Your Discovery Skills Score

45%

You’re talking with customers, but missing a few crucial things

Based on your quiz responses, I’d guess you’re still figuring out

(1) how to avoid wasting time and make your discovery as impactful as possible, and

(2) how to talk to the right kind of customers who will help you make most impact right now.

Here’s where I believe you need to focus your customer discovery to make the greatest impact, fastest 👇

Focus here to impact your discovery and business

01

Your team is likely talking to a slightly too-broad audience and hearing too many different problems to figure out exactly where to focus.

  • Fix: Try interviewing a narrower segment of your audience to see if you can get stronger signals about consistently big problems among a niched down group

  • Fix: Make sure you’re prioritizing customers who actually pay, for your service or an alternative solution on the market

    A business that doesn’t eventually earn revenue isn’t a business. You need to prioritize users who will actually pay you, now or in the future. Build for them!

02

Have you profiled your audience on the right level? Many early stage teams build customer profiles that are too narrow or specific (ex: marketing Personas) or too broad (ex: “all Designers”).

  • Fix: Make sure you have a clear profile of your Early Adopter Target Audience first. If you strongly believe you’ve nailed the Early Adopter and have validated that you are growing rapidly among this audience, you may be ready to create an Ideal Customer Profile of the best audience that’s most loyal to you longer-term.

  • These two profiles are not the same. They’re needed at different stages of your pre-PMF to PMF journey. Make sure you have the right one for where you are now.

Here’s a few helpful resources to get you started 👇

03

Are you trying to be a bit too perfect in your early user interviews? You’re probably not interviewing customers in the most efficient and effective way for this stage of the business.

  • Fix: Keep customer calls focused on the customer’s Jobs to be Done and desired outcomes in any use case you’re trying to improve. What does “improvement” mean for the user in your relevant context? What’s their ideal outcome?

  • Fix: Are you learning by selling? Or have you separated sales and research because someone said it’s “the right way”? Getting a prospect’s responses to offers and pricing - even in interviews - are important signals of demand and willingness to pay pre-PMF.

Want to improve fast?

The right questions - for free

Run customer interviews that get the information you actually need to build a better product:

  • Understand the customer’s ideal outcome that other competitors are failing to help them achieve

  • Identify bigger problems to solve for more impact

  • Learn by selling - with questions that actually deliver. No bad research practices like hypothetical questions

Get more (custom) guidance

I coach Product teams and individuals to improve your discovery in just weeks - and based on your unique struggles right now.

Want more guidance or training?

We’ll work together to get your team from your biggest current challenge areas to an efficient and effective insights process.