By walking in your customer’s shoes you will gain empathy and personal understanding, but you don’t want to rely solely on your own experience. By watching people shop, you can witness honest behavior, but you won’t be able to get into their heads to know their motivations. By talking to people, you gather intel on both behavior and motivation, but

Find the Moment of Pain If you can connect with people at the moment of their theoretical pain, it can be very illuminating. My colleague Alexa Roman was working with an automotive company and they had a concept tied to the experience of getting gas. So Alexa and team visited a series of gas stations.

My target customer will be? The problem my customer wants to solve is? My customer’s need can be solved with? Why can’t my customer solve this today? The measurable outcome my customer wants to achieve is? My primary customer acquisition tactic will be? My earliest adopter will be? I will make money (revenue) by? My primary competition will be? I

start by talking to mid-level managers rather than the C-suite. It can be easier to get their time, it is often easier to get repeat conversations, and, most importantly, it will allow you to get better educated before you go up the chain.

You should use referrals as much as possible. Set a goal of walking out of every interview with 2 or 3 new candidates. When you end an interview, ask the person if they know others who face the problem you are trying to solve. If they feel like you have respected their time, they will often be willing to introduce you to others.

In my interpretation, about 65% of reviews talked about sleep quality, which seems like a good sign for our first risk. A lot of the reviews had to do with personal preference for firm versus soft pillows.

In my interpretation, about 65% of reviews talked about sleep quality, which seems like a good sign for our first risk. A lot of the reviews had to do with personal preference for firm versus soft pillows.

list out the riskiest hypotheses.

First, I want you to walk a day in your customer’s shoes and actually go out and buy a pillow. Second, I want you to observe people in the process of buying a pillow. And third, I want you to talk directly to them.”