How can you effectively engage potential customers during a discovery interview?

1 Prepare your goals and questions

Before you reach out to potential customers, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to learn from them and how you will measure the results. You should define your hypotheses, your target segment, and your interview objectives. Then, you should craft your questions based on these goals. Your questions should be open-ended, unbiased, and focused on the customer's situation, problem, and desired outcome. Avoid leading, hypothetical, or yes-no questions that might influence or limit the customer's response.

3 Follow up with probes and feedback

After the customer answers your questions, you should not move on to the next one right away. You should use probing questions to dig deeper into the customer's pain points, motivations, and behaviors. You should ask questions like "Why?", "How?", and "What if?" to uncover the underlying reasons, needs, and preferences of the customer. You should also use feedback questions to validate your assumptions, test your value proposition, and gauge the customer's interest. You should ask questions like "What do you think?", "How do you feel?", and "Would you...?" to get the customer's opinion, reaction, and willingness to pay or use your solution.

4 Record and analyze the data

After the interview, you should not rely on your memory or impressions to draw conclusions. You should record and analyze the data you collected from the interview, using tools like audio recordings, notes, transcripts, or surveys. You should look for patterns, trends, and insights that can help you validate or invalidate your hypotheses, refine your customer segment, and improve your value proposition. You should also look for gaps, contradictions, and surprises that can help you generate new hypotheses, questions, or experiments.

5 Follow up with gratitude and action

Finally, you should not forget to follow up with the customer after the interview. You should thank them for their time and feedback, and ask them if they have any questions or comments. You should also keep them updated on your progress and invite them to further conversations or tests. You should also act on the insights you gained from the interview, and use them to guide your next steps in your startup development process.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?