How do you do customer research without feeling bad about taking up someone's time?
Hey folks :)
I'm not sure if the words in the title are the best to describe exactly how I feel, but I can't help but feel bad/sorry for asking a stranger to help me with user research.
I'm currently doing user research on a team communication tool and trying to learn from people who use Slack with their teams (via a 2-min form).
I'm super grateful to everyone who talks and chooses to help out. I keep all my requests personalized and valuable. But still, I just feel like I'm asking for a big favour every time I reach out to someone for a user interview or feedback call.
Is this feeling something you encounter too? How do you deal with it? Do you have any tips on how to not feel bad about asking for help?
Trending on Indie Hackers
Offer them gift cards for their time and don’t make it longer than it needs to be. You can learn a lot in 25-30 minutes if you structure the conversation well and have clear objectives for what you want to learn.
Yes, I totally agree. That's how my first set of interviews were. Since they were in-person, it was a great experience. I had a strong process in place and I made sure every interview was a good experience.
Now in the second phase, I'm working with surveys. And that's where I'm facing this issue. I'm reaching out to people to help me with the survey but I'm worried about coming off as spammy. Wish there was a better way to do this.
Ah, got it! Surveys are way less demanding of time, especially how yours is positioned (will only take 2 min) so I think it looks fine. I’m not sure how you’re currently reaching out to folks — but if you haven’t already, maybe look into finding different slack spaces to join and posting the link there since it’s relevant to the channel they’re already active in and it may feel less spammy than reaching out to individuals. For example, I’m in a Chicago Tech slack, Female Founders, etc and they’re communities of a bunch of individuals who may have different insights on how they also use slack for team purposes. You could also incentivize with a gift card draw if you’d really like eg “Survey closes April 1st and we’ll be drawing a winner for an Amazon gift card.”
Why did I not think of this before? Posting on Slack channels is a fantastic idea. Also so much better in terms of context and value. I'm surprised that it didn't cross my mind. Thanks for sharing this! It really helps!