Discovery interviews are one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent costly mistakes in organizations. They help identify real issues users face rather than just get feedback on solutions looking in search of a problem.
The main benefit of focusing on the user and their problem is that even if you think you have a great idea, pitching it to them can frame the topic and limit their thinking. If they don’t come up with a similar solution on their own during your discussion, maybe the idea isn’t as great as you thought.
Discovery interviews can be used for validating a new business vertical, a new product (feature) or figuring out process improvements among other things. How to do it?
Find 10 people in your target audience—people who would be willing to pay for your idea because it solves their problem. Ensure they are not too closely related to the idea you are validating (e.g., team members giving feedback on internal tools or existing customers who have previously raised the topic).
For the questions to ask, a sample list could look like this:
- What is your current role in the organization?
- What is your team’s current size?
- What are you responsible for in the organization?
- Based on which metrics is your success in the organization tracked?
- Does your organization have an XYZ strategy?
- What’s the definition of XYZ within your organization?
- Which factors does your organization assess when doing XYZ? How often do you do XYZ?
- At a high level, how does XYZ look? Who is accountable for XYZ? Who does the actual work? Who is consulted? Who is kept informed?
- How difficult is it to do XYZ?
- Are you using any tools to help you do XYZ?
- What other solutions besides external tools are you using to do XYZ?
- What do you not like about the current process around XYZ?
- Is there anything else you’d like to add to the topic?
Once you have conducted the interviews, compare the responses with your idea:
- Do users see XYZ as a problem at all?
- Do you understand XYZ the same way as the users?
- Is XYZ repetitive, costly, or difficult enough to complete that it’s a problem worth solving?
- Will your idea be good enough to replace the current way XYZ is being done?
People, myself included, tend to fall in love with ideas that seem great on paper. This creates a tendency to start work on the idea immediately. Talking to real people to get feedback is an excellent sanity check to determine what should and shouldn’t be built.