I highly recommend the Mom Test book by Rob Fitzpatrick. But I know many tech founders are too busy and often don't want to read non-technical books. I am guilty of this but am trying harder to escape that habit. As I read the Mom Test, I quickly realized that asking the right questions to potential users/customers is a crucial way to validate the business idea or the product or service. The book spends considerable time on examples that teach the readers how to frame the questions in the correct tense and perspectives.
So, I had a bright idea: What if I ask ChatGPT to generate a user/customer interview question set based on this book? I did, and it was very good. So, I figured I should develop a generic prompt template that others can use to benefit from LLMs that have the core knowledge of the book and help the founder at least get a good sample of the questions in their niche.
So here is the prompt I generated:
Prompt:
I am a founder in the [insert niche market here] industry. I am developing a product/service called [insert product/service name here] that aims to [briefly describe the product/service and its intended benefits]. I aim to validate the need for this product/service, understand the potential customer's pain points, and assess the demand within this niche market.
Please generate a set of customer interview questions that will help me:
- Understand the current practices and tools my potential customers use.
- Identify the challenges and pain points they face related to [specific problem your product/service solves].
- Explore their experiences and the impact of these challenges on their work/life.
- Introduce my product/service concept without pitching, and gauge their interest and perceived value.
- Determine their willingness to pay for a solution like mine.
The questions should follow the principles of The Mom Test, focusing on uncovering real problems and past behaviors rather than hypothetical scenarios. They should also be specific to the context of [insert niche market here] and relevant to professionals within this industry.
Now, I used this prompt to generate an interview question set for users/customers of ShowNotes.app -- my startup for sharing notes in public with a niche focus on tech founders.
Customer Interview for ShowNotes (Tech Founders Focus)
Objective: To validate the need for ShowNotes among tech founders, understand their pain points in sharing industry knowledge, and assess the demand for a platform that facilitates sharing public notes while handling SEO, classifications, tagging, and visibility tasks.
Introduction
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Warm-Up Questions:
- Can you tell me a bit about your background and the tech industry you are involved in?
- How do you typically share your insights and knowledge about your industry with your audience?
Current Practices
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Current Solutions:
- How do you currently manage and share your notes or insights about the tech industry?
- What tools or platforms do you use for this purpose?
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Pain Points:
- What challenges do you face when sharing your industry knowledge publicly?
- Are there any tasks related to sharing that you find particularly time-consuming or frustrating (e.g., SEO, tagging, visibility)?
Experience and Impact
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Experience with Current Solutions:
- Can you describe the last time you shared an insight or piece of knowledge publicly? What was the process like?
- How do you ensure your insights reach the right audience and gain traction?
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Impact on Work:
- How much time do you spend on SEO, tagging, and classification tasks when sharing your knowledge?
- Have you ever faced any issues with visibility or reaching your desired audience? How does that impact your credibility and reach in the industry?
Exploring ShowNotes Concept
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Concept Introduction:
- If there was a platform that automatically handled SEO, classifications, tagging, and improved the visibility of your notes and insights, how do you think that would impact your workflow and audience engagement?
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Feature Relevance:
- Which of these features (SEO, classifications, tagging, visibility) would be most beneficial to you?
- Are there any other features you would find valuable in such a platform?
Willingness to Pay
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Value Proposition:
- How valuable do you find the idea of a platform that reduces your publishing chores and helps you gain an organic audience for your industry insights?
- Would you be willing to pay for such a service? If so, what price range would you consider reasonable?
Closing
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Final Thoughts:
- Is there anything else you think I should know about your experience with sharing industry knowledge publicly?
- Would you like to try out a beta version of ShowNotes if it becomes available?
Follow-Up:
- Can I contact you again if I have more questions or if there are updates about the platform?
Then, I asked ChatGPT to generate an HTML version of this interview using Tailwind CSS and JQuery via CDN so that the form could be submitted to kabir@shownotes.app.
It created the form. I had to press Continue generating once since the output tokens exceeded the limit, and so I ended up with an HTML form that looks like this:
Now, I can share this form with prospective users via a website or even via an email attachment, and once they fill it out, it will email me the data using their built-in email client. Of course, you can go fancy and create a complete backend to this or even create a Google form mimicking your customer/user interview forms. I tried looking for an easy way to convert an HTML form to a Google form, but no solution exists, so that's a bummer.
I hope to use something similar to collect customer data. One thing I do see as an issue is that the amount of time a user/customer has to spend in this process can be a challenge. So I am exploring if I need to incentivize their time use by a gift card or other social incentive methods. However, the key is not to bias the user with my existing product details to have an unbiased response.