The most important rule of thumb in product development is that, you need to talk to at least one customer per day so you can understand the problem you are fixing better and whether or not your product is the desired solution for the customer. There are three basic steps for gathering concrete customer feedback that can make a huge difference for your product development roadmap.

Step One: Set up at least 30 initial customer f2f meetings.

When getting ready as a founder for a f2f customer meeting, you can use the following simple break down into specific parts and goals to achieve in each of them.

• 5’: Introductions & who we are
• 30’: We think you have this problem. Do you have this problem? How are you solving this problem today? How much are you spending to solve this problem? Or how much (€) do you care about the problem? How does this problem impact your business?
• 10’: Here’s how we are (thinking of) solving the problem.
• 10’: Feedback and next steps.

Adding up to less than 1 hour time spent in each f2f customer meeting

As you’re asking each customer how they solve the problem in question, don’t hesitate to drill down into company specifics. It’s always a plus when you can bring to the f2f meeting the people who actually work in the area where the problem exists and understand what their processes looks like. As a founder you’re there to learn as much as you can about the day-to-day life of the customer.

Step Two: Get your team onboard.

There is great value to getting all of your key team members in an f2f meeting with customers and have them describe the problem you tackling. This approach will let your whole team understand the three fundamental questions around building your product: What problem are we solving? From whom are we solving it? How do we measure success?”

After each f2f meeting have your team score it right away. Some important points that you’ll want to document while they’re fresh in your mind will include:

• What is the level of sophistication (business – technical) of the Customer?
• What were the top three problems that the Customer identified for you to solve?
• Would the Customer beta test with you?
• What would they Customer pay for a solution to the top three problems?
• Did the meeting participants identify other stakeholders in the company for you to meet with?
• Any surprises?

Step Three: Focus on the Customer problem, not selling your solution.

Solving a customer problem means understanding that problem at the most fundamental level. Only if you can achieve this understanding, you can create a product that actually fits the market, and build a business from this product that can scale beyond any one feature.

Want to learn more on how-to-do, drop us an email and we will be happy to share our knowledge and insights with you!

For Hippocampus.io,

Christos Lytras – Managing Partner