How Many Customer Feedbacks Do You Need to Validate Your Startup Idea?

There are some meetings that are so impactful that you never forget them. And this throwaway meeting that Thomas and I had at Tellabs years ago definitely was one for the books. Thomas was the most senior applications engineer in my organization and I really enjoyed meeting customers with him. Thomas would do the heavy lifting of answering the detailed technical questions the customer might have and then I could sit back and observe, adding in if necessary.

The Impact of Customer Feedback

The Tellabs meeting, as I said earlier, was a throwaway. We were having the meeting as a favor to the sales organization. The Tellabs engineer had some sort of problem with our product that didn’t make any sense. I wasn’t very hopeful that we would learn anything useful to define our next generation of products. However, there usually are hidden gems in every customer interaction, especially when you approach it with the right mindset.

Three Key Questions

There are three basic questions you should always ask every customer: What do you dislike about our product, What do like about our product, and What would you like to see us do next. The reason I like asking these open-ended questions is that if the customer is open, you’ll learn a ton about how a customer really feels about your product or service.

The Cold Rush to Tellabs

The night before we had to wait over an hour in the cold for the local sales person, the same person who asked us to meet with Tellabs at O’hare airport. The sales person didn’t even bother apologizing for being late, which wasn’t a good start to a customer meeting. On the day of the meeting, the weather was miserably cold and grey, and our mood was not improving. Walking into the conference room, the engineer came in a few minutes later, exclaiming that our product uses too much power and was burning up his backplane.

Interpreting Customer Feedback

Thomas and I each realized why the customer was having a problem. More importantly, we realized there was a huge opportunity for us. The engineer explained that he was moving data from card to card, which was not how the product was intended to be used. I jumped in and asked the obvious question: How are you using the part?

The Discovery and Opportunity

The engineer explained that he didn't have an alternative and was using the part for a purpose that it was not intended for. When I asked when he was going to production, he said July of the following year. I was honest with him, saying that we couldn't help much with the current product, but we might have something that could help early next year. We proposed working with him on the product definition in return for beta samples, which he agreed to.

The Result of a Single Meeting

This meeting led to the birth of a 100 million/year business. As a product definer, this kind of greenfield opportunity is what I lived for. To take advantage of these opportunities, you need to interpret the market intelligence and customer feedback correctly. Asking questions isn't the only skill needed. You need to ask yourself questions and interpret the information correctly: Why is the customer saying this? What are they really telling us?

The Importance of Customer Feedback

The skill of getting value from customer feedback is in the interpretation of the information you're getting. It seems so simple, but it isn't. You have to have a combination of curiosity and insight to do this correctly. Steve Jobs, among many skills, his ability to envision a world that didn't yet exist was his greatest skill. If you get to 10 of where Jobs got to, you'll be doing just fine.

For more insights on customer feedback and market intelligence, read more on the topic.