The “Stranger” Effect

05.02.2016 |

Episode #3 of the course How to Validate an Idea by Ryan Kulp

 

By now, you might have shared your idea with friends and family. I bet the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with most everyone saying you should go for it.

Not so fast.

Sometimes our friends and family are our worst critics, because they’re willing to blindly support our endeavors. We all know someone who is pursuing a silly dream, but we often don’t have the heart to tell them. Thus, we’re all part of the problem.

To avoid becoming that entrepreneur yourself, resist the temptation for positive reinforcement from family and friends for your business idea. (You should also resist hiring them, receiving investments or loans from them, etc, but we won’t cover those in this course.)

But how are you supposed to get feedback from people you don’t know?

Introducing the Strangers At Scale approach to market research.

Your task today is to create what’s known as a customer development survey. In it, you should ask 5-7 questions about customers’ pain points and how they’re currently solving them. The survey should not pitch a specific solution, but ask neutral questions.

Rather than sign up for a 3rd-party service, simply head to Google Docs and create a Google Form. As you create this content, be sure to reference your one-page business plan from Day Two.

For inspiration on what kinds of questions to ask, check out this customer development survey by yours truly.

Tomorrow we’ll learn how to freely and scalably distribute this survey to your target audience. You’ll get a step-by-step guide that will teach you exactly how to find and communicate with prospects, completely free and 100% anonymously.

Stay tuned!

 

Recommended book

“The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company” by Steve Blank

 

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