So now we gotta talk about what you're going to do before you do the interview with the customer. You've lined up an interview, you got the customer ready to go. What's your homework before you actually go in there and talk to them? Well, first of all, you have to pick people to interview who are going to teach you stuff, and there's probably three different aspects to that. One is, you're going to start out with people that you know. You have to. You start that was your network, you reach out. But you ultimately want to get to people who don't know you. If you know them all ready, they're likely to fall into confirmation bias. They're going to listen for what you're talking about. They're going to try to make, they're going to try to understand what you're doing and say that it's good. That's just human nature. If you meet people that you don't know, they're less likely to do that, although it's still a risk. So, try to get the people that you don't know and talk to them. You also want people that don't have a relationship with you to protect. They'll speak the truth, if you let them. And finally, don't talk to the same kind of person over and over and over again. We're going to talk about customer archetypes next week. But a customer archetype is a kind of customer that you meet. So, there might be middle-aged high rollers, or there might be young people with more money than time. There might be university students, there might be university professors. A customer archetype, if you say that university professors are likely to be one of your customer segments and university students are likely to be another, don't talk just to the university professors. Talk to some professors and some students. Spread out over the archetypes, and use the archetypes to make it smart in who you pick to interview. So you want to find the right people to talk to. When you're going to plan it, have a purpose. What hypotheses are you testing? Know why you're going to go in there and what you want to get out of it. A little bit about what questions you want to ask, although, of course, that's going to change during the course of the interview. But go in with a plan. Who is it, Eisenhower said that plans are worthless but planning is priceless. Have a plan when you go in. Have a purpose. Have something you want to find out. And then, if you go off in an unexpected direction, that's great. But at least you won't sort of wonder around in the underbrush. Be transparent. If someone were coming to talk to you and interview you and they pretended that they were not a salesman and then all of a sudden they turned into a salesman, you'd be very put off. It would be a turn off for the whole interview and you wouldn't be cooperative with them. So what are you? You're people that are learning about their market, you're talking to them as experts in their own pains, and you want to find out from them as much as you can about their world. And be transparent about that, that's exactly what you're doing. Your job is to get them talking, and anything you do that can do that is going to be helpful to you. And finally, everyone should know this in the age of the Internet, research them before you go talk to them. Google them, look them up on LinkedIn. See what they like, see what they don't like. See what they do, see what they don't do. Find out as much about them as they can. First of all, you won't look so dumb when you go to interview them. But second of all, you'll have a much better idea of what it is you're trying to get out of the meeting and how to approach it. So, all that's important. As I've said before, take two people whenever possible. It's a lot to ask to have somebody asking the questions, setting the tone, guiding the interview, and then trying to take notes at the same time. It's not good. If you have to do it, you have to do it. It's better to do that than to not get an interview. But always try to take two people when you can so that one of them takes notes and also, sort of observes the process. because you're going to get into that later in the post-mortem. And whatever you've made, whatever the ask is you've made to them in terms of time, don't go over it. Unless they beg you to, sometimes they beg you to. That's okay. But it does happen, it's unlikely. Be respectful of their time. Say I've used up the time that I asked for, the 20 minutes, the 40 minutes, whatever, and I'll let you go now, thanks very much. But before we go, always remember to say is there anything I should have asked you? And, who else should I talk to? Those questions are always for extra time. So, those are the main points about previewing for the thing before. Try to meet people you don't already know. Don't talk to all the same people. Use archetypes to sort of guide you to the different kinds of people you want to talk to. Have a purpose for each interview before you go. Have a plan. We're going to talk about this hypothesis. We're going to see if price is really an issue for them. We're going to see if quality's what they want. And then you're going to prove or disprove it based on the questions and answers you get. Don't try to sell them anything. And be transparent about who you are. And take two people if possible.
