On Twitter, the key will be to find people who experience the problem and have already spoken about it. This may take the form of: They’re negatively posting/tweeting about a competitor They’re negatively posting/tweeting about the process They’ve blogged or posted links about the process and described going through relevant negative steps

A good partner for this is someone you’re loosely connected to or a stranger. Think: someone you tweet with occasionally but don’t know in real life, a coworker in a different department, a friend’s roommate, or your partner’s friend. Someone you know vaguely and not too closely. A close friend or family member is not a good candidate, as you

Step 5: Analyze your interviews.

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

When you’re listening to customers, potential customers, or clients, you want to find out what their problems are. You want to find their needs. You want to find out where they’re struggling. You want to know if they would buy it and how much they would pay.

See Marty Cagan’s Inspired for more on viable, valuable, usable, and feasible.

People are more willing to pay to solve problems that are frequent, and people are more willing to pay to solve problems that are complex, time consuming, expensive to get wrong, or otherwise frustrating in some way.

Step 1: Read the “How to Talk So People Will Talk” section.

Hi [Name], I hope you're doing well. I'm doing research as a tech startup founder on how innovative publishers are reaching new audiences and generating new leads. I'd love to talk with you about this if you have 10 mins for a quick call? I'd very much appreciate it. Thank you! Chris