{"id":11405,"date":"2023-04-09T23:07:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-09T23:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krokit.org\/?p=11405"},"modified":"2023-04-09T23:07:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-09T23:07:45","slug":"how-to-work-with-problematic-interviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krokit.org\/en\/how-to-work-with-problematic-interviews\/","title":{"rendered":"How to work with problematic interviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The problem interview is one of the tools of the client-centered approach to business. Problem interviews are most often talked about as part of the Customer Development methodology, but it should be understood that problem interviews are a tool of castdev, not the entire castdev.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This confusion may have arisen because people are used to living among a planned economy, directive management, and the familiar from childhood “Mom knows best. But it turned out that this kind of thinking does not work well in modern business: people do not want to buy what is foisted on them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So technologies began to emerge that help build the business from the client, finding out what their needs are and building the product based on that. For example, the problem interview, which had such a wow effect that the rest of the Customer Development methodology began to be forgotten. Over time, it began to seem like the problem interview was the castaway, but it wasn’t.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In this article we will talk about the problem interview as one of the tools that work.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Daria Kharchenko, Program Director of\u00a0the Product Transformation Center at FRII.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
First the context, then the idea, then the interview<\/div>\n
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So, the problem interview is one of the tools of the product approach, Customer Development, or any customer-centric approach. In fact, the problem interview is not really an interview, but rather a regulated way to find out if a person has a problem that the business can make money by solving. Problem Interviews are conducted according to certain rules, which many people don’t understand well, so they say it doesn’t work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before you can even come up with a product and communicate with customers, you need to understand the overall context. That means researching the market and competitors, seeing if other entrepreneurs have done something similar with your idea and why it didn’t work out for them. Without context, it’s hard to formulate an idea, which is then tested with problem interviews.<\/p>\n

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It is also important that the problem interview can be used not only at the stage of creating a product, but also in an existing company that wants to develop a new direction, create another product, attract new clients or increase the average bill. For example, the average bill is 500 roubles, but you want 2,000 roubles. You can’t just raise the price by that much, so first you have to find additional value for clients – something for which they would be prepared to pay 2,000 roubles instead of 500.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It turns out that our task is to understand what the company can give the client so he agreed to pay.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The hypothesis should be as specific as possible<\/div>\n
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If you just go to the client and ask him what he needs, you won’t find out the truth. People themselves do not understand what they need, and they are more likely to give a socially approved answer in order to look better in the eyes of others. Such a person will say that he needs a health food cafe, but in reality will never go there, because in fact every day he dines on pizza from delivery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We’ve already said that it’s important to understand the context, but no one will tell you how to understand it quickly. If a person has worked in catering for ten years, he understands the context, but if he hasn’t worked a day, he is unlikely to be able to open a restaurant from scratch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It is in this context that we begin to formulate a hypothesis-a suggestion of what the client values. The hypothesis should sound as specific as possible. Suppose we have an online store with food delivery, but there are few sales. We want to figure out why in order to sell more, and we assume:

“People who work with pets prefer to order food delivery from the Internet to save time.”<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For a hypothesis to become a hypothesis, we need to add criteria by which we can test the hypothesis.<\/p>\n

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Need to decide:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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