Task: The MVP Interview (Script)

While analytics can give you the macro picture of how your customers are behaving. A better way to understand more about them is to actually just ask them by carrying out an interview like the ones we did before with problem interview and solution interview.

While you can conduct the interview any way you want, whether by person, by blog, by emailing, the main point is to collect the information that you will need to validate your problem. Also, the interview script is merely a suggestion. If you can get the answers with your own ways, do go ahead!

What we want to learn about in the MVP Interivew is:

1. Is the landing page attractive - do they want to keep going?

2. Do the customers make it through the activation flow (usage cycle)?

3. What features are the most popular?

4. Does your MVP deliver and demonstrate your UVP?

The MVP Interview script is taken from Ash Maurya's Running Lean

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Sample Script:

1. Welcome - set the stage - 2 minutes

Hey, thanks for meeting with us again to help us with our startup. 

We are almost done with our product and we'd love to get your feedback on the product. In return we'll give you early access to the product. Cool?

We'll run a short interview to ask you about the usability of our product. I'll start showing you the website and ask you a couple of questions. It'll be really good if you could think out loud as we go along. That'll help us identify any problems we need to address.

2. Show Landing Page (Test UVP Message) - 2 minutes

(Run a 5-second test to test the site navigation/call to action)

Look at the home page, and let me know what you think of it. Don't click anything yet.

- Is it clear what what our product is?

- What would you do next?

3. Show Pricing Page (Test Pricing - If you have one that is) - 3 minutes

(Instruct the visitor to check out the pricing page, and let him navigate it)

- This is the our pricing plan

- What do you think of it?

4. Signup and Activation (Test Solution) - 15 minutes

(This is the heart of the interview. Ask the interviewee to sign up and watch him use the key features)

- Are you still interested in trying out this service?

- Click on the sign up link to proceed

(Tell the interviewee that we will be seeing him/her go through the signup process)

5. Wrapping up - 2 minutes

- That's it, you're signed up and ready to start rocking

- 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)

- What did you think of the process?

- Is there anything we could improve on?

- Do you know what to do next?

Thank you very much for our time today. If you have any questions or run into issues, please let me know. Would it be okay for me to check in with you next week?

Great. Thanks again.

6. Document Results - 5 minutes

(Document everything, and write down the top 3 problems you've observed)

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?"

Please check out Ash Maurya’s MVP Interview Script Deconstructed from "Running Lean" for instructions on a more comprehensive interview strategy.