Customer Interviews

Last Updated on October 9, 2021

I will write more about this in general, but I wanted to make a quick note of these three cheeky tricks can be very useful that came up in a recent chat with a friend.

The intern designer

I was talking to a friend about getting design feedback from customer interviews and she was saying whenever she shows designs of a new potential feature she always says something like “the intern designer built this,” and “it’s probably not that good” as a way to disarm the customer into feeling more comfortable to give negative feedback.

Paying for it

She also said she often asks for payment – “when we release this new feature are you happy for us increase your subscription fee?” to try to really elicit if it’s worth building.

Squeaky wheels

We also talked a lot about how to play down the loud voices, and make sure to elicit info from the less “squeaky wheels”. It’s really a problem of scale, the best product managers talk to a LOT of customers to get a balanced view.