Part I. Ask your mother: How to communicate with customers and confirm the correctness of their business ideas, if everyone is lying around?

Abstract excellent, in my opinion, books.

I recommend everyone who is engaged in UX-research, wants to develop their product or create something new.
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The book teaches how to ask questions in order to get the most useful answers.

The book has a lot of examples of building dialogues, given tips on how, where and when to conduct an interview. Useful information sea. In the summary I tried to give the squeeze of the most useful.

Some dialogues are fully transmitted, since they show very well how to and how not to ask questions in order to get the necessary answers.

"Test for Mom"

“A test for a mother is a set of simple rules that help to formulate the right questions, in response to which even your mother will not be able to lie” (c)

Italicized so-called. the message we put in the message.

Test for mom failed

Son: “Listen, mom, I had a new business idea. Can I discuss it with you? ”
( I am going to open my soul to you. Please spare my feelings )

Mom : "Yes, dear, of course" ( You are my only son, and I am ready to lie to protect you )

Son : “You really like your iPad? And do you use it often? ”

Mom : “Yes” ( You suggested this answer to me, and you received it )

Son : “Would you buy an application like a cookbook for your iPad?”
( I ask a hypothetical question, full of optimism, and you know what I want to hear from you )

Mom : "Hmm ..." ( Do I need another cookbook at my age ?! )

Son : “It will cost only $ 40. It’s cheaper than a hardcover book ”( I’ll ignore this vague comment and continue to talk about my great idea )

Mom : "Well, I do not know ..." ( Did you really have to pay for the applications? )

Son : “You can share recipes with friends and use the iPhone app to create shopping lists. And there will be videos with a chef whom you love so much ”( Please just say“ Yes. ”I will not leave you alone until you do )

Mom : “Yes, son, it sounds tempting. You're right, $ 40 is a good price. And will there be illustrations for recipes? ”( I confirmed the validity of the price without making an actual purchase decision, made a compliment that does not oblige me, and offered to add a function to look interested )

Son : “Yes, of course. Thank you, Mom, you are my best! ”( I interpreted this conversation completely wrong and accepted it as confirmation of my correctness )

Mom : “Do you want lasagna?” ( I'm afraid, son, you have nothing to buy for yourself. Please eat some )

Test for mom passed

Son : “Hi, mom! How is your communication with the new iPad? ”

Mom : “I literally fell in love with him! I use it every day. ”

Son : "And what do you usually do with his help?" ( So, we asked a general question, therefore, in response to it, we probably will not learn anything particularly valuable )

Mom : “Nothing like that ... I read news, I play sudoku, I communicate with my friends. The most ordinary things "

Son : “And why did you use it for the last time?” ( Refining the real picture with specific examples, obtaining specific data )

Mom : “As you know, dad and I are planning to go on a trip. And I was looking for possible accommodation options "( She uses her gadget, combining business with pleasure. This was not answered in the question about" normal "use )

Son : “Did you use an application for this?” ( This question can be called suggestive, but sometimes a slight push is needed to translate the conversation into the channel of interest to us )

Mom : “No, I was looking for information on Google. I did not know that for this there is some kind of application. What is it called? ”(The youth use the App Store to find applications. And the mother is waiting for you to give her a specific recommendation. And if this is true in a broad sense, then in the future a reliable sales channel, other than the App Store, will play role )

Son : “How did you find out about other applications you use?” ( Analyzing interesting and unexpected answers, you can understand the behaviors and motives that underlie them )

Mom : “There is a section with a weekly review of applications in the Sunday newspaper” ( Can't remember when you opened the newspaper for the last time? But, as you can see, traditional advertising tools can be useful in working with clients like your mom )

Son : “I see. And by the way, I saw that a couple of new cookbooks appeared on the shelf. Where did they come from? ”( As a rule, there are several weak points in any business idea. In this case, this is the transmission channel — the iPad app, and the product itself — a cookbook )

Mom : “An ordinary Christmas present, that's all. I think this gave me Marcy. I didn't even open it. As if at my age I need another lasagna recipe ?! ”( Aha! In this answer we find grains of gold. Three whole: 1) older people do not need another ordinary collection of recipes; 2) it seems that the gift market is stable; 3) perhaps young cooks are a more promising segment, since they are not yet familiar with the basics of cooking )

Son : “And what was the last cookbook devoted to? What did you buy for yourself?” ( In response to vague answers, for example: “I don’t buy cookbooks at all”, ask for specific examples )

Mom : “Yes, yes, when you asked, I remembered: about three months ago I bought a collection of recipes for vegans. Your father is trying to switch to a healthier diet, and I thought that I could add some variety to vegetable dishes ”( Another grain of gold: even experienced chefs may be interested in specialized or original cookbooks )

Keep the conversation going. Turning it in the right direction, you can ask your mother whether she was looking for recipes using the iPad and watching culinary master classes on YouTube.

Findings:

The first conversation demonstrated that this idea is no good. The second gave food for thought.
Why? What was the difference of the second conversation from the first? Mom could not tell you a lie, because you did not talk to her about your idea. A little mysterious, right? We will find out if people are interested in what we are doing without even mentioning it. We talk about themselves and their lives.

1. Talk to them about their life, not about your idea.
2. Ask about specific things that happened in the past, not about views or opinions on the future.
3. Speak less, listen more

Good and bad questions

A list of questions you should ask to get the most useful answers and questions you should forget about

“Do you think this is a good idea?”

Awful question! Only the market can answer if your idea is good. Everything else is nothing more than opinions.

If your interlocutor is not a competent industry expert, you will only indulge your own weaknesses with high risk to hear the truth.

It would be more correct to ask potential customers to demonstrate how they are doing this work now. Ask what they like and don't like about this job. Ask what other tools and processes they tried to use until they stopped at what they are using now. Are they actively seeking out what could be replaced? If so, what became the stumbling block? If not, why not? What are they losing money on using current tools? Do they have the money to purchase more advanced tools? Then summarize all the information received and decide for yourself whether your idea is good.

The golden rule : opinions are useless.

“Would you buy a product that performs task X?”

Bad question.

You ask for opinions and hypotheses, appealing to overly optimistic people who want you to be happy.

Almost always in such cases, people answer: “Yes”, which deprives such questions of any meaning.

That's right: ask how they are coping with task X now and how much money they spend on it. Check how long it takes. Ask them to tell in more detail how problem X was solved last time. If the problem remains unresolved, ask why. Did they try to find solutions? These solutions were not effective enough? Or they did not even try to google?

The golden rule : any predictions for the future is a lie, and an overly optimistic one.

“How much would you pay for X?”

Bad question.

No better than the previous one, and besides, the numbers are more likely to play a cruel joke with you. After all, the numbers seem so true and reliable.

How to fix this issue? Just like everyone else: asking about things that are really happening. How much does this problem cost them? How much do they pay now for her decision? What budget did they allocate for this? I hope you have already noticed a certain trend.

The golden rule : people will lie to you if they believe that you want to hear a lie.

“What features should your dream product have?”

Not a bad question, but only on condition that it will have a good continuation.

The value of the product stems from an understanding of why customers need these or other opportunities. You do not want to limit yourself to collecting only requests for the implementation of any functionality. And you do not create a product with its future users. However, the motivation and limitations that underlie their requests play a very important role.

The golden rule : people know what their problems are, but they don’t know how to solve them.

“Why does it bother you?”

Good question. Lets find out the motives. He explains why this is so.
The golden rule : until you understand what the interlocutor's goals are, you will "shoot blindly."

“What are the consequences of this situation?”

Good question.

He draws the line between "I will cry for these problems to be solved" and "Yes, these problems bother me, but I can easily tolerate them." Some problems have large and costly effects. Others simply exist, but do not play any significant role. It is advisable to learn to distinguish one from another. So you will receive important information about the price that can be requested.

The golden rule : some problems are not actually problems.

“Tell me more in detail what happened the last time?”

Good question.

Ask your customers, as far as possible, to demonstrate the situation, and not to describe it in words. The source of information for you should be their actions, not opinions.

Seeing what is happening with my own eyes, one can better understand and analyze unclear situations. But if you cannot be in the thick of real events, you will get a significant benefit by asking you to tell about how the situation developed the last time.

A careful study of the entire algorithm of actions helps in one fell swoop to get answers to a whole series of questions: how did they distribute time, what tools did they use, with whom did they communicate? What are the limitations they face every day and in general in life? How to fit into this daily routine of the product you offer? What tools, products, software and tasks need to integrate your product?

The golden rule : by observing how customers manage tasks, we see real problems and limitations, not how they are perceived by customers.

“What else did you try to do?”

Good question.

What are they using now? How much do they spend on it, what do they like and dislike about it? What benefits will these updates bring and what difficulties will customers face when switching to a new solution?

The golden rule : if potential customers did not try to find a solution to the problem on their own, they would not pay any attention to the solution that you suggested (and would not buy it).

“Would you pay X dollars for a product that performs Y task?”

Bad question.

The fact that you included numbers in your question does not correct the situation. This question is bad for the same reason as the rest - people are too optimistic about what they could have done, and they are eager to respond so that you are happy.

In addition, we are talking only about your idea, and not about their own life.

“How do you solve this problem now?”

Good question.

In addition to information about the process being studied, you will receive a price point. If customers pay £ 100 a month for a temporary patch stuck with tape, you understand how much you can talk about.

On the other hand, perhaps this year they paid £ 120,000 to the agency for supporting the site you are proposing to replace. In this case, you hardly want to talk about £ 100. Sometimes both situations described above occur at the same time, and you have to choose how to submit yourself correctly. Do you want to replace the web app with a price of £ 1200 per year, or offer your services in return for an agency that receives 100 times more?

The golden rule is : although people are rarely willing to tell you with certainty how much they will pay you, they can often show what is valuable to them.

“Who will finance the purchase?”

Good question.

It is absolutely not necessary (although it is possible) to ask it if the client is an individual, but for the B2B sector this question is really important.

So you will find out from the budget of which unit the purchase will be paid and who else from the company's employees has the authority to push through the planned deal. Often you have to communicate with other people who manage the budget. Your future presentations will be completely useless until you figure out who makes the decisions and what is important to him.

Knowledge of how to make purchasing decisions, you can then turn into an algorithm for repeat sales.

“Who else should I talk to?”

Good question.

Yes! This question should be asked at the end of each conversation.

Proper construction of the first few interviews-surveys can be a daunting task, but by attacking an interesting topic and learning how to communicate with people, you will quickly gain numerous customers who will recommend you to others.

If someone does not want to give you a recommendation, this is also not bad. No need to insist. You will understand that you have either spoiled the communication with your own actions (for example, behaved too formally, insincerely or obtrusively), or the clients do not care about the problem that you propose to solve.

Take any positive remarks from these people with a high degree of skepticism.

“Are there any other questions I should ask?”

Good question.

As a rule, by the time the meeting ends, the participants understand that you are trying to convey to them. Since you are not an expert in their industry, they may just sit and be silent until you finally lose sight of something important. By asking about this, you give them a chance to politely direct your questions in the right direction. And they will do it!

This question can be compared with a crutch - you will drop it as soon as you learn how to properly ask questions and learn the specifics of the industry.

The golden rule: people want to help you, but they rarely do this unless you give them a valid reason.

Continuation