Ask about the last real example
When researching a product idea, ask people how they handled the problem most recently. What triggered it? What did they do? Which tools or people were involved? A specific account provides more useful evidence than a general opinion about whether your proposed app sounds helpful.
Avoid leading with a presentation. Once people hear your preferred solution, they may respond to your enthusiasm rather than describe their own priorities. Explain the topic, seek permission to take notes and make it easy to say that the problem is not important to them.
Investigate the current alternative
A workaround is evidence of effort, but not automatically evidence of willingness to pay for your product. Understand its cost, inconvenience and advantages. A spreadsheet may be imperfect yet familiar, flexible and already approved. Your product must compete with that entire arrangement.
Ask who experiences the problem, who chooses a solution and who pays. In an organisation these may be different people. A user’s excitement does not replace understanding the budget holder’s concerns and procurement process.
Record evidence separately from interpretation
Keep observations, quotations and your conclusions distinguishable. Look for contradictory examples instead of counting every positive comment as validation. If the problem happens rarely or has little consequence, revise the opportunity before committing to a large build.
Useful interview prompts
- Tell me about the last time this happened.
- What made that instance difficult?
- What did you try before choosing this approach?
- Who else was involved in the decision?
- What would make changing the process worthwhile?
Vida Innovation Hub can help founders turn interviews into a clearer product hypothesis and discovery plan. The immediate outcome is a better decision about what to test next. Learning that the problem is different from your original assumption can save effort and reveal a more useful opportunity.
Put this into practice
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An AI-assisted practical guide prepared for Vida ICT Solutions. Examples are illustrative; this article does not report a client engagement.
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