Entrepreneur's Handbook

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

CUSTOMER DISCOVERY

You can discover your potential customer, test your idea, and even notice other problems without spending huge money. There are things to do for potential customer discovery. These are listed as follows:

  • Do not ask directly, "We have such a product, would you use it?"
  • Do not ask questions that you already know more or less the answers.
  • Do not talk too much while meeting, try to make the other party talk.
  • A customer may have given you certain clues about their problem, but don't assume that everyone has it, so talk to as many people as possible.
  • Take care of what customers are doing more than they say.
  • Examine the customers' experiences, try to discover in which part of their life they can use your product.

Let's say you invented or produced a dog shampoo that makes dogs smell great. You also picked up the first prototype, but you wanted to understand the customer a little bit and you went out on the street. Let’s say you approach to someone with a dog and started to your words as: “Hello, can I ask you a few questions? We made a dog shampoo that makes your dog smell great, your dog will not smell bad anymore, would you buy such a shampoo”  They may say "Yes" to this question in order not to offend you, but you certainly won't learn anything this way.

There is no one to answer the question “You don't want your dog to smell bad, wouldn't you?” as “No, it would be good if it smells bad every now and then”, so you shouldn't ask this type of question either. A question like "What bother you about your dog?" is more meaningful and instructive. To this question, the person you interviewed may say "My dog is a little bit uneducated, so he is attacking a lot", "It is sometimes tiring to walk my dog after work, I cannot even find a chance to meet with my friends", "It sheds a lot, it sheds all over the house". You should understand from these problems that the solution you provide does not even serve the first three of the other person's problems. This may mean that your dog shampoo invention did not take away a lot of trouble. This may cause you not to get the required attention and go bankrupt when you go to the market. Of course, what should not be forgotten here should be meeting with many people, not just one person. For this reason, if not among the top three problems of others, "Your dogs smell bad and there isn't a proper shampoo that makes dogs smell good", maybe you should give up on your invention. This person you talked to actually gave a lot of clues, but did not tell his experiences in many stories. So try to listen to his stories. For example, a story like "I entered the restaurant the other day, its collar slipped out of my hand and my dog jumped on the next table and disturbed the customers next door" is more valuable to you. For example, it may lead to the question "Is the leash holder in the market slipping too much, is there such a problem in the market?" This could be a new opportunity for you.