(Scroll down to the hack)
âLyingâ by Sam Harris explores why we lie to one another. Is someone with makeup lying to us about their appearance? Weâve all been Seinfeld & Aziz at the restaurant. And we do it because lying is easier.
The social scientist will point out âď¸the effort vs benefit of ethical responsibility is too highâď¸
And so, we shouldnât be surprised that our users lie to us. Itâs what makes listening to users an underrated skill.
Most times, we donât even intend to lie. We just forget to think about the truth. We fall prey to biases and tricks that the mind plays on us. Like the availability bias. Someone asks us âWhatâs keeping you up at night?â and we blurt out the first thing our minds make available to us. Not a great question to ask.
By the way, congratulations if youâre already talking to users. Having spent hundreds of hours doing it at multiple ventures, I can tell youâre already. Most people donât even do it.
People donât talk to users for a variety of reasons. Itâs uncomfortable. Youâre troubling someone. You need to say please and thank you. Itâs scary. You may mess it up. Youâre thinking about what to ask next. And not listening to what theyâre saying.
As such, many organizations and individuals hide behind surveys, or just read support tickets and data. Others justify different priorities, or.. just look busy.
Hack Question (HQ)
Get started on a call today by simply asking the user this again and again
âAnd what did you do next?â
Some theory and nuance follow, but if you want to skip it and hop on a call, just go on try it!
Itâs a Hack question for a reason
- It helps recall vs reimagine: Weâre terrible at reimagining othersâ worlds. âIf I cooked up some tapioca balls and put them in tea would you drink it?â Err⌠sure!
- Itâs open vs close-ended: Asking close-ended questions isnât useful. It allows the easy way out. âHow is everything?â Great!
- Itâs non-leading vs leading: Leading questions make it easy for someone to lie. âThis recipe is from my grandmother, isnât it amazingâ Yes!
- It forces detail: Building products is a high detail activity. Simply knowing âworld hunger is a problemâ doesnât help you decide what to cook next.
- It uncovers jobs to be done: Every successful product solves some job. This question forces the user to recall jobs they need to do to accomplish a goal.
Meeting bookends
You naturally donât want to start and finish the call with a Hack question. So, what do bookends look like?
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Intro: Smile, thank, and welcome your guest. Let them know it isnât an inquisition. Youâre just trying to understand better. Ok to record?
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Kickoff: Ask exactly what your product intends to solve. Remember weâre going for detail.
âTell me about the last time you bought steak at a food truckâ. Depending on their response, adjust, but settle into HQ asap. They may be further up the buyer journey. Thatâs ok, youâll get different information from this audience. Like how to acquire them.
- Finish: Speak from the heart. Big thank you, it was a valuable conversation and meant a lot.
BANTer as you get better at it
Youâve overcome the initial fear. Now learn to BANTer between HQs as they describe pain points.
- Budget: Have you spent money on solving that?
- Authority: Did you need to get an ok from someone else first?
- Need: Do you really need to solve it, how many hrs/week do you get back?
- Timing: When was the last time you faced this, how often do you face it?
Itâs a sales discovery technique but applies to feature discovery too. Not every pain point is worth solving. Uncover the one to focus on.
Donât panic, and good luck! đ