Research
Determine the space that you’d like to solve. This usually comes from a market insight that you’d like to uniquely build for. Within that space, find a group of people who are trying to do something, but currently can’t. Either a solution doesn’t exist at all or there’s a large barrier in the way. Make a list of people to interview in that target market. Reach out to them ー make sure there’s a give and an ask. Create a discussion guide. Synthesize the call notes and pull themes to begin developing on Keep the interested interviewees informed on progress. Finding the space
Where is their a current problem? What industry do you currently have knowledge, skills, and abilities in? Target
Who are your target customers / users? What are they trying to do? What would make them successful? Contact List
Put together a group of people who you can talk with, better understand, share your concepts, and get feedback from.
Outreach messaging
Hey [name],
[Something personal about them or a connection]. I’m reaching out to [purpose]. [1 line about what the product / service solves].
Let me know if you’re interested and I can send over some available times.
All the best,
[your name]
Discussion Guide
Open-ended questions are the best and tend to fall in personal, activities, and feedback.
Personal
Tell me about what you do
Activities
When you are trying to do [x], take me through the steps. What gets in your way? How do you current solve for that?
Feedback on a concept, mockups, or prototype
It’s important participants vocalize what they are seeing and feeling.
If you wanted to do [x], how would you do it here? How would you imagine fitting into your day? How would you explain this to a friend / colleague? Hold the calls
Create a new page for each participant that you interview. Take notes there. Record in Zoom. Upload to YouTube. Call out any direct quotes Synthesize themes into a findings write-up
Common pain points, user flows? Point back to specific quotes and clips. Visually communicate through drawings, charts, and graphs.