Skip User Research - Go Sell.
Hi all,
I'm aware that this post might make a few people angry, but: I think you should skip classical user research. Hear me out:
I've been helping companies invent new products for about 8 years now. This has resulted in numerous product launches, multiple patents, and lots of (in)validated concepts.
I'm writing this post after reflecting on some of the learnings I've had throughout my career with the hope to provide some help to those looking to land more sales.
Typically, when I've gone about inventing a new product for a company, I've start by going out and talking to users. The process is usually quite linear. Recruit X number of participants from demographic Y, have a 30-45 min call with them, analyze audio/video recording, then synthesize. I've been trained in ethnographic research so a lot of the synthesis is really trying to read between the lines to understand the real "latent" needs of customers.
Latent needs are needs that a customer doesn't explicitly state. To unearth a latent need, you inherently need to use your gut and take a mini leap of faith. If someone is saying they "want a faster horse", you can use your gut to infer that the true underlying need is "to get to where I'm going faster". You might be wrong, but hey, it's a hypothesis.
This is the typical user research process that big companies and agencies use.
But startups aren't big companies. Neither are indie hackers. You don't have the budget to go out to talk to 100 users and give them gift cards, or incentivize them with cash. You need to start selling and you need data now.
Well, it turns out the selling process is VERY similar to the user research process. In a user interview, we might have a discussion guide which is designed to ask key questions that lead to generative insights. In a sales call, we're effectively doing the same, but there is no intent to incentivize the participant (quite the opposite actually). However, the need to follow your gut and infer latent needs is still critical.
As a result, I say: Fellow Indie Hackers, skip the user research and go straight to the sales call! You're still getting out the room to talk to customers, you're still asking generative questions, and you're still learning a lot! The only difference is:
-You're not incentivizing people to talk to you
-You're pre-validating the distribution channel because if you can't even find anyone to speak to you, you likely won't find those people later
-You get to make mistakes and "get some reps in" before actual high-ticket sales calls
-You're testing the latent need hypothesis with the actual market with limited spend
I've found that a lot of founders take the "big company" / agency approach to user research. I think that definitely has its place, and is very useful. However, these companies have resource that Indie Hackers simply don't. I say skip the formalities and get out the room!
It can get a little overwhelming analyzing all those sales calls. After 3 or 4, our memory starts to get a bit fuzzy and I've often found myself wondering "what did that customer last week say about XYZ feature?" or "how many people actually think Z?". It's also easy to start to build confirmation bias after just a few interviews. You start to think you're seeing a trend, but it's just your brain playing tricks on you and getting you to hear what you want to hear.
There's plenty of manual methods you can use to analyze the sales calls, however, it takes a LOT of time to sift through all the conversations and it's hard to stay unbiased. I've built a tool called InsightLab (www.insightlab.ca) that can help you analyze not just user interviews, but also sales calls. Simply upload your audio/video recordings, it'll auto-transcribe the files, and you can unlock insights that can help you drive sales. We've set it at a price point that we think is accessible to the IndieHacker community and we'd love to help you build products that people love. Follow me on X: https://twitter.com/DJSanghera for more.
Much love,
🔥 Roast My Landing Page
This is absolutely right, in my opinion. Asking people their opinions of what is saleable outside of the 'buying decision' window always seemed pointless. If asked, you guess how you might feel. There is nothing like being 'active' in the decision-making process - the sale is exactly when there will be clarity, and the memory of 'driving' forces will be most recent. I went into a supplier call; they asked, 'Why did you decide on us?' - only for there to be a vague, dim memory left. This reminds me of the lean approach. I think you could go deeper into the different stages people go through as part of the sale too.
Thanks Matt! You get it. I'm not saying don't ever do user research, I'm saying the sales process is a form of user research that shouldn't be ignored and will inherently give you the truth.
The answer is often 'both'. The outcome is often based on the original interest.
Wouldn't some light, early stage user research help define your initial sales pitch and identify potential customer pain points?
How do you sell nothing?
Do you at least have mock-ups, a website?
In my experience users are often very willing to talk to you about something they don’t get junk mailed about the whole time, as, if you sound like you know what you are talking about, it is like a free coaching / consultancy / education. As long as you tell them up front what you hope to get out of the session, respect their time and answer their questions it usually goes well. Personal sales is really powerful, it just doesn’t scale unless you have really high revenue per product sold….. but at this stage do what doesn’t scale.
It turns out, sometimes the first call doesn't even get to a demo, but yes, you could be just selling a mock-up or a fake interactive demo. I made one on protopie in the early days and it helped me see which features people were most excited about! At the end of the call, I'd let them know we'd be open to having them join the beta. Always good to be transparent. Sometimes a little "wizard of oz" is needed.
Also, I think it helps to think in "abundance" rather than scarcity. Thinking in abundance means you're ok with losing some customers for the sake of truly understanding them because you know there will be more. It sounds crappy, but in practice, it's quite helpful.
So, it’d actually be a research call, since your intent will be to learn and not to sale 😅 A bit like a fake “buy” button to validate an idea
Everyone in this thread needs to read The Right It!!! I think it talks a lot about this subject in very useful and concrete terms. Adjacent to (and predating) "flintstoning" as coined by Amy Hoy, it talks a lot about the relevant value of data through signals like interviews vs intent to purchase.
Thanks for the reference - will check it out!
I don't understand your idea. How do you do the sales calls without having a product? I mean, you can pre-sell, but you have to know the problem and suggest a solution before you can offer it on a sales call. This is exactly why you need early user interviews. Before you have a mockup, you need to find out what people need, and if they are willing to pay for it. Unless you are a part of the industry, you do need user research to make sure you're on the right path, no?
Unless you are in a B2C business (if you are an indie hacker, you shouldn't go into B2C anyway), you don't need 100s of calls to discover the main problem. By the 5th call, you will probably see a pattern if you interview people from a sufficiently narrow niche. 3-5 more to validate your solution and make it sellable. Then start selling it.
Make up a solution. Start somewhere, anywhere. This will serve not as the solution, but moreso as a stimulus for discussion to understand which solution is actually valuable. You could spend weeks doing user research, lost in hypotheticals, to finally come up with the "right answer"...but the reality is that sometimes you just need to put a crappy idea out there to get to the good one. Might as well just start.
OK... That's certainly an option.
But I'd rather have 3-5 conversations before spending time on a solution. That saves me from picking the wrong problem to solve.
I guess this depends on the complexity of a solution. In my case, it took a month to create something barely usable. And it took a few days to have these first conversations that clearly showed me the right problem to solve. Turned out my first idea was complete crap, and I'm so glad I talked to people before writing any code. And instead of pushing my solution, I was just listening to their problems and picking what came up over and over again.
However, if your MVP takes a day or two to build, sure, it's much easier when you have something to show!
Consider skipping traditional user research for startups and indie hackers. Instead, dive straight into sales calls. You'll engage with customers, ask insightful questions, and gather valuable data without the need for incentives.
It's reckless to say "skip user research." It's also a false dichotomy to suggest that you have to choose one or the other. There's no reason that you can't do both at the same time. You'll also get much different insights from sales calls. You might potentially uncover some latent needs, but you're far more likely to get feedback on your marketing pitch and value proposition. As others have mentioned, it's a highly biased interaction where the potential customer knows that you're trying to sell them on something. Strategic user research needs to be done throughout the product development process to ensure that you're building something valuable and useful to your users.
Hmm, I have never recorded my sales calls. And only the thought of asking my customer at the beginning to record puts the whole conversation in a strange (maybe biased) setting.
It's a good idea to tell people that you're recording the call for note-taking / recall purposes. I've been on plenty of calls where people are selling things to me and ask if they can record. My take is that if it helps them remember exactly what I need, great. Always good to be transparent.
Because of AI - being recorded will be normal very soon, and a good sign as you say.
I understand the mentality and can see it being applicable. However what happens if you build out an idea and spend weeks creating an MVP viable enough to sell to customers and nobody needs your product?
Agreed - the whole point is to avoid exactly that! Don't build for weeks. Go sell today. You could have a quick mock up or a scrappy demo.
During a sales call, the first 20 mins is usually just a conversation anyways (you don't show the demo till later in the call or potentially the next call). When you cold call, you're not typically showing a product.
Set the expectation of the call right from the start. "Today's call is just a fit check, if we think it's a good fit, we'd be happy to share a demo....I'd love to understand a little more about the challenges you face with XYZ" - for example
One thing I’m wondering about: wouldn’t the “prospects” feel cheated when it turns out that you don’t actually have the product to sell yet? What’s your experience?
Let's making calculated "winging it" great, again. :-)
ha! Nice. If "winging it" gets you out the door and starting to think about who to sell to - by all means, go for it!
If u can theorize about ur potential customers you could try and sell it, see how they use it, and get feedback fast. However, you have to do it cheaply and fast.
But spending hundreds of thousands on a product and getting no user feedback is just as good as betting it all on green at the casino.
I definitely agree with the idea of having to do it cheap and fast, which is why we built InsightLab (www.insightlab.ca). Check it out and see! We've already helped people save hundreds of hours of analyzing sales calls and user interviews.
DJ, you make a great point about combining sales and user research to save time and money for startups. It's smart to use sales calls to also gather user feedback. But I wonder, could this approach miss deeper insights that more detailed user research would catch? How can we balance quick feedback from sales with the need for deeper understanding?
I agree - there isn't really a replacement for full on user interviews and user research. You can't just make that depth up.
However, I believe there is a way to potentially get that depth of insight by asking the right open ended questions in a sales call. The best sales calls have the prospect speaking most of the time! What do you think?
Absolutely - the more they talk, the better it is for your qualification process. Don't be afraid to have a dialog and ask the questions you will benefit from, steering the conversation into figuring out the real problem, which usually comes up 10-15 min later, and thinking of solutions to sell to them.
@dss In my view, a latent need involves addressing a familiar problem with a fresh, superior approach, even if existing solutions are already in place. Targeting a latent need implies selecting a validated problem area, which streamlines some user research efforts as you can dive straight into addressing user needs with a slightly enhanced solution. However, post-launch, it's pivotal to advance towards significantly improved or adaptable solutions.
customers might not always recognize the optimal solution, but they certainly understand the problem at hand. Sometimes, it's crucial to engage with customers, even if the existing solutions seem technically complex or straightforward. Users may have developed habits around current products, making it essential to gather insights directly from them.
Thanks for your pov! I agree with some of what you say, but also disagree with some.
I agree it's important to engage with customers at some point to truly understand their desired and give space to unknown needs.
However, I disagree that customers can always understand the problem at hand. A latent need means that customers might not even be aware of a problem because they can't fathom any other way of doing things, or haven't considered it.
So there is still User Research, just AI assisted? Thanks.
You can use User Research both the traditional way and with AI assistance. When you're a small company, you might not have the resource to go out and formally interview 100 people. Instead, you might want to consider just trying to sell (which is inherently a method of user research/customer research)