When researching, do you just talk to customers? Where else do you look?
Amy Hoy taught me to look on reddit, HN, anywhere basically online where ppl are being themselves in their environment. I agree with this, I think that if you just talk to customers, you're going to get the same info as everyone else, but it will give you an edge if you also consider other sources. Where else do you look to research customers?
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When I want to do that, I also reach for people I would like to be customers of us. Most of the time, they agree to talk to you if you're honest. I usually say something like "I have nothing to sell yet (which is true at this point), I just want to better understand how you do this or that...". And then we talk by phone.
It has always been highly effective for me!
If you have a specific customer in mind then you can probably find facebook groups where they hangout.
My service has a free trial before needing to upgrade to a paid plan. I've started sending a personal email to people who let their trial period expire without upgrading to ask them for feedback on the service. I feel like these are great opportunities to get feedback because they felt the service was compelling enough to sign up for a trial account but didn't find it valuable enough to pay to keep using it.
Gotcha, so you use a product as an opportunity to talk to more people?
It's not the only channel of course, but it's a really valuable source of information. You get to find out why your product isn't (currently) good enough from people who've used it and wanted it to meet their needs.