Startup Series #2 - Don’t Be Afraid to Ask.
Why Startups Need to Ask Tough Questions
If you put your customer on a lie detector and promise them $100 for giving brutally honest feedback. You will get very different answers than just asking ‘What do you think about our product’ under normal circumstances or in interview conversations.
Not everyone is confrontational and comfortable with being completely honest even if you ask them to be. Human nature doesn’t just go away when you ask them to.
Understanding this mindset and designing the right questions to get the information from potential customers is what startup founders (or the product team) should also spend time on.
Scary question incoming:
“Will you use our product to solve issue X?”
“Do you see a need for this issue?”
“Will you pay Y dollars every month to solve this?”
(Without reminding them of whatever features will justify the cost).
Because if there is a lack of problem awareness or a lack of willingness to pay within your target market, those are problems that you will need to find a way to solve at scale, instead of trying to convince your customer one by one (which adds up to your cost per acquisition).
Keep asking ‘do you love me’ in a relationship has a high chance of triggering unnecessary conflict because a healthy relationship is built on trust more than value.
Business is not the relationship, it’s built mainly on value (trust too, but more on that next time).
Ask them the tough question, allow yourself to ask the tough questions, be vulnerable, and get hurt if need to, so your business can benefit from it. Not easy, but can be very rewarding.
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Continuing Post: Prelude to Startup Series #3
You can find the beginning of the startup series here:
Sharpening Your Hunch for Success — Introduction to the Startup Series
