Customer interviews: 4 mindset traps

I'd echo the recommendation on the Mom Test - amazing book that really changes your mindest

Thanks for posting this, Ekaterina! We're engaged in a lot of customer interviews right now for Driftly so this is top of mind.

Agreed that we need to be OK with customer interviews not giving us the easy “fill in the blanks” answers. This can happen from time to time with a great interview but it's more likely you'll start to see patterns after 3, 5 or even 10 interviews. So important to be patient and use follow up questions so you don't have to use assumptions to fill in the gaps.

We've found having a good list of questions like this really helps. This is what we go through in every call, leaving room to explore as needed!

• How would you feel if you could no longer use Driftly? [Product market fit / is this customer in our target market]
• If you couldn’t use Driftly, what would you use instead? [Competitors, competitor research]
• What type of people do you think would most benefit from using Driftly? [Targeting information]
• What is the main benefit you receive from using Driftly? [Copywriting, value proposition, messaging, sales conversations]
• How can we improve Driftly for you? [Product roadmap]
• What was going on in your world when you started looking for something like Driftly? [Triggers to influence channels]
• What are your favorite blogs, newsletters, podcasts, or websites to keep up with? [Channel strategy]
• Who do you look to for inspiration or advice? [Channel strategy]
• Which events, online communities or forums do you spend time in? [Channel strategy]

Also maybe most importantly, we treat our customers like we would friends in a call. They're giving up their time so it's important to enjoy your time together and not take it too seriously!