People are polite. You need facts.
Direct answer
Run customer discovery interviews by talking to people who match your target customer, asking about specific past experiences, listening for patterns and avoiding pitching your idea. Questions about what they actually did are more reliable than opinions about what they might do.
Good questions
- "Tell me about the last time you [had this problem]."
- "What did you do about it?"
- "What was hardest?"
- "What else have you tried?"
- "How much does it cost you in time or money?"
Avoid
- "Would you buy this?"
- Leading questions.
- Pitching.
After
- Write notes right away.
- Look for repeated problems.
- Update your idea.
Where Teyro fits
Teyro's How to Validate a Business Idea course turns this into short lessons you can play in a few minutes a day. It has 50 lessons, and you can start free.
The bottom line
Ask about the past, not the future.
