needs emerge. This ongoing analysis will help you refine your approach as you go.
9. Develop an Actionable Plan
Finally, distil your findings into 3-10 key actionable insights. These insights should directly inform your next steps, whether it’s tweaking your product concept, refining your marketing message, or planning your MVP.
Conclusion
Customer research is a critical component of the Lean Startup Methodology, enabling you to validate your product-market fit before significant investment.
By understanding your customers’ real problems and needs, you can develop a solution that truly resonates with them.
Start with qualitative research to discover deep insights, and then use quantitative methods to validate your findings on a larger scale.
Follow a structured approach to ensure your research is effective and leads to actionable insights that can drive your startup’s success.
Thanks for reading.
