Stage: The Solution Interview

Components of a good Solution Interview based off Ash Maurya's Running Lean

This is a sample script that we used for StartitUp:

Welcome - 2 minutes

We’re building a step-by-startup guide that will provide action items for entrepreneurs like you build and grow your business. blah blah blah.

Collect Demographics (Test Customer Segment - this is where you find out who they are. Are they your customers? early adopters? or what?) - 2 minutes

(Here you want to find out who they are)

- What are you doing for a living now

- Have you started a company before?

- If yes, how many?

- If not, do you want to?

- Do you use a lot of online resources for your work?

Tell a Story (Set Problem Context) - 2 minutes
So, one of the biggest problems we have is that we do a lot of startups, and it's always quite frustrating to not be really able to keep track of our progress, or knowing what to do, and when to do them. We find that we spend a lot of time scavenging over the internet for the newest MVP tricks, or growth hacking tricks. While we are seasoned entrepreneurs, we still prefer to have some kind of guidelines to keep us in check.

Is this something you face as well?

Demo (Test Solution - Ask them what they think about your solution) - 15 minutes

(It is best if you have a demo you can show them. If not, then you can try to describe your solution as concise as possible. You can even pull out a pen and paper to show them how it's done. For each problem, you want to demonstrate the process of how you would solve it for them.)

1. What part of the demo or product you found most useful for you?

2. Which could you live without?

3. Is there anything you think is missing?

Test Pricing (Revenue Streams) - 3 minutes

Would you pay $10 for a frequently-updated course that will help you get in front of incubators by the end of the guide?

Tip: Do not ask them how much they will pay. Tell them how much they will pay. Also, see if they are hesitant when answering your question. You can figure out what they feel about your pricing that way.

Wrapping Up (the Hook and Ask) - 2 minutes

We are almost done with our MVP, and I think we have a pretty awesome solution to help startups build and grow their business in an efficient manner.

Thanks a lot for your time today.

Do you think you'd be interested in using the guide when we have it ready?

Would you like to be a customer at a big early adopter discount, 50% (or anything) off for the first 6 months? (If the customer is unwilling to, then this may be a sign of invalidation)

Would you know anyone who could be a good candidate for this topic?

Document Results - 5 minutes

Spend 5 minutes to document the results. 

Tips: 

1. Don’t ask questions that might get a polite response back. Asking a yes or no question or whether or not they will use your service will often yield a polite answer.

2. Always ask questions that will make them tell you what they already do right now as an alternative to solve their problems.

3. Probe their behavior instead of asking them questions that leads them to answer that they want to use your solution.

4. The point of the interview is to learn about them, not to sell to them.

5. The trick to get people to talk more is by asking them open-ended questions like "What do you usually do to solve this problem." and not "Is this how you solve ths problem nowadays?"

Optional: Look for Ash Maurya's Running Lean - “Solution Interview Script Deconstructed” for a more thorough interview strategy. 

Now that we've gotten feedback about what people feel about the solution we've presented. Lets think about if our product actually delivers the solution - do we need to change or tweak it. If you are comfortable about your solution right now, lets move to the next section!