What kind of questions should I ask my users when in beta?
Hi,
So I kind of launched the beta version of my product. "Kind of" because I just mentioned it in a couple of IH comments. Unexpectedly, I did get a few signups out of it. I'm still working on the product and figuring out what kind of value it could provide to my customers, so I figure the best thing to do is to email each person who signed up and ask them a few questions about what they're looking for and what kind of value my product could provide.
I want to get this right, so does anyone have any suggestions for a good set of questions to ask customers in the initial phases of building a product? Any good resources I can take a look at it? Any recommendations for things to cover? Thanks!
I try to learn as much about the customer as possible, as well as discuss their previous experiences trying to solve the pain point my product aims to solves. Only after that do I get into their thoughts on my product. This is a great book on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone/dp/1492180742
Hey Gabe,
Thanks for your advice. I just bought the Mom test on your recommendation and I'm really enjoying it so far. I'll have to try to come up with some questions that will give me concrete answers, it seems.
Any specific questions you like to ask?
If there's one thing I've learned about users, it's that 9 times of 10, they don't know how to verbalize or describe what they want. It's like Henry Ford's quote: "If I asked people what they wanted, they'd say faster horses."
Innovation and product design are largely our job as entrepreneurs. The customer's job is literally to say "yes" or "no." Generally they don't know what they want or don't want, but they know it when they see it.
I think if you don't know specifically what your end user wants, I'm not sure you understand the problem/market well enough to create a product for it, honestly.
If you really want me to answer your question, I'd give them multiple-choice questions and ask them to pick the "closest/best" answer. That'll give you a general direction of where you should take your product development. I'd avoid getting into specifics, because you never know if it's idiosyncratic to one or two customers and you end up building for few people, and when your data set is small this risk is magnified. I did that, listening to my first beta user who gave a ton of feedback, and I regretted it.
I’m in a similar position right now with my project Nocodelytics. It’s not actually ready for people to use so anyone that signs up just gets added to an email list (my inbox lol).
But I’m also still building the product so getting their feedback is similarly hugely valuable.
When I see that someone has signed up, I manually send them an email thanking them. I also ask a couple of questions along these lines:
That’s it. I don’t talk about features or the product itself. The purpose of these early conversations is to get to know them.
The questions should allow your beta testers to talk about themselves whilst also helping you better understand your market.
Now, these aren’t perfect and I’ll continue to iterate, but I’ve read a few books on customer development (The Mom Test, Running Lean) so feel like it’s a good start.
Good luck!