Chapter 34To Prove Demand, Find the Shortest Path to the Ultimate Customer Action
“So wait. You outsourced these interviews?”
“I haven’t outsourced anything, Sam. I told Stephanie the overall idea of what I was looking for, and then I sent her some specific questions to ask. We talked a long time. She’s the heart of the ReBicycle brand. She cares that we’re successful just as much as I do.”
“Okay, outsourcing is a bad word. But Stephanie isn’t the founder of the company. You are. Rule number 9 of customer interviews, Owen: The founder of the company should be the one making the calls, doing the research. Otherwise it’s meaningless.” Owen put another olive in his mouth. Sam sure liked things done her way.
“It’s got to be the founder asking these questions. It’s not that I don’t think Stephanie is as smart as you or isn’t part of the team. But your staff wants to get you the answers you are looking for, and they certainly don’t want to deliver bad news. Best-case scenario is that she inadvertently messes with the results by leading the interviews into one direction or another. At worst, she won’t tell you the truth about the calls. And she isn’t as invested as you, Owen. She might be listening to answers on a superficial level instead of probing deeper and trying to discover true problems. Only the person that’s going to be making decisions about the life and death of this company should be conducting these interviews.”
“So what do you want me to do?” She had a point, and Owen ...
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