Identify your bullseye customer in one day | Michael Margolis (UX Research Partner at GV)

Michael’s background 0s

• A bullseye customer is a specific subset of a target market who is most likely to adopt a product or service, and understanding this customer helps startups prioritize feedback, align teams, and build a product that people want 25s.
• The concept of a bullseye customer is important because it allows startups to focus on a specific group of people and understand their needs, rather than trying to build a product for everyone 30s.
• The bullseye customer sprint is a process that involves identifying five bullseye customers, creating three simple prototypes, and conducting interviews with these customers in one day while the team watches and debriefs 51s.
• The goal of the bullseye customer sprint is to help startups identify their ideal customer profile and refine their product to meet the needs of this customer 1m37s.
• Michael Margolis, a UX researcher at Google Ventures, has written a book called "Learn More Faster" that provides a guide for identifying and refining a startup's ideal customer profile in a single day 1m30s.
• The book is available for free as a PDF and provides a step-by-step guide for identifying a bullseye customer, recruiting people for interviews, and refining a product idea 1m53s.
• The process of identifying a bullseye customer involves understanding who the target market is, what their needs are, and what problems they are trying to solve 33s.
• The bullseye customer sprint is a valuable tool for both founders and product teams at larger companies who want to avoid building a product that nobody wants 2m20s.
• The sprint involves recruiting five people who fit the ideal customer profile and conducting interviews with them to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and pain points 55s.
• The interviews are conducted in one day, and the team watches and debriefs together to identify key takeaways and refine the product idea 1m0s.
• EPO is a generation AB testing and feature management platform built by alums of Airbnb and Snowflake for modern growth teams, used by companies like Twitch, Miro, ClickUp, and DraftKings to power their experiments. 3m29s
• Experimentation is increasingly essential for driving growth and understanding the performance of new features, and EPO helps increase experimentation velocity while unlocking rigorous, deep analysis. 3m42s
• EPO offers advanced statistical methods, an accessible UI for diving deeper into performance, and out-of-the-box reporting to avoid prolonged analytic cycles, making it easy to share experiment insights with teams. 4m10s
• EPO powers experimentation across various use cases, including product growth, machine learning, monetization, and email marketing. 4m25s
• Paragon is a developer platform for building native customer-facing integrations with third-party apps, which are mission-critical for B2B software products but can be costly and time-consuming to build in-house. 4m43s
• According to the 2024 State of Integration Survey, building integrations in-house costs an average of 3 months of engineering, resulting in difficult roadmap tradeoffs. 5m8s
• Engineering teams at companies like Copy AI, AI 21, and over 100 other B2B SaaS companies use Paragon to focus on core product features, shipping integrations seven times faster while avoiding maintenance. 5m16s
• The speaker has over 30 years of experience in product and UX work, with a background in anthropology and experience working at educational software, a boutique product design and innovation studio, Walmart.com, and Google. 6m10s
• The speaker's work has involved studying ethnographic research techniques, usability testing, and combining deep ethnographic discovery work with usability work to accelerate techniques and make them faster. 6m45s
• Michael Margolis joined a team early on in 2006 and combined innovation at scale with speed, using techniques such as watch parties to involve teams in research and get feedback quickly 7m21s.
• He brought these techniques to Google Ventures (GV) when he joined in 2010 as the first UX research partner in Venture Capital, adapting and experimenting with them over the last 14 years 7m51s.
• Margolis has worked with hundreds of different startups and founders, conducting over 300 hands-on research sprints and providing office hours to many others, across a broad variety of industries including biotech, healthcare, security, and food 8m32s.
• He has refined his process over 30 years of work and iteration, and is now sharing the most important things he's learned and how to apply them 9m2s.
• Margolis' work involves helping founders and product people answer fundamental questions about their products and people, and he has experimented and learned from working with a wide range of companies and industries 8m20s.

Bullseye customers vs. ideal customer profiles (ICPs) 9m11s

• A bullseye customer is a very specific subset of a target market who is most likely to adopt a product or service initially, and is more specific than the typical ideal customer profile (ICP) or persona 9m23s.
• The concept of bullseye customers is important for accelerating teams and helping founders build successful products by being more focused and specific 9m46s.
• Many successful companies, such as Amazon and Facebook, started by targeting a specific group before expanding to a larger market 10m10s.
• Identifying a bullseye customer helps streamline various aspects of product development, including prioritizing what to build, understanding the target audience's needs, and prioritizing feedback 10m26s.
• Having a clear bullseye customer in mind helps teams stay aligned and focused on what they are doing and what they are doing first 11m1s.
• Google Ventures, as a VC, has incentives aligned with helping startups figure out what will help them succeed, and identifying a bullseye customer is a key part of this process 11m12s.
• Focusing on the bullseye customer helps startups prioritize their roadmap, feedback, and target audience, and gets the whole team moving together faster 12m12s.
• Identifying the target customer is essential for determining the pains to solve for them, how to find them, and ultimately, the success of the product 12m19s.

An overview of the bullseye customer sprint 12m32s

• The Bullseye customer Sprint is a method for identifying a startup's ideal customer in just one day, allowing for a change in the company's trajectory by getting clear on who they're selling to 13m2s.
• The Sprint involves five Bullseye customers and three simple prototypes, with the whole team watching and debriefing the interviews to identify key takeaways 13m28s.
• The basic formula for the Sprint is "five and three in one," with five Bullseye customers and three prototypes, all conducted in one day 13m31s.
• A key insight of the framework is that you don't need to talk to a ton of potential customers, and instead, you build multiple prototypes rather than iterating on a single one 13m56s.
• The Bullseye customer is a specific subset of the target market who is initially most likely to adopt the product or service, and the goal is to recruit a group of people who match this description 14m17s.
• The Sprint involves qualitative interviews, which are deep and allow for understanding people's stories, motivations, and past experiences, and are done in small batches, ideally in one day 15m2s.
• The whole team watches the interviews to build empathy and understanding, and to hear the customers' stories, which is a powerful way to gain insights 15m27s.
• The interviews are typically one hour long and are clumped together, either in one day or across two days, depending on time zones and other factors 15m45s.
• Conducting multiple qualitative interviews in a clump makes patterns more obvious, allowing for clear big takeaways at the end of the day, such as what worked or didn't work and which parts were good or bad 15m56s.
• Doing five interviews can hit what's called Data Saturation, a concept in qualitative research where common patterns and themes start to emerge, and hearing the same things over and over becomes repetitive 16m26s.
• Qualitative interviews in small clumps, comparing prototypes, and making it a team sport can be valuable in understanding customer needs and preferences 16m50s.
• Comparing multiple prototypes helps teams avoid getting too wed to one specific idea, allowing them to think of new possibilities and be more neutral and objective 18m1s.
• Shopping for anything, such as a couch, involves looking at multiple options and comparing them, which provides different reference points and helps in testing with customers 17m4s.
• Presenting multiple prototypes to customers allows them to compare and contrast across different possibilities and distinct value propositions, rather than just providing feedback on one option 17m31s.
• Making it a team sport, such as through watch parties, can help teams stay engaged and take notes in a structured process, with a facilitator helping to debrief and capture key takeaways in between each interview 18m40s.
• Using a spreadsheet to capture key takeaways and having a structured process for taking notes can help teams stay organized and focused during the interview process 19m14s.
• Partners, such as Kate Arana or Vanessa Cho, can facilitate the back room and help teams take notes and debrief in between each interview 18m56s.
• The goal is to ensure everyone is aligned and has a clear understanding of the key takeaways by the end of the day, without the need for a written report 19m21s.
• The team captures big takeaways through a Google form, which is then discussed and used to create momentum for the next steps 19m46s.
• The approach involves making it a team sport to build consensus and alignment, especially in growing teams where people may be working in different directions 20m11s.
• The key elements of the approach include the bullseye customer concept, which involves identifying a very narrow group of people who would most want the product or service 20m28s.
• The approach also involves making a qualitative comparison of prototypes, rather than relying on surveys or other quantitative methods 20m37s.
• The goal is to provide enough information for listeners to be able to implement this approach themselves, with a little prep time, as early as the next day or week 20m51s.

When to use the bullseye customer sprint 20m56s

• The bullseye customer sprint can be done multiple times, and the key times to do it are at a high level, before investing a lot of time, energy, and money into building something 21m6s.
• It is usually conducted before building something, such as when expanding into a new group of customers, like entering a new market, for example, from the UK to the US 21m24s.
• Another common scenario for conducting the bullseye customer sprint is when shifting the target customer tier, such as moving from Enterprise to a lower tier with a self-serve sales motion 21m42s.
• The sprint is also useful when sales are not going as well as hoped after launching a product, to troubleshoot and understand what's going on 21m56s.
• It can also be conducted when receiving polite but unhelpful feedback, indicating a need to dive deeper and find out more about the target customer 22m7s.
• The bullseye customer sprint is particularly useful when there is some traction, but it's not what was expected, and more insight into the target customer is needed 22m4s.

Step one: Agree on goals and key questions 22m19s

• The process of identifying a bullseye customer involves six core steps, with the first step being to plan a 45-minute meeting with the core team to discuss key questions and goals 22m28s.
• The core team should come together to have a conversation about what they wish they could know about their product and customers, and what's getting in the way 22m36s.
• One way to ask this is by inquiring what keeps them up at night, as this helps Founders and product people to identify their main concerns and uncertainties 22m47s.
• The goal is to help prompt and elicit the big things that the team wishes they knew, such as what would have to be true for the product to succeed, and what their hypotheses and assumptions are about the product and customer 23m15s.
• The team should also discuss their nagging debates and the questions that keep coming up over and over, in order to gather information and answer these questions 23m36s.
• The initial meeting is used to detail what the team needs to answer, and to identify the key questions and goals that will guide the rest of the process 23m44s.

Step two: Define your bullseye customer 23m48s

• Step two in identifying the bullseye customer is to determine who to talk to in order to answer the key questions that have been identified, based on what needs to be learned 24m0s.
• The type of customer to talk to depends on the questions being asked, for example, if the questions are about onboarding flow, it would be best to talk to new customers, whereas if the questions are about a new feature in an existing product, it would be best to talk to existing customers 24m20s.
• To identify the bullseye customer, a "bullseye exercise" is conducted, which involves getting the team together and asking them a lot of questions to figure out exactly who the bullseye customer is 24m44s.
• The bullseye exercise is a clarifying conversation for the team, as it helps them to narrow down who their customers are and have a shared understanding of who they are building for 25m8s.
• The exercise involves asking questions and having debates and arguments about who the customer is, which helps to identify specific characteristics, needs, and conditions that define the bullseye customer 25m38s.
• The goal of the bullseye exercise is to have a clear and shared understanding of who the bullseye customer is, and to identify specific details such as the type of condition or needs they have 25m51s.

The importance of a narrow target audience 25m52s

• The natural inclination is to not narrow down a target audience too much, as people often think excluding a big market opportunity is a bad idea, but it's essential to get very narrow, with one description being "comically narrow" 25m54s.
• The goal is to identify a person who the team would all agree would be convinced by the value proposition and problem being solved, and it's okay if the team is not entirely sure, but they should be pretty convinced 26m30s.
• This narrow target audience is a way to reduce variables and test the value proposition, and it's essential to recruit people who match the specific characteristics set to test the idea 26m55s.
• If the target audience is too broad, it can lead to mixed feelings and a lack of consistency, making it difficult to determine what was learned from the test 27m20s.
• The initial list of potential customers and attributes is not necessarily the final target audience, but rather a way to learn as much as possible from the people who will most love the product or service 27m39s.
• The goal is to be very confident that the target audience will love what's being presented, and then it's possible to expand to a slightly broader audience 27m47s.
• The definition of the target audience is often adjusted after conducting interviews and gathering feedback, and it's common to discover new distinguishing characteristics or validate existing assumptions 28m24s.
• The outcome of the process is often a refined definition of the target audience, which may include new characteristics or a deeper understanding of the existing ones 28m31s.

An example of step two in action 29m0s

• A company developing a new delivery service for people with specialty prescriptions medications needed to identify their target customer before building out the logistics of the service 29m12s.
• The company had to figure out whether their customers needed their medications delivered ASAP or if they could wait a day or two, and what time of day they needed them delivered 29m44s.
• To identify their target customer, the company considered attributes such as whether the customer had used delivery services like Uber Eats before, how long they had been on their medication, and their level of responsibility for managing their own medication 30m28s.
• The company also considered exclusion criteria, such as excluding customers who knew too much about the industry, like pharmacists or healthcare workers, to find a typical customer 31m24s.
• The goal was to find a "Bullseye customer" who represented the fundamental issue or problem the company was trying to solve 30m2s.
• The company generated prototypes to express different "recipes" of value propositions to test with their target customer 31m52s.
• The prototypes included different delivery options, such as delivery within an hour, a 4-hour window, or a longer timeframe 32m1s.
• The company needed to identify customers who lived in areas with a certain level of density, whether rural or urban, to determine the feasibility of their delivery service 31m0s.
• The target customer was someone who had a chronic condition and was responsible for managing their own medication, rather than someone in a healthcare setting or with a spouse/partner managing their prescriptions 31m10s.
• A company was trying to determine the best delivery time for specialty medications, and through an exercise, they found that having a distinct, narrow, and predictable window for delivery was more important than ASAP for certain customers 32m15s.
• These customers had specific needs, such as refrigerated medications that couldn't be left outside, or concerns about theft due to the type of medication or their living situation 32m56s.
• The company realized that a subset of customers with refrigerated medications and specific issues had a higher-value problem that they were solving, and they decided to focus on this group 33m20s.
• They re-recruited customers with these specific needs and issues and found that this group was more likely to adopt their solution 33m33s.
• When a company finds its "bullseye customer," they can sense the energy, excitement, and enthusiasm in qualitative interviews, and customers start asking if the solution is available and if they can sign up 35m0s.
• Finding the bullseye customer is about identifying a specific group with a pain point that the company is solving, and they need it badly, which is often referred to as product-market fit 34m31s.
• The term "product-market fit" is avoided, but the concept is about finding a match between the solution and the customer's needs, and it's characterized by customers' enthusiasm and eagerness to adopt the solution 34m47s.
• The bullseye customer sprint involves multiple rounds of research and iteration to find the right match between the solution and the customer's needs, and it may involve killing a project if it's not the right fit 35m34s.
• A business project was killed after conducting a Bullseye Customer Sprint, which saved the company a huge amount of pain, time, and effort that would have been spent on building a complicated hardware and software product with a subscription model 35m51s.
• The process helped the company learn what "no" looks like, allowing them to identify that their product was not a big deal to their target customers, which is a valuable outcome in avoiding waste and saving time 36m22s.
• The biggest value of the Bullseye Customer Sprint is avoiding waste by not building something nobody wants, which is crucial for companies, founders, and product teams 37m3s.
• It is essential to go narrow in the search for the Bullseye Customer, as not being able to find anyone thrilled about the product is a sign of trouble 37m28s.
• If the Bullseye Customer cannot be found, it may be a sign that the requirements are too narrow or that the target customer does not exist, which is a problem for selling the product 37m51s.
• In such cases, it may be necessary to revisit and soften some of the requirements to make the product more appealing to a wider audience 38m3s.

Narrowing attributes and exclusion criteria 38m24s

• Identifying a narrow set of attributes is crucial in determining a company's bullseye customer, with a recommended seven attributes to consider, although this number can vary depending on the specific context 38m44s.
• Attributes can be categorized into three groups: inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, and triggers, which are specific events or situations that make a customer particularly ready for a solution 38m57s.
• Inclusion criteria typically involve characteristics that define the ideal customer, such as taking specialty medications for specific conditions 39m4s.
• Exclusion criteria involve reasons why a customer may not be the best fit, such as having too much expert knowledge or being locked into a competitive product 39m15s.
• Triggers are events or situations that make a customer more receptive to a solution, such as a new CSO coming in and looking to revamp things or a personal experience that creates a need for the solution 40m11s.
• Examples of triggers include a new baby or getting married, which can prompt someone to take action on a previously delayed task, such as buying life insurance 41m20s.
• The jobs to be done framework can help identify these triggers, which can kick off the vector to get someone to take action 41m42s.
• To narrow down the target customer, consider factors such as whether they are a new or existing user of the product, the sector or industry they are in, the size of their organization, and whether they have used a competitive product 42m6s.
• Other factors to consider include disqualifying personal or professional experiences, title, role, and responsibility, geography, whether they are the buyer or end user, team organization, budget, and income 42m22s.
• Life and work settings, trigger events, and whether they are a VIP are also important considerations 42m35s.
• To identify the most valuable customer, ask what makes one customer more valuable than another and what distinguishing characteristics they possess 42m48s.
• By answering these questions and identifying the most relevant attributes, a company can determine their "bullseye customer" and start with that target in mind 43m23s.
• Typically, around seven key attributes will emerge as the most important for defining the target customer 43m19s.

Step three: Recruiting and compensating participants 43m28s

• To recruit bullseye customers, a screener questionnaire is created based on the set criteria, which is translated into a set of questions to filter out people and identify the target audience 43m46s.
• The questionnaire should be written in a way that doesn't telegraph the right answers, allowing for the identification of genuine bullseye customers 44m4s.
• Asking questions in a different way, such as inquiring about the podcasts people listen to or the kinds of people they follow, can help identify bullseye customers without directly asking about specific criteria 44m37s.
• Open-ended questions can also be used to gather information and identify bullseye customers, such as asking where they get their most trusted information 44m49s.
• The bullseye criteria should be concrete and measurable, allowing for the creation of a effective questionnaire, such as defining an "active Shopper" as someone who purchases certain items three times a week 45m1s.
• User interviews and respondent services can be used to post the questionnaire and get responses quickly, typically within three to four days 45m30s.
• This method can be a huge shortcut in recruiting bullseye customers, allowing for surprisingly specific people to be identified 45m49s.
• To find potential customers for user interviews, services like UserInterviews.com can be used, which is a more legitimate and faster method compared to LinkedIn cold emails, Twitter DMs, or Craigslist 47m10s.
• The number of people reached out to for a screener can vary, but it can be hundreds, and the goal is to find around five people who match the core criteria 47m51s.
• The process involves posting on UserInterviews.com, getting responses, downloading them into a spreadsheet, and sifting through to find matches 48m8s.
• If the target group is very specific, such as AI engineers, it can be challenging to find them, and it may require different techniques, such as professional associations or snowball recruiting 48m23s.
• If a group is hard to find and hard to reach, it can be a sign that building a company for them will be challenging 48m46s.
• In cases where the target group is not on UserInterviews.com, such as oncologists, alternative methods like finding online forums, conferences, or using snowball recruiting through existing contacts can be used 49m4s.
• Snowball recruiting involves working through the network of existing contacts to find potential customers and filtering them to ensure they match the core criteria 49m32s.
• Professional associations can also be a way to find potential customers, but it requires different techniques 49m50s.
• Companies like Gong, Linear, and Austa have successfully identified their ideal customers, with Gong's first "Bullseye customer" being software companies selling in English via video conferencing, with a product cost of $1,000 to $100,000, Linear focusing on 2-5% startups using GitHub and Google, and Austa targeting companies with less than five employees in California with no contractors 50m17s.
• It's essential to go even deeper and more specific when defining the ideal customer, including concrete, measurable characteristics such as founder-led, product-driven companies, and the products they use in their stack 51m8s.
• The "Bullseye customer" is a research tool to help identify a broader Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and business targets, and it's not the actual ICP 52m0s.
• The process of identifying the Bullseye customer is a learning exercise, focused on learning more, faster, and is different from selling, which requires a different mindset and approach to conversations 52m14s.
• The concept of "humble inquiry" is essential in this process, which involves asking questions, being vulnerable, and giving the person being asked a higher status, rather than telling and selling 52m52s.
• Founders and product heads often struggle with humble inquiry due to their selling mode, but it's crucial to be vulnerable and ask questions to learn and gain valuable insights 53m35s.
• The distinction between learning mode and selling mode is important, with learning mode involving humble inquiry and a willingness to be vulnerable and express uncertainty, whereas selling mode involves telling and can be more about persuasion than understanding 53m51s.
• When recruiting Bullseye customers, it's essential to find the right people, filter screeners, pick five candidates, and schedule them for the same day 54m27s.
• To ensure participants show up, it's crucial to compensate them sufficiently, with a recommended rate of $125 per hour for most consumer-related sessions 55m0s.
• Paying a higher rate, such as $400 per hour, may be necessary for specialized professionals like attorneys 55m13s.
• The choice of $125 per hour is based on a standard policy and has been effective in getting people to show up 55m25s.
• To minimize the risk of no-shows, it's recommended to remind participants, ensure they're responsive, and have them sign an NDA ahead of time 54m52s.
• Swapping out unresponsive participants with alternates can be an effective strategy, but having a backup list of participants is not always necessary 56m4s.
• Ensuring high follow-through rates can be achieved by working with user interviews, engaging with participants during the week leading up to the sessions, and being prepared to swap out unresponsive individuals 56m7s.

Step four: Creating effective prototypes 56m11s

• The next step is to create prototypes, which are three distinct examples of possible features and variables to be presented in interviews, ideally using competitors' products as free prototypes 56m14s.
• The goal is to study competitors' products, understand how people respond to them, and identify variables to be spread across the prototypes 56m57s.
• The variables can include features such as delivery options, with different prototypes presenting different scenarios, such as a pharmacist, a delivery courier, or a drone company 57m27s.
• Another variable can be the size of the delivery window, with options ranging from a specific time frame to as soon as possible 57m49s.
• The prototypes are simple, flat designs, often just PDFs, and are meant to articulate the distinct value proposition, brand promise, and problem being solved for each prototype 58m2s.
• The prototypes should look as real as possible, with a homepage-like design, but do not require functionality or building 58m21s.
• The goal is to create prototypes that can stand alone, without narration, and can be presented to observers to gather feedback 58m34s.
• The prototypes can be created using AI, but it's essential to keep them simple and not get distracted by making them too functional or complex 58m55s.
• The benefit of keeping prototypes simple is that it allows for flexibility and not being too committed to a particular design 59m13s.
• The key to a successful prototype is to clearly describe the distinct value proposition and problem being solved, making it easy for observers to understand and compare different prototypes 59m38s.
• The design of the prototype is less important than the headline, positioning, and value proposition, which should be clearly articulated 1h0m10s.
• It's essential to design the prototypes to look different from each other, making it easy for observers to keep track of which prototype is being discussed 1h0m20s.
• Finally, it's crucial to proofread the prototypes carefully to avoid errors that can undermine their validity and credibility 1h0m46s.

Step five: Drafting your interview guide 1h1m10s

• To identify the bullseye customer, a series of one-hour interviews are conducted, each consisting of a two-part interview: a discovery interview and a comparing and contrasting of prototypes 1h1m27s.
• The discovery interview involves asking people about their existing and past experiences, attitudes, and opinions about a specific part of their life, such as how they previously got their medications delivered 1h1m33s.
• The comparing and contrasting part of the interview involves presenting each prototype to the interviewee and gathering their responses, including what they like, dislike, and find important or not important 1h2m1s.
• By having multiple prototypes, interviewees can compare and contrast them, allowing researchers to identify the best aspects of each prototype 1h2m23s.
• The goal of the interview is not to pick a winner but to gather the best pieces of each prototype to construct an ideal version 1h2m46s.
• The discovery conversation provides context for understanding the interviewee's feedback about the prototypes, helping researchers understand why they react in certain ways 1h3m7s.
• The interview guide should include a warmup, introduction, and other sections to ensure a comprehensive conversation 1h4m16s.
• To start an interview, begin with light and casual questions to build rapport with the participant, such as asking about the weather or their location, and express gratitude for their time and help 1h4m27s.
• The goal of the initial questions is to understand the participant's worldview and context around the problem being discussed, and to build an arc in the conversation that puts them at ease 1h5m1s.
• It's essential to start the interview with a big smile, even if it's a phone call, as it changes the tone of the voice and helps to build a connection with the participant 1h6m10s.
• The interviewer should look for signs that the participant is smiling back and becoming responsive, indicating that the conversation is going well 1h6m20s.
• The interviewer's role is to ask questions and be genuinely curious, rather than trying to provide answers or solutions, and to focus on understanding the participant's perspective 1h6m41s.
• It's crucial to be open-minded and not dismiss the participant's thoughts or opinions, even if they seem wrong or unusual, and instead, dig deeper to understand their reasoning 1h7m9s.
• To become proficient in conducting interviews, practice is essential, as it's a hard skill to develop, and it's not as simple as just talking to people 1h7m39s.
• When conducting interviews, it's helpful to adopt a different character mode, which involves embodying extreme curiosity, focus on the person, and engagement, in order to effectively listen and gather information 1h7m45s.
• This character mode is distinct from one's normal personality, and it may take some practice to develop, especially for founders who are used to pitching and may need to switch to a listener character 1h8m41s.
• To get into this character mode, it can be helpful to take a deep breath, put on a smile, and intentionally focus on the person being interviewed 1h8m0s.
• Developing a listener character can be beneficial for conducting effective interviews and gathering valuable insights from the people being interviewed 1h8m44s.

Step six: The watch party method 1h8m49s

• The final step in identifying the bullseye customer is the "watch party," where the team conducts interviews and takes notes to gather information and insights 1h8m51s.
• During the watch party, the interviewer conducts the conversation with the customer via Zoom, while the rest of the team watches and takes notes in real-time through a live stream 1h9m33s.
• The team uses a collaborative document, such as Google Doc or Notion, to take notes and assign roles to ensure everyone is engaged and focused 1h9m50s.
• The team does not use AI to take notes, as it is essential for team members to lean in and engage with the experience, taking manual notes to stay focused 1h10m1s.
• A Slack channel is used in the background for additional discussions and questions, which are monitored by team members, such as Vanessa Cho Konowitz 1h10m40s.
• The team has a chat window open with the interviewer to pass on questions or clarifications, but they are advised to be judicious about this to avoid influencing the conversation 1h11m3s.
• A spreadsheet is used to capture key information and insights from each interview, with specified questions and areas of focus for each study 1h11m26s.
• The team leader or product owner is responsible for filling in the answers to these questions and gathering input from the team during the debrief 1h11m55s.
• The process of identifying a bullseye customer involves capturing detailed notes and recordings of interviews with participants, which are then distilled into a deep brief sheet for each participant, and a spreadsheet for high-level information 1h12m11s.
• A big takeaways form is created at the end of the day, where team members independently fill out a Google form to capture their key learnings, takeaways, and next steps 1h12m34s.
• The form includes questions such as the number of interviews watched, first, second, and third big takeaways, adjustments to the definition of the bullseye customer, and next steps or open questions 1h12m38s.
• The team reviews the big takeaways form to identify key patterns and learnings, often finding a remarkable amount of consensus and alignment on what was learned and what to do next 1h13m18s.
• One common takeaway is the need for more research, even among teams that claim to regularly talk to their customers 1h13m41s.
• Before the watch party, team members are asked to predict what they think they will learn from the interviews, which helps capture a snapshot of their expectations and hypotheses 1h14m5s.
• This prediction exercise helps tailor the interview guide and ensures that the team is understanding what they want to get out of the study 1h14m45s.
• After the study, the team compares what they learned to what they thought they would learn, which helps mitigate hindsight bias and remember what they didn't know before 1h15m2s.
• The goal of conducting research is to learn and gain valuable insights, which can help teams move forward twice as fast, even if the results are not what was expected 1h15m39s.
• Many people tend to think they understand what customers need without conducting research, but often realize the importance of customer feedback after doing so 1h16m10s.
• Common patterns of mispredictions have been observed across different businesses and domains, which can be attributed to the "curse of knowledge" 1h16m37s.
• The curse of knowledge refers to the difficulty of imagining that others may not have the same level of expertise or knowledge as oneself, leading to blind spots 1h16m51s.
• Common blind spots include overestimating how much customers know about a product or service, the size of the problem, their willingness to pay, and their readiness to buy 1h17m30s.
• These blind spots are often found in teams with deep expertise in their space, who may struggle to put themselves in their customers' shoes 1h17m7s.
• It is essential for the whole team, including engineers and designers, to be present during the research process, such as a watch party, to ensure everyone is aligned and understands the results 1h18m30s.
• The watch party approach can be a shortcut to avoiding the need for a report or persuading team members, as everyone has witnessed the research process together 1h18m49s.
• Defining the core product team is crucial in the process, as they are the ones taking notes, building the product, making decisions, and owning the outcome 1h19m6s.
• The core product team should consist of the people who are really building the product and making the decisions, and they need to be present for the entire process 1h19m19s.
• Other people, such as engineers on different projects, are welcome to attend certain parts of the process, but the core team needs to be there for all of it 1h19m30s.
• It is essential to distinguish who is part of the core product team, as their opinions and involvement are critical to the product's development 1h19m16s.
• The core product team's presence and participation are necessary for the success of the product, and they will be responsible for building it and doing the work 1h19m22s.

Common pitfalls and final thoughts 1h19m40s

• A common mistake in identifying the bullseye customer is not being specific or picky enough in the recruitment process, which can lead to a combination of people that is "mushy" and makes it difficult to draw conclusions 1h19m42s.
• To avoid this, it's essential to be disciplined and narrow down the recruitment process to the right people, using a set of attributes to guide the selection 1h20m46s.
• A useful heuristic is to consider seven narrowing attributes of who to recruit, which can help get to a point where there is one or two key attributes that distinguish the bullseye customer 1h20m51s.
• By identifying these key attributes, it's possible to prioritize leads and streamline sales motions or other processes 1h21m31s.
• One effective way to identify the bullseye customer is to use a screener survey, such as a waitlist questionnaire, to gather information about potential customers and prioritize those who best match the product or service 1h22m1s.
• Another common pitfall is putting too much weight on people's predictions of what they would do, rather than their past experiences, which can be a more reliable indicator of future behavior 1h22m27s.
• When conducting interviews, it's helpful to use a two-part approach, where the first part involves asking people to describe and explain their past experiences, and the second part involves showing a prototype and asking for predictions, but being skeptical of those predictions and putting more weight on the past experiences 1h22m40s.
• People are generally terrible at predicting what they will do, so it's essential to rely more on past experiences and behaviors when trying to understand the bullseye customer 1h23m15s.
• To identify a bullseye customer, it's essential to focus on what the person has shown and demonstrated in the past through their behavior, attitudes, and opinions, rather than just relying on what they say they will do in the future 1h23m19s.
• When researching potential customers, it's crucial to look for extreme excitement as a signal that they may actually use a product or service, rather than just relying on their verbal responses 1h23m45s.
• Confirmation bias can be a significant issue in customer research, and teams should be encouraged to police each other and remain neutral and objective about what they're hearing to avoid falling into this trap 1h23m53s.
• To ensure objectivity, teams can establish rules for listening and encourage each other to point out when someone is confirming their own bias 1h23m58s.
• A key indicator of a customer's genuine interest is their level of excitement, which can be observed through non-verbal cues, such as their body language and tone of voice 1h24m22s.
• If a team is unsure about whether they have found a bullseye customer, it's likely a sign that they don't have product-market fit, which is often described as a feeling that is immediately apparent 1h24m34s.

Closing thoughts and where to find Michael 1h24m43s

• GV has a significant portfolio in biotech, focusing on developing new therapies and treatments, which presents a different kind of business compared to digital Enterprise consumer products 1h25m8s.
• Biotech companies involve years of scientific research, and productization occurs when figuring out how a product fits into a physician's workflow, patient reactions, and encouraging people to participate in clinical trials 1h25m35s.
• Clinical trials can be thought of as a product, requiring streamlining and targeting the right people to increase participation 1h25m57s.
• Expert teams in biotech often have different titles, such as patient education, but perform similar work to product managers, using terms like Target Product Profiles (TPPs) 1h26m35s.
• Applying UX research methods to biotech is an exciting opportunity, as it feels like a green field with huge potential impact 1h26m56s.
• Listeners can find more information and resources, including a free book, demo videos, and worksheets, at learnmorefaster.com 1h27m38s.
• Readers are encouraged to try out the methods, share their stories, and provide feedback on how they adapt and apply the techniques, even in non-early-stage startups 1h28m4s.
• Michael can be reached through his website at learnmorefaster.com, where people can send him a note, although he cannot guarantee a reply to everyone, but he will read all messages 1h28m16s.
• He is also available on LinkedIn, which is a great place to connect with him 1h28m25s.
• Michael encourages people to share their experiences and stories about how they used his work, what worked, and what didn't, in order to help him update and fix it 1h28m32s.
• He works with GV portfolio companies, and his full-time job is as a UX Research Partner at GV 1h28m54s.
• The conversation was part of a podcast, and listeners can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or their favorite podcast app 1h29m15s.
• Listeners are also encouraged to give the podcast a rating or leave a review to help other listeners find the show 1h29m22s.
• All past episodes and more information about the show can be found at Lenny podcast.com 1h29m28s.