How do you actually get people to do customer discovery interviews?

I'd recommend reading "The Mom Test". The book is really short and basically answers all your questions.

Lately I've been hearing a lot of advice that instead of building an MVP you should funnel that effort into doing lots of customer development interviews to find out what people want you to build.

Yeah people say that, but if you can build an MVP in less than a month, then I reckon just do that. I did that and it much easier to setup customer interviews from my user table. The other benefit is you know these users are in your target market since they're actually using your app.

But maybe you don't. Or maybe you want feedback from people with no incentive to stroke your ego...

Yeah you really don't people think they're being nice when they say "Wow this app looks really useful" but are actually thinking "dumbest idea I've ever heard", but actually they're leading you down shit creek.

How to talk to your audience
I haven't done this, but accountants are my target audience. How should I talk to them? Just head over to their offices and ask someone for ten minutes of their time. I think most people will talk to you.

We mainly interview existing users & customers.

https://www.usertesting.com/ works OK for very general topics or usability focused interviews. There are other services that will source interview candidates for you too, they're mainly used for usability stuff though.

For consumer products I've hit the streets before to ask people walking by, it's hard work though. Last time I did it I rented a dog costume and gave out dog treats to interview dog owners.

B2B stuff is hard so don't know what the answer is there. I've usually only interviewed people that have already signed up for something so I have a warm lead or it's a really general business need and I can bounce it off people I know or meet at events. You can run ads to attract those folks with an offer.

In general I think if you don't know enough people you can bounce an idea off you're probably focusing on the wrong industry for your skillset.

(In one case, I had a founder say over email that the problem I wanted to solve was an existential problem for their business.

Would they jump on a call with me so I could talk to them about the problem?

🦗 crickets 🦗)

Look, I am not gonna lie. Cold outreach is always hard. And a numbers game. People you don't know won't feel like answering you. We don't have time for people we don't know. I am sure it is the same for you. If I were to reach out to you to pitch some stuff or pick your brain on something, I am sure you too would not be inclined to respond to me.

Never forget the WIIFM factor: "What is in it for me?" If the person you are reaching out to can't answer that question with the information provided directly on that email, it will not happen. We are all nice people, and we all want to help others but we never will have enough time for everyone on earth.

The important thing is your offer, the benefit should be visible and tangible for the people you are reaching out to. "Perceived value" is the key here. There should be a value that is perceived on their side. People generally try to incentivize with Amazon vouchers because it is generally much more cheaper than other alternatives. That said, if you don't have available funds for this, it means you will need to be more creative.

What I'd do if I was in your shoes: I'd find people of interest from Linkedin and then find people who can introduce me to those people. That way I probably will have a better context, in which they are doing a favour to someone in their network.

Another option is to somehow penetrate their professional communities. A lot of people belong to professional online communities (look at Indie Hackers). I'd try to find Linkedin Groups, Facebook Groups, Slack or Discord channels where these people hang out, so I could (a) listen in to their candid conversations and (b) when someone talks about that specific issue I could directly ask them for an interview. Since we are already sharing a community, there is already a "network" thing going on and they might be more inclined to say "yes".

If all these fails, I'd go full guerilla, create a podcast just for this reason. I'd invite people to that. Since it would be very niche for them and would build (a) their personal brand and (b) their company's brand, it would be easier for them to come on board. Unless, you know, they are very well-known people.

This is something I’ve also struggled with. A few things that have worked for me:

Offering something in return for their time
You can get creative with this. Do you have something you can offer people in exchange for their time? Even if it is unrelated to your product, but something they would find valuable. I have found this often helps. Even sharing your learnings/insights into their industry could be valuable.

Referrals
Always ask for 3 referrals from your interviewees. To start off, you could do this with your friends, family, ex-colleagues, etc to get the initial list of customers. Warm intros are much more fruitful than cold outreach.

Although it can be a struggle to find people, I like this this aspect of customer development as it starts testing how you are going to reach your intended customers.