If getting great insights from customers was easy, then the world would have a lot more really great products that solve all our problems. But we don\u2019t, because it\u2019s not easy to tease all of those pain points out of our customers. There\u2019s an art to it, and some thoughtful preparation is needed to have those deep conversations.<\/p>\n
Recently, in my \u201cInsights for Innovation<\/a>\u201d course from Ideo, we focused on how to ask good questions. Here are some of the top tips that I learned:<\/p>\n Your first questions should build rapport and a set a positive tone. The more your customer trusts you, the deeper their feedback. Start your questions easy and broad, about the customer as a person, and then later you can plunge down into your topic\u2019s technical details.<\/p>\n Also, establishing trust is not just about what you say, it\u2019s also about what you do. Watch your body language. Are you physically showing that you are deeply interested in them? Are you smiling?<\/p>\n One aspect of creating a safe environment for an open conversation is the atmosphere itself. Is the customer\u2019s boss, staff, or family sitting near by? Would they be more comfortable walking and talking?<\/p>\n Don\u2019t ask \u201cdo you like this proposal?\u201d The answer to that is a closed \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno,\u201d and doesn\u2019t lead to any broad insights into the customer\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n Instead ask \u201c5W1H\u201d questions: Who, What, Why, When, Where, How. \u201cWhy do you like this?\u201d \u201cWhat is good or bad about it?\u201d \u201cHow do you think you will use it?\u201d These questions will help you elicit much more, and much more meaningful, feedback.<\/p>\n Keep in mind that the interview is an engaged conversation, not a \u201crate it 1 \u2013 10\u201d survey style inquisition or a checklist death march! You want color and details.<\/p>\n Nothing happens in a vacuum. There is always context. Asking a narrow, targeted questions will get you narrow, targeted answers. Ask questions that can lead to stories and all of their richness. Great prompts are:<\/p>\n Another benefit of asking for experiential stories is that it will focus their answers on them personally instead of generalizations and hypothesizing.<\/p>\n When people tell you about what they do, and then demonstrate what they do, you may notice a gap between the two. That discrepancy is important. Why do they think one thing and do another? That information is product-planning gold!<\/p>\n Sometimes people will tell you what they think is the \u201cright answer\u201d instead of their true experience or opinion. You can tease this out by asking the simple follow-up question of \u201cwhy?\u201d \u201cWhy do you think that?\u201d<\/p>\n There is a great tendency for interviewers to focus on the numbers and data, the tech specs. But where do customers really light up and smile? Where do they get angry and frustrated? To find the customer\u2019s true pain points the questions should not be just \u201chow many times did you use the tool?\u201d but also, \u201chow did you feel when you used the tool?\u201d<\/p>\n The future is very hard for people to predict accurately. We have much more certainty about what we did in the past and are doing now. You can ask about the future, but weight your questions toward \u201cnow\u201d as people\u2019s behavior is unlikely to radically change in the future.<\/p>\n Remember, this is a conversation and you don\u2019t know where it will go. Be flexible and break free of your interview guide\u2019s structure. Keeping an open mind and following the conversation\u2019s flow may take you to some delightful and insightful destinations.<\/p>\n The reality is that you don\u2019t know everything about the topic; that\u2019s why you\u2019re asking the customer questions in the first place. You need to discover these known unknowns. So always end your conversation by asking \u201cWhat didn\u2019t I ask you? What else should I know about this?\u201d<\/p>\n OK, I\u2019ll admit that no one sets out to ask bad questions, but there are some questions that will kill the value of the interview. For example, don\u2019t ask questions which are:<\/p>\n <\/strong>In Conclusion\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n So, you are now equipped with 10 tips here for asking great questions. Here comes the hard part: listening. Watch your customer\u2019s body language. Hear their words. Engage actively. Keep your posture open. Do all this, and you have a great chance to truly understand your customer\u2019s pain points, and solve them!<\/p>\n If getting great insights from customers was easy, then the world would have a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[25,39,36,38,5,18],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","category-marketing","tag-communication","tag-conversations","tag-design-thinking","tag-interviewing","tag-leadership","tag-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320,"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhunterdigital.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio<\/a> via Pexels<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"