8 lessons from interviewing 10 potential customers 🤯

At the beginning, you might think you know what you’re building but after talking to first customers, you’re probably going to build something different. We just conducted our first 10 interviews with potential clients for a SaaS product that will help app developers make more money by optimizing their on onboarding. Here’s what I learned:

1. Ask for commitment at the end. After the interview, I asked if they’d want to sign up for our beta for $100. (We’re only taking 20 companies in beta) The ask is tiny, but it shows if they’re even remotely interested. 9 out of 10 signed up for the beta.

2. 10 interviews was plenty for us. We started seeing patterns after 5 interviews. After 7-8 it was clear what we needed to build.

3. Prepare a set of questions in advance. Can’t overstate the importance of open-ended questions. These one got us the best answers:

• What’s the most difficult thing about what you’re trying to achieve?
• Tell me about the last time X happened.
• What’s the biggest challenge in your business right now?
• How do you deal with this issue right now?

4. Take notes. When you read your notes afterwards, have an open mind. Try to forget about your idea of the product and try to understand their problems.

5. We had 3 people from our team on the interview in order to understand both the technical and business challenges.

6. Ask if you can help them in any other way. These people are volunteering to help you, be grateful and offer help.

7. Book all interview in a short timeframe and move fast. We booked all calls within one week. Now it’s time to build our MVP quickly and do more interviews.

8. Don't over-do it or over-think it. You can only get limited insights if you’re interviewing potential customers without a product. Interviewing people who are actually using your MVP will bring more insights. It’s not rocket surgery.

8.5 If you’re wondering how to find your first 10 customers, I can’t help you here. All these people were in my network. If you build your product, you’ll have to grow it far beyond 10 users. If you’re struggling to find 10, you’re in trouble. You’re either making excuses or you’re not being resourceful enough.