63 Creds - Management

hello everybody my title is Eric Richard Kazuki I am a companion right here at YC I really began an organization that went via Y Combinator again in 2011 I began an organization referred to as pebble we made one of many first smartwatches I’m actually excited to be right here to speak about speaking to customers as a result of this is without doubt one of the perennial issues that that you simply all the time hear about as one of many vital elements in beginning an organization the very best founders keep a direct connection to their customers all through the lifespan of their total firm they keep a direct connection as a result of they should extract data from from their customers in any respect totally different levels of working their firm usually instances folks suppose that you already know they’re the CEO or they’re the CTO they’re the technical sort of product leads of the corporate they will outsource this this that they will outsource this analysis to different folks of their firm they will rent salespeople they will rent heads of product however on the core the very best corporations are those the place the founders themselves keep a direct connection to their customers if you’re the CEO it’s your job it’s in your job description to speak to clients so take the time to discover ways to do it nicely all founders want to want to take part on this course of as nicely do not for those who’re the engineer for those who’re the developer do not suppose which you can escape this course of simply since you’re the one that’s coding there is a fairly basic scene from the film workplace area the place they there’s a person who says I am the one that who’s the go-between between engineers and customers I understand how to speak to folks I’ve folks abilities and that is without doubt one of the issues that you do not need to have occur at your organization you wish to ensure that the founders and the the the core the core members of your organization are those who develop the talents for speaking to customers so that you shouldn’t have to rent somebody like that to be the go-between speaking to customers is so vital that on the core of sort of ycs teachings there are solely two issues that you need to do with a view to search your organization you’ll want to code or construct your product and speak to customers so that is simpler mentioned than performed I wish to present at present some tactical recommendation on plan your technique for speaking to customers in addition to some some questions and methods that you should use to conduct your personal person interviews at first of your of your organization plenty of the recommendation that I that I will current at present is definitely synthesized fantastically on this e-book really written by a YC founder referred to as the mother check the title of the e-book comes after sort of the the method wherein we most likely all undergo the place we wish to inform our dad and mom in regards to the firm that we’re engaged on and we I believe that by speaking to people who you already know love us and wish to help us we’re really extracting good or helpful details about how we may modify or enhance our firm however at its core this isn’t one of the simplest ways to get data so the mother check as Rob really explains it is three widespread errors that we make after we attempt to preach I to conduct person interviews the primary downside the primary mistake that we just about all make is we speak about our concept we’re founders we like to pitch our concept we love to speak in regards to the the product that we’re engaged on however throughout a person interview that’s not the time to be pitching the product the objective of an ideal person interview is to extract data from the person who you are speaking to to extract information that may aid you enhance the product or enhance your advertising and marketing or enhance your positioning it’s not to promote them on utilizing your product so on the core of an ideal damage person interview you’ll want to find out about their life you’ll want to speak about specifics round the issue space that you simply’re making an attempt to resolve that the person could also be going via second mistake that we just about all make is we speak about hypotheticals we speak about what our product might be we speak about options that we wish to construct we ask questions like we ask questions like if we constructed this function would you be fascinated with utilizing it might you be fascinated with paying for it that’s improper as an alternative speak about specifics which have already occurred within the customers life this gives you stronger and higher data wherein to make product and firm altering selections you additionally wish to speak generally in regards to the customers life you do not wish to simply speak in regards to the particular downside or sorry the the precise answer that you simply’re presenting attempt to extract details about the customers the trail that led them to come across that downside ask them questions on their life in sort of extra broader and extra broader methods to extract context round how they arrived at this at this downside find out about their motivations find out about why they received themselves into that downside within the first place and the third entice that we just about all fall into is that we speak we speak lots or founders we’re all the time pitching traders had been pitching staff we’re making an attempt to rent folks we’re making an attempt to companion so we have a tendency to spend so much of our time speaking in a person interview attempt to attempt to restrain your your your curiosity in speaking and actually pay attention take notes and take heed to what the person is saying as a result of in that span of time that 10 20 half-hour that you simply spend with the person you are making an attempt to extract as a lot data as doable in order that if you return to the workplace and if you return to your co-founders you are bringing laborious information actual info about customers lives to the desk I believe that there are 5 nice questions that everybody can ask throughout their their early buyer interviews the primary query is what’s the hardest half about doing the factor that you simply’re making an attempt to resolve let’s take Dropbox for an instance now a lot of it’s possible you’ll not bear in mind our world earlier than Dropbox however put your self again within the place of Drew the founding father of Dropbox in 2005 when he was initially engaged on sort of the the preliminary concept of Dropbox whereas working whereas finding out at MIT think about you are within the pc lab at MIT and also you’re sitting subsequent to your pal you flip and also you ask you are engaged on this undertaking to create Dropbox and also you you wish to study extra about how different individuals are sharing information as a way to study you already know are these different potential customers right here or what are the issues that I may also help remedy with this new know-how so that you flip to your pal and also you ask what’s the hardest half about engaged on a gaggle undertaking with college computer systems you are sending within the pc lab it is the proper context for asking that sort of query and you start open-ended dialog making an attempt to extract details about how that particular person at present works on group tasks along with associates hopefully you will find out about particular ache factors that they’ve like they go online to a shared pc they need to get their information from someplace they might have a community drive connected to the the college system however they’re working with somebody who will not be logged on to a college pc at the moment perhaps you find out about issues with synchronizing of shared work perhaps you are each engaged on the very same doc at the very same time how do you start how do you at present try to resolve that downside generally the very best startups are in search of issues that individuals face regularly or that they are painful sufficient to warrant fixing this query may also help affirm or or affirm for you whether or not the issue that you simply’re really working the the issue that you simply’re engaged on is definitely one which actual customers really feel is a ache really feel as one thing that they actively wish to remedy of their life the second query to the purpose that I used to be making earlier about making an attempt to get to specifics moderately than hypotheticals is to ask the query inform me in regards to the final time that you simply encountered this downside the objective of this query is definitely to extract context across the circumstances wherein the person encountered that downside so for instance within the Dropbox case it’s possible you’ll be speaking to your pal and find out about per week in the past a particular timeframe who had been they working with which which which which class had been they working engaged on which was this it was it is a pc science downside was this a an English paper attempt to extract as a lot data as you and in regards to the the context wherein they started fixing this downside in order that as you develop as you develop your product you can really reference real-life examples of previous issues that potential customers have had and you’ll overlay your answer on prime of that to see if it might have helped in that exact circumstance the third query is why was this tough why was the circumstance wherein that scholar was making an attempt to work on their their shared undertaking their their undertaking with folks why was that arduous what had been these particular issues that they encountered that had been troublesome the explanation why you wish to ask this query is since you’ll hear many various issues from totally different folks going again to the Dropbox instance you may encounter some individuals who say that perhaps the issue could be the primary downside that they had been encountering was after they emailed information forwards and backwards they ended up duplicating work as a result of they did not have the very same sort of doc at the very same time perhaps different folks will say that they submitted the improper doc ultimately to the to the professor for his or her group undertaking as a result of they’d like loopy strings of file model numbers on the tip so the profit from asking this query isn’t just to determine the precise downside that you could be start to resolve together with your answer to this downside however you will additionally start to know the way you market your product the way you clarify to new potential customers the worth or the advantages of of your answer generally clients do not buy what they do not purchase the what they purchase the why so within the Dropbox instance they will not be they will not be excited and overjoyed at saying oh I now have this type of file syncing instrument that may that may maintain all my information in sync however they’re going to by the Y they’re going to say nicely this actual product this product will assist with this actual downside that I had simply two weeks in the past after I was making an attempt to work on a scholar undertaking with a few of my associates so solutions that you simply get from clients to this query of why why was this previous downside that you simply encountered so laborious may very well inform your advertising and marketing or your gross sales copy as you as you construct out the remainder of your product fourth query is what if something have you ever performed to attempt to remedy this downside one of many greatest issues that that I’ve encountered nicely whereas serving to YC corporations over the previous few years is that if clients if potential clients usually are not already exploring potential options to their downside it is doable that the issue that you simply’re making an attempt to resolve shouldn’t be a burning sufficient downside for purchasers for them to be even fascinated with your higher answer to this product so this query tries to get on the root of that of that of that difficulty is the one that encounters this downside already making an attempt to resolve this so within the Dropbox instance you are engaged on a gaggle undertaking otherwise you’re speaking to somebody who’s who’s labored on group tasks previously attempt to determine what what instruments did they experiment with what instruments did they attempt to use to resolve this previously perhaps they they remedy this by getting all of the people collectively in a single room to work on the undertaking with 4 computer systems in order that they may speak in real-time to to one another as they had been engaged on the undertaking perhaps they perhaps they experimented with e mail perhaps they tried organising as one of many prime feedback on Hacker Information posted in the course of the authentic Dropbox launch perhaps they’d arrange our sink and they might already remedy this downside with SFTP or one thing like that once more you wish to ask this query for 2 causes one is to determine whether or not the issue that you simply’re fixing otherwise you’re working to resolve is even actually one thing that individuals are already in search of options to you and the second is what are the opposite competitors on the market what’s going to your product be in contrast in opposition to as you as you as you find yourself rolling out your answer and providing it to finish clients the fifth query could be very tactical so what do not you’re keen on in regards to the options that you’ve got already tried that is the start of your potential function set that is the way you ask the or that is how you start understanding what the options are that you will construct out to your higher answer to the issue now be aware that this isn’t the query of what options would you need out of a brand new file syncing product within the Dropbox instance as a result of that is a hypothetical query customers generally usually are not nice at figuring out the the following options that they need within the product similar to the outdated you already know Henry Ford quote you already know our after we had been creating the auto or our customers would have needed a quicker horse moderately than that automotive so this query particularly targets what are the what are the what are the issues with the present options that they’ve already tried these are these are specifics and you’ll start to sort of determine what the diff the differential between your new answer and the present options already out there can be speaking to customers as I mentioned earlier than is beneficial I just about all levels of your organization however there’s three vital phases to an early-stage firm I might sort of outline that as an organization that has not but reached product market match wherein speaking to customers could be extraordinarily helpful these three levels are on the concept stage earlier than you have even begun creating any any of your product on the prototype stage the place you might have the primary sort of tough beginnings of your product however you have not actually gotten within the arms of any paying clients or any customers but and the third one which is after you have launched and also you’re iterating in the direction of product market match how do you information that journey so I will speak about a number of suggestions for for every part on the concept stage you might have the again of a serviette concept you might have a thought could or could also be it’s possible you’ll be commercializing some know-how that you’ve got been dreaming of however you do not but have any first customers so you’ll want to start discovering the primary people who can be fascinated with both offering details about the issue that they’ve encountered or probably signing as much as be your first customers the very best the very best you already know folks come to come back to me to ask how am i able to how am i able to speak and the way am i able to discover my first customers actually among the finest corporations are services or products which might be constructed for the founders themself so begin with your self start like check check your person interview technique on your self attempt to stroll via a state of affairs the place you have encountered that downside the following step after that’s to speak to associates is to speak to co-workers to get heat introductions it would not take lots of people you do not have to speak to hundreds of individuals you each good person sort of analysis technique begins with only one or two folks the vital the vital function right here is executing a unbiased and and detailed buyer or person interview technique moderately than simply making an attempt to to pitch your concept to them one other cool hack that that we have seen some nice success with really a YC firm on this batch is utilizing this – a YC firm this batch is definitely promoting promoting merchandise to firefighters and so they realized that chilly e mail introductions was simply not working was not a method that they may get via to the shoppers so what they did was they really simply dropped by fireplace stations in particular person they did not even you already know e mail them to say that they had been coming forward of time they simply confirmed up and so they mentioned hey may we converse to the hearth chief may we speak to somebody about this downside that had been that we have got an answer to and you already know what it labored nice they managed to get dozens of in-person no 10 to 15-minute lengthy conferences simply by displaying up so when doubtful if there is a particular goal buyer base that you are looking to get suggestions from simply attempt displaying up by no means it feels somewhat bit bizarre as a result of it feels such as you’re imposing on somebody however on the finish of the day the mindset that I prefer to get into is for those who actually suppose that you simply’re fixing an issue that your goal buyer base is dealing with you will really be doing them forward you will be serving to them out by taking their quarter-hour and and studying extra about the issue business occasions are one other nice strategy to get various new buyer interactions I keep in mind that after I was engaged on pebble we really went to CES which is this massive client electronics present in Vegas we did not have a sales space we simply went in guerilla-style we similar to randomly began organising in organising conferences with potential customers and we met them in just like the espresso store I might facet on the convention we did that for $0 with none type of advertising and marketing finances simply because that was the place lots of people within the business had been and we knew that there was like a excessive focus of potential people who we may speak to some suggestions for this stage take notes take detailed notes as a result of like I mentioned earlier than you do not you will by no means know till later which key info of those person interviews could also be helpful for those who’re not nice at taking notes whilst you’re speaking to somebody carry a pal carry a co-founder ask the particular person for those who may report it when doubtful seize as a lot data as doable maintain it informal like I mentioned earlier than you possibly can simply present up you do not have to love pre-planned this you do not have to have you already know 20 minute blocks in your calendar scheduled for days on finish of person interviews be happy to react like actually you will study a lot via the primary 5 or 10 person interviews that you already know you will your your course of will dramatically enhance from these first interviews to the following batch so do not feel like you must do 100 person interviews all on the similar time simply begin with one begin with three begin with 5 till you get the grasp of it the third factor is you’ll want to be cognizant of the opposite particular person’s time once more going again to what I mentioned at first you already know we love our concept we’re founders we love speaking about our concept so you’ll want to you’ll want to maintain your self in verify and just be sure you’re cognizant to the opposite particular person’s time actually you can get most likely the very best data out of say a ten to fifteen minute lengthy first interview and that could be on a regular basis you want simply only for that preliminary chat as you progress previous the concepts stage into testing your your prototype with customers the following main sort of profit which you can which you can get from speaking to customers is determining who can be your finest first buyer that is vital as a result of it is doable that for those who select the improper first buyer that you could be be led down a path that that constrains you or artificially traps you with out really getting paid by that first buyer so we have created a framework that you should use to start to determine earlier than you start working with them who the very best first clients can be throughout person interviews at this stage I like to to ask questions that extract numerical solutions to a few info in regards to the buyer that I am working with the primary one which I prefer to get that I wish to unravel is how a lot does this downside value them at present and I prefer to get a tough quantity both when it comes to how a lot income do they stand to earn in the event that they remedy this downside or how a lot how a lot expense do they at present spend making an attempt to resolve this downside how a lot cash is wasted at present as they attempt to remedy this downside second one which I prefer to unravel is how often do they encounter this downside do they encounter it on hourly foundation a day by day foundation quarterly foundation yearly foundation the very best the very best issues that startups can can goal are ones which might be encountered extra often that is normally helpful for 2 causes one is that they encounter an issue on a extra common foundation it signifies that the shoppers feeling the ache of that downside on a extra common foundation and so they’ll be far more receptive to a possible answer the second cause why you wish to deal with an issue that individuals encounter on a extra frequent foundation is you will get extra probabilities to know whether or not your product is definitely fixing an issue in my case with pebble I really like the truth that I used to be engaged on a tool that was sort of meant for use each day you already know you get up within the morning you place your watch on that was nice for me as a result of I knew that in the event that they weren’t if customers weren’t sporting their watch regularly that meant that I used to be doing one thing improper so the very best first clients are ones which have this downside very often the third factor that you simply wish to unravel is how massive is their finances for fixing this downside you possibly can think about that say you are fixing one thing for an industrial meeting line downside on the economic meeting line for those who’re speaking to the operator the one that’s really there on the sort of the meeting line they might encounter this downside on a very common foundation however they simply do not have the finances they do not have the authority to really remedy the issue that is their boss in order that’s somebody above them within the within the workplace of within the headquarters so once more as you are making an attempt to determine the very best first clients just be sure you’re making an attempt to that just be sure you’re asking questions on whether or not they even have the flexibility to resolve the issue given the selection I like to visualise solutions to those to those three units of buyer questions as overlapping Venn diagrams with the very best first buyer being on the middle of the Venn diagram the place they’ve the best sort of numerical solutions to the three questions that I outlined so let’s take a fast instance think about for those who’re engaged on like a brilliant sensible blender that is designed to supply the the tastiest new fruit smoothies you talked to a number of customers to illustrate you are speaking to McDonald’s the French Laundry and the Google cafe you create a spreadsheet that merely has three columns with the solutions to the questions that you’ve got extracted via your person interviews by way of this information can really be utilized in prioritizing which buyer you you start to promote your product to first so for instance the French Laundry is a tremendous restaurant up in Napa perhaps perhaps they’ve a possibility to to roll out a brand new extraordinarily fancy over-the-top smoothie together with your new know-how they will extract plenty of some huge cash from every sale however the frequency shouldn’t be that top there’s simply not that many shoppers which might be fascinated with a fruit smoothie on the French Laundry and also you’re speaking to perhaps the the sous-chef on the on the eating places so that you notice that they do not actually have that a lot cash to resolve this downside even when they needed to the opposite the opposite potential buyer that you simply’re speaking to is the chef at one of many Google cafes sadly for you Google provides away their meals at no cost to their staff in order that particular person would not really stand to earn more cash or save that rather more cash in the event that they had been to make use of your new smoothie know-how of their of their restaurant granted there are plenty of Googlers so there most likely could be plenty of smoothies made per week however on the similar time once more you already know they simply do not have the finances to have the ability to to essentially dig into this downside so that you study via the preliminary buyer interviews that McDonald’s is definitely the very best potential buyer AB consideration potential first buyer to your product whereas although the the the price of a brand new smoothie at McDonald’s could not usher in you already know a big greenback quantity per transaction they’ve a ton of shops and every of these shops providers a ton of individuals and on prime of that you simply occur to get a heat introduction to the like chief meals officer of McDonald’s which I am not even positive they’ve however that particular person really controls like a multi-billion greenback finances and in the event that they needed to resolve this downside they’d have the authority and they might have the the finances to take action and so you place that data in your spreadsheet and also you really do like a easy stack rank that simply pulls the very best solutions to these questions as much as the highest and you should use this framework for for sort of pulling collectively all the knowledge that you simply get from numerous person surveys to to search out the very best clients the final stage a 4 product market match that may profit from person interviews is definitely the method of iterating in the direction of product market match Paul Graham’s lower definition for product market match is if you’ve made one thing that individuals need Marc Andreessen additionally has a tremendous weblog publish about product market match the place he describes it as when the product is simply being pulled out of you if you not need to push the product on clients they’re simply pulling it pulling it from you however the issue with these definitions of product market match is that they are imprecise they’re additionally retroactive in that you must have already got product market match with a view to know that you’ve got reached it so they are not as helpful for serving to you determine which options you should use which options you’ll want to construct with a view to iterate with a view to enhance your product to get to product market match you might have heard of the app superhuman which is a brilliant quick e mail consumer nicely the CEO revealed a tremendous weblog publish a short while in the past about how he constructed a nicely how he was really irritated with this a imprecise definition of what product market match is and the way it was a lagging indicator that did not assist him predict product market match had solely advised him whether or not he achieved it or not he needed to create a real-time quantitative system that had that had helped information his firm in the direction of product market match and naturally it concerned speaking to customers he wrote an ideal weblog publish on this you would simply google it I might simply gonna contact her sort of contact on it however I might extremely suggest studying the complete factor as a result of it’s it’s incredible however in it he describes a course of the place on a weekly foundation he asks just about all his clients nevertheless it would not even need to be your total buyer base it may simply be you already know 30 40 customers a vital query how would you’re feeling for those who may not use superhuman three solutions very disillusioned considerably disillusioned not disillusioned he measured the proportion of customers who answered the query very disillusioned these are the customers who most worth your product that is these are the customers who your product has now change into a key a part of their life it is sort of weaseled their method into their day by day habits he learn some evaluation that mentioned {that a} 40 p.c or extra of your person base reviews that they’d be very disillusioned in case your product went away on a weekly foundation that that is sort of the sign that is the the differentiation level that it says for those who get previous this level your product will simply develop exponentially and he evaluated various different profitable corporations and realized that the reply to this query was all the time round or above 40 p.c so once more I most likely will not have the ability to go into it an excessive amount of extra intimately however I might suggest studying this weblog publish for those who’re on the stage the place you are iterating and also you actively have customers which you can ask this query of this may be an immensely helpful factor for quantitatively figuring out whether or not the options that you simply labored on within the earlier week we’re really benefiting or including to your product market match or probably detracting from it as nicely another nice suggestions that we discovered at this stage is sort of a easy hack ask your customers for the telephone quantity throughout signup as a result of oftentimes you will be wanting on the information and you will be questioning you already know why did why is the info displaying this specific sort of studying about our clients and also you perhaps like pondering and combination like you already know 20% of individuals have this downside typically it helps to simply get on the telephone and speak to at least one one that’s encountering this downside so I all the time encourage founders to place contact to place contact data together with telephone quantity which is sort of a direct connection to clients fairly excessive up within the person signup circulation second one is do not design by committee you possibly can’t merely ask your customers what options they need you must start to know whether or not these options are actually going to going to assist make your product extra sticky and extra helpful you are able to do this via sort of the the recommendation of the superhuman CEO lays out in his weblog publish or you would ask different tactical questions like as an alternative of asking you already know do Tweel customers be fascinated with utilizing this new product or this new function as an alternative say here is us here is an improve circulation if you would like this new product put your bank card or if you would like this new function put your bank card data or pay extra even earlier than you really constructed out the function this might assist provide you with details about whether or not the function that you simply’re engaged on it is really one thing that the customers are going to make use of the third factor to do throughout person interviews at this stage is to recollect to discard dangerous information among the among the sort of worst dangerous information that you could be encounter is compliments folks could say oh I really like the brand new design or man this factor is basically helpful it’s possible you’ll love that in the course of the course of person interviews however they really usually are not helpful data as a result of it is not particular it is extra of a basic assertion about your product and it is not tactical it is not providing you with appropriate data on what you possibly can change or what you possibly can enhance about you are um you are most likely the second most important sort of dangerous information that you could be encounter is fluff they’re hypotheticals these are technology Eric statements everytime you’re in the course of a person interview and also you begin getting onto onto this hypothetical you already know oh here is what it here is what the product could seem like sooner or later attempt to steer it again to specifics once more you are conducting a person interview to not pitch your product however to find out about issues or the problems that the person has confronted of their previous as a way to enhance it sooner or later that is it that was meant to be like a fast fast brief dive into speaking speaking to customers I do not know if now we have any time for questions cool superior I would like to reply any questions however aside from that thanks thanks very a lot [Applause] you

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