Problem Interviews
Ask people about the last time they hit the problem, never about your idea, to learn whether the problem is real and costly.
Stage 3 of 10 · from idea to first customer
Talk to your future customers
Interviews, surveys and maps that show who has the problem, how they cope today and what they would pay to fix it.
Search data tells you what people look for. Conversations tell you why. In this stage you find the right people, ask about their past behaviour instead of your idea, and turn dozens of notes into a clear picture of one customer group.
Plenty of founders skip this step because it feels slow and awkward, and it is the cheapest way to avoid building the wrong thing.
What you should have at the end of this stage
10 to 15 interviews, a short persona and journey map built from evidence, and one narrow first customer group you can reach this month.
The 10 methods in this stage
Finding People to Interview
Fill your interview calendar for free through your network, online communities and short, honest cold messages.
Survey Design for Startups
A short, screened survey that tells you how common a problem is after interviews have told you what the problem looks like.
Jobs-to-be-Done Interviews
Reconstruct the last time someone switched to a new solution to learn what pushed them, what pulled them and what almost stopped them.
Customer Persona from Real Data
A one-page profile of your first customer where every line traces back to an interview quote or a survey number.
Empathy Map
Sort interview quotes into says, thinks, does and feels, then hunt for the gaps between what customers say and what they actually do.
Customer Journey Map
Lay out every step from the moment a customer notices the problem to paying and returning, and mark where they get stuck or give up.
Beachhead Segment Selection
Score your possible customer groups on reach, urgency, budget and word of mouth, then commit to the one narrow group you can win first.
Contextual Inquiry (Shadowing)
Watch customers do the real task where they normally do it, and write down every workaround, spreadsheet and sticky note you see.
Interview Synthesis
Turn a pile of interview notes into counted patterns with affinity mapping, then make a clear go, pivot or stop decision.