User research is frustrating - How to get people to talk to me?

What I've learned about user research at the early stage: interviews are great but they don't scale. When you're 5 people, you can't do 20 user interviews a month. What you can do is systematically read every piece of feedback that comes in and tag it. Over time, patterns emerge that are just as valuable as formal research — sometimes more, because it's unsolicited and unbiased.

What are you writing in the message on Linkedin? I've found that utilizing the right message can make or break the interaction. It's all about...

• Being short and concise. Don't ask for a 1-hour meeting. Have 2-3 of your most important questions ready and do them in 5-15 minutes.
• Be respectful of their time
• Communicate what's in it from them. Helping another passionate soul? A free coffee? Being the first to get free access to test your product?

The last point can vary a lot depending on your situation. Sometimes I've gotten away with just asking to borrow 5-10 minutes of their time. Other times I've bought them a coffee or gift card. If you meet them IRL, buy them coffee, lunch etc. Their time is valuable.

I understand how frustrating user research can be, especially when it comes to getting people to talk to you. Here are a few tips that might help you with your research:

1. Leverage your existing network - Reach out to people you know, such as colleagues, friends, or family members, and ask them to introduce you to potential participants in your research. This can be a great way to get a foot in the door and start building relationships with potential participants.

2. Use social media - Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can be great tools for reaching out to potential participants. Use these platforms to connect with people in your target audience, and then reach out to them to schedule calls or in-person meetings.

3. Attend networking events - Trade shows, meetups, and other networking events can be great places to meet potential participants. Attend events that are relevant to your research, and use them as an opportunity to connect with people and start building relationships.

4. Offer incentives - Sometimes, people may be more willing to participate in research if they are offered something in return. Consider offering participants a small incentive, such as a gift card or a discount on your product, in exchange for their time and feedback.

5. Be persistent - Remember that not everyone will be willing to participate in your research. Be persistent, and don't give up if you encounter resistance. Sometimes it takes multiple attempts to find the right participants.

I hope these tips help you with your research! Keep in mind that building relationships is key to successful user research, so be sure to keep an open mind and be friendly and professional in your outreach.

Whenever I do user research, I always start out close to home. Your proximity gives you an "instant in" with leads.

If I was in your shoes, I would find 20 b2b building material/furniture sellers near you and cold call their office.

Incentivize potential customers to talk to you. One passive trick I have used with success is creating a landing page for my idea where the main cta directs users to a waitlist form. After the user submits the form, my confirmation screen shows a Calendly link where users can schedule a 15 min call with me in exchange for X% off Y months.

I can understand how frustrating it is. I have had multiple instances when I set up a call to do customer interviews and it is a no-show. It really boils down to what idea you have.

Where do you think most of them are active? Is it on twitter, reddit, slack channels, or in person at schools, trade shows, events?? Try to meet them where they are.

When I was building a tool for college students, I attended the campus tours of orientation weekend in schools in New York. I found students and connected with them there itself. No follow ups or questions asked. Just a simple conversation.

Could you do that or is your case a place to find other indie hackers? Have you tried different tools like Kernal where early stage founders hang out.

However, depending on what your product is I may have an idea. Have you checked out Geeks and Experts to see if you can do a free session with any of the other founders/experts/entrepreneurs on the platform?

People are curious - try to involve them in the process you're working on by showcasing some insights (build a blog in LI or elsewhere), let them learn something new, and feel their impact

www.promotee.co might help coz the problem that I can see here is not receiving responses from prospective clients. You need to engage with them in order to get them talk to you and about the problem you want to solve.

Step away from the keyboard.

Go to where you audience is.
Trade shows.

When's the next one near you?
Can't get in?... Hang outside and catch people as they enter.

What's the incentive to talk to you?
Can you give them a $N Amazon Gift Card to talk?

Honestly,

It's easier to not start from scratch. Find competition that is not too many in numbers and build something with better value proposition

I would recommend you understand the problem you're trying to solve before doing cold outreach. Figure out a way to "embed" yourself within the community you're trying to understand (someone wrote a fairly good book about this a few years back, but can't think of the title right now... should be easy to track down via Google though).

Once you have identified an actual problem, it becomes much easier to get people's attention. Especially if you make it clear you're working on a solution.

We are doing cold outreach for initial research using the method outlined here (https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-to-reach-potential-users-b2b-7d67b47585). This method has had different amount of success depending on the industry/target group we are contacting.

For target groups where you don't get a lot of responses, we found two ways to improve conversion:

1. Refer to your own successful background to make yourself more interesting
2. For the first few crucial interviews, offer lifetime free access to the software product that you'll develop in the end. Be bold.

1. Learn about online ethnographic research techniques. The folks at Stacking The Bricks have good content about it. You can learn a lot about your customer by observing the conversations in their online communities and support forums of products they already use.

2. Many on LinkedIn are now getting multiple requests a month for these research calls. I personally ignore almost all "cold calls" I get on LinkedIn because most of them are just spray and pray sales pitches. Consider paying for your interviewee's time.

I've used both of these methods. Crucially, I paid 10 highly targeted people in my core customer segment to talk with me for an hour. I paid them their hourly rate. If they didn't have an hourly rate, I suggested an hourly rate that was generous (in my case $100). I treated it as expert consulting, which it is, rather than as a casual chat.

This shows people you respect and value their time. It also tends to produce a higher quality interview. People feel they're being paid for their expertise and really put themselves into the call.

I recorded all the calls on Zoom so that I could go back to them over and over.

How did you make it a "win-win" situation instead of expecting strangers to spend their time to help you?