Your Customers Lie

They are likely doing it right now.

They will dance around the truth. They will tell you one thing and do another.

It's a truth I learned while building my first business in 2007.

Customers will not spoon feed you the solution to their problem.

You have to go out and discover that.

So how can you build a business idea around lies and deception?

Finding product-market fit requires us entrepreneurs to get really smart, really quick about our customers.

Here’s what I did wrong (what I used to do)

• Ask customer about their problem
• Ask them what they currently do to solve it.
• Ask customers to describe to me the perfect solution for their problem.
• Find enough customers to head nod and agree and then build it.

I stopped doing that about a few year ago, because it continued to lead me down the wrong path.

Instead, I let customers do the walking, I look over their shoulder and I listen and watch.

What I’m looking for is something that’s not being said.

I’m looking for what they have or have not done to solve the problem.

Here’s a breakdown of how I changed some of the questions I asked in customer discovery and I hope it helps you as you build your business or product.

You can follow along with this using a resource like The Mom Test Book by Rob Fitzpatrick . It’s a great place to start. (Thank you dave payne for sharing this resource last summer while researching)

Identifying the Problem Space

1. Objective: Understand the problem from the customer’s perspective.
2. Questions to Ask: “What’s the biggest challenge you face with [problem area]?” - “Can you walk me through the last time you encountered this problem?”

Tips for Crafting Open-Ended Questions

1. Objective: Encourage customers to share their experiences in detail.
2. Questions to Ask - “How do you deal with [specific aspect of the problem]?” - “What have you tried to solve this problem?”

Understanding Current Solutions

1. Objective: Learn how customers currently solve the problem.
2. Questions to Ask: - “What solutions have you tried, and what was your experience with each?” - “What do you wish was better about your current solution?” *** this is a question you need to lean in and listen well. Sometimes there is a lie or misguided truth in here. Take into account then specific customer you are chatting with and their desires and past experiences (are they new or seasoned veteran to this problem)

Listening More Than Talking

1. Objective: Gather as much insight as possible by actively listening.
2. Tips: Use follow-up questions like “Can you tell me more about that?”
3. Show genuine interest and encourage them to share more.

Follow-Up for Specifics - DIG DEEPER!!!

? Objective: keep pulling threads at the question to gain clear, actionable insights.

? Questions to Ask:

“What makes that solution work for you?”

? “Why do you do it this way? Have you tried any other methods when you started out?

Find solutions that do not scale - not everything has to be venture scaled - and that's a good thing.

Continue to dig deeper into problems and uncovering the friction points that power a possible solution. (Hint, not all solutions are commercially viable, and that is okay, don't stop because of that.)

The deeper you dig, the more you will uncover and learn what you can test to see if it's a viable business idea.

Your job as an entrepreneur is to find the friction/micro-problems that exist within a bigger problem.

Example: Affordable Housing problem

Main issue: Not enough housing exists for people who live below or at the poverty line.

Topical issue: Not a good enough repository of listings for houses that accept vouchers or Section-8 (Affordablehousing.com exists but could be easier to navigate etc)

Deeper issue: People who use this housing are often unbanked (they do not have or use a traditional bank account) - lots of opportunity here but often proven hard to reach and convert this demographic due to lack of trust and abuse by banks with overdraft fees - citation

Even Deeper Issue: They cannot afford the time/effort to review housing options and often have less than a few days to move. Whether due to their job, family or eviction, it's not easy.

Deeper still: Finding reliable transportation nearby affordable housing once you sign and rent/own.

Traditional customer discovery methods, which involve directly asking customers about their problems and desired solutions, often lead to misleading feedback due to the gap between what customers say and what they actually do or need. This realization prompts a shift towards a more observational and analytical approach in customer discovery.

Key Strategies:

1. Observe more, ask less.
2. Deep Dive into the Problem Space
3. Scrutinize Current Solutions
4. Active Listening
5. Pursue Non-Scalable Solutions Initially
6. Identify Friction Points
7. Identify risky assumptions
8. Create minimum tests (create an atomic unit) - More on this in another article.

This approach underscores the importance of going beyond the surface to truly understand customer needs and behaviors. It emphasizes the value of empathy, observation, and a willingness to find solutions that may initially be small or non-scalable but address real problems effectively. For business leaders, adopting this mindset can lead to the discovery of innovative solutions and the development of products that genuinely meet customer needs.

If you find this interesting or want to talk about building business ideas, I am happy to chat. Please reach out and ask for advice/my thoughts.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/digitaldoc/