Deploy Empathy: A Practical Guide to Interviewing Customers

The next time you find yourself tempted to correct someone, ask yourself if it really matters and if they need to be corrected. Look for the context around why they may have gotten something wrong.

Try this now In your most gentle tone of voice, ask a friend or family member, “What are you really excited about lately?” The only things you are allowed to say are: Mhmm Can you say more? (Mirroring what they’ve said) (Nothing)

Every task is a process. Every process is situational.

Kathy Sierra’s Badass is an excellent introduction thinking about user experience and marketing around the user’s broader goals rather than the features of the product.

Try this now When a friend or family member says something to you about their day, try stating back at them what they’ve said. Then, try summarizing what they’ve said as a statement. (Sometimes a gentle upward tone implies interest more, depending on the person.)

What are they trying to do overall? What are all of the steps in that process? Where are they now? Where does the problem you are solving fit in that process? Where in that process do they spend a lot of time or money? How often do they experience this problem? What have they already tried?

You want to pay particular attention to: What kind of tool they're using for something (Note: I'm using “tool” in an anthropological sense here; a manual process or way of thinking or approaching something can be a tool as much as hammer or a piece of software is) What problem the tool solves for them, and which related problems they have that it d

Discovery interviews, when you’re exploring a new idea and are trying to understand a problem better New customer interviews, to figure out why someone switched to your product and how you can market it better to get more customers Long-time customer interviews, to figure out what makes people keep paying you Cancellation interviews, to figure out

Try this now To start, try to notice how often you do particular tasks, and how much they annoy you or have complexity. Try to get used to working with it in your daily life, and then apply it to how you think about business.