How do you incorporate customer interviews into your agile or lean development process?

I have found that customer interviews are a great way to build trust with your clients. It gives you the chance to ask the questions that will bring out the needs that they have, that they might not even be aware of.

This is a great way to identify the values of your best customers/clients as well. Can identify them by qualitative and quantitative data. Then with their qualitative responses, you can build your culture to acquire more clients like them.

The questions you ask, and how you use the data are going to very depending on the service or product you offer. But if you know your products well, it will help you adjust your questions to fit the client you are working with at the time.

The data that gets measured is the date that gets improved. SMART goals is a great old school acronym that works well here. Not using a plan means planning to fail. So come up with measurable questions, timelines to act on those questions, an implementation strategy of your favorite responses, and a way to track success. Don't ask questions just to ask questions. The highest performers will focus on value add action and then execute. Doesn't have to be perfect.

Listening is an important skill in the process. Make sure you are hearing your clients answers, giving them plenty of time without pressure. Recap their answers to make sure you are understanding them correctly when appropriate. A client that feels understood is going to be a better client for your business.

Don't force it. If you've built a good relationship with your client/customer, they will more than likely be excited to help. May need to take time to build your relationship infrastructure before they are ready to take time to be truly value add to your business. And that may and probably should require you and your product/service to be value add for them first.

Be yourself. Your vibe will attract clients that are comfortable with you. Don't try to act overly professional if you're not. Don't try to act chill if you're a serious type. Be prepared with questions/topics that you need. Be open to the pace the client would like to set with the conversation.

Back to measurements. Have categories, scores, even weighted averages if you want to get technical all for the purpose of you need to use whatever information you're collecting. Don't be afraid to ask for help. There's likely a lot of people in your industry that will be open to giving you advice or perspectives. Especially if you buy them lunch. Could be life changing relationships built that way.

Back to preparation of process. I think you'll know best how you'd like to use whatever info you're collecting for whatever goals you have. Like if I get 50% answer yes to x variable then that goal becomes my number 1 priority to add that service for my clients. Best advice here to is go for it. Trial and error is a super underated process. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Death by indecision, being overly perfect, or over analysis is incredibly common. Every moment wasted is potential revenue lost.

For my industry referrals are lifeblood to the business. So, consistently making sure that we are achieving our clients goals in a way that they are involved, understood, and communicated to is incredibly important. The number one reason is to make sure that our clients are taken care of. But if we don't do that to the best of our ability, they won't want to refer their family and friends. And why should they if you as the provider of value didn't provide enough value.