Product
Discovery p.1
Goal of user discovery:
→ reduce the risk of your product bets
→ solve your ICP problems better than anybody
don’t do Discovery before delivery. do it before,
during and after.
Mix multiple types of discovery
- Quantitative (pure data)
- qualitative (e.g. user interviews)
- Observational (e.g. how users interact with
your product)
It can be easy to take bad decisions if you only
rely on quantitative data
Qualitative & observational discovery are the
the best types and should be your main method
sometimes, the best discovery is shipping fast
interview skills are underrated
kevin-mlz
Growth product
Product
Discovery p.2
Goal of user interviews:
- understand their motivations
- understand their goals
- understand their problems
- understand where you can help them the most
always look for fresh insights
make the interview feel like a conversation
Ask questions about specifics in the recent past
don’t ask about memories
Ask neutral questions
don’t ask for their ideas
don’t share your ideas
Let them speak, let them express their feelings
focus on the exact process they went through
leave blanks to make them speak more
go very deep in the details
kevin-mlz
Growth product
Product
Discovery p.3
you want to gather facts, not compliments
Make them tell you a story of their actions
Couple user discovery with observations
→ it’s common for people to act differently
Rephrase their answers and continue asking
find patterns between discovery
Don’t act on single pieces of feedback
know who your ICP is, you can’t build a good
product for everybody
If you don’t have consistent problems and goals
you don’t have a specific enough customer segment
Don’t 100% rely on discovery, take risky bets too
be good at reading between the lines
Don’t rely on survey, they are often overrated
survey open ended question will exclude all the
people that don’t feel like writing
kevin-mlz
Growth product
Product
Discovery p.4
repeat their last words to make them continue
make them show you their problems (screen share)
focus on peeling back the onion until you
get to its core
label their emotions
Mistakes to avoid
suggesting a certain angle for their replies
asking what feature you should add
asking what they think of your ideas
Asking about action they would take
Asking about things in the future
Asking something about what they think
Examples of questions
What are the top pains when {{situation}} happens?
kevin-mlz
Growth product
Product
Discovery p.5
When last did you face {{problem}}?
what happened next?
how are you currently dealing with {{problem}}?
Why are you doing it this way?
What else have you already tried?
How important is this problem to you?
What happens if you don’t solve this problem?
What’s the worse that can happen?
What’s your goal?
What are you responsible for in your company?
What metric are you held accountable for?
What’s your main focus in your team?
What metrics do you report to?
What projects are you working on to try to
reach this result?
How did you feel when {{situation}} happened?
kevin-mlz
Growth product
Product
Discovery p.6
what results would outperform your goals?
how does this fit in your overall process?
Who in your team is also involved?
what results do you consider good?
why would you need this?
why do you need this now?
→ don’t prepare too many questions. focus on
asking questions based on the replies you get
Finding users
segment your users based on:
- product retention (months)
- revenue generated (cash)
- results/usage (depends on your product)
- usage frequency (DAU, WAU, MAU)
kevin-mlz
Growth product
Product
Discovery p.7
- pricing plan they have
cold outreach them
leverage marketing assets, e.g.:
- community
- newsletter
- events
- content (e.g. help center)
add popups when they use your product
contact people behind reviews (e.g. g2, trustpilot)
contact mentions on social media
ask your team to put you in contact with users
They often have the best contacts
Talk to people that didn’t convert or churned
Try to automate setting meetings to save time
kevin-mlz
Growth product
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Kévin Moënne-Loccoz
The cheat sheet guy
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