Idea Development
Customer Discovery & Interviews
Because great ideas start with great questions. You’ve got a persona. You’ve got a market in mind. Now it’s time to talk to real humans and test your assumptions — not with surveys or “Do you like my idea?” questions, but with empathy interviews that dig deep. Let’s find out what people actually need.
What is Customer Discovery?
Customer discovery is the process of talking to people to:
Understand their problems;
Learn about their context;
Discover what they’re really trying to achieve.
You’re not trying to pitch. You’re trying to listen.
Why It Matters
Talking to users helps you:
Validate if a real problem exists;
Uncover hidden needs and behaviours;
Avoid building stuff no one wants;
Shape your solution based on real-world insights.
Most failed startups skipped this step or did it badly. Don’t be one of them.
The Empathy Interview
Here’s how to run a good one:
Find people who match your target persona
Fellow students, community members, Reddit, Discord, LinkedIn, etc.
Ask open-ended questions
“Can you walk me through the last time you experienced [problem]?”
“What did you try? What worked? What didn’t?”
“What would an ideal solution look like for you?”
Dig deeper
“Why was that frustrating?”
“What happened next?”
“How did that make you feel?”
Listen more than you talk
You should talk less than 20% of the time
Take notes or record (with permission)
Activity: Interview Warm-Up
Pick someone (classmate, friend, stranger) and run a mini empathy interview. Ask:
What’s something you’ve been frustrated by this week?
What did you do about it?
What would a perfect solution look like?
Reflect:
Did you learn something unexpected?
Did you feel tempted to jump to solutions?
This is your training ground. Get good here, and you’ll build things that actually matter.
Tools You Can Use
Problem Statement Canvas – Helps you define what you’ve heard into a real, testable problem;
Empathy Map – Helps visualise what users think, feel, say, and do;
Decision-Making Unit (DMU) – Helps identify who the real customer is (user vs buyer vs influencer).
Example DMU: A student uses the app (user), but the university pays for it (buyer), and lecturers recommend it (influencer).
Real Talk
People don’t always know what they want — but they know what’s broken;
You’re not looking for compliments, you’re looking for truth;
It’s okay if your idea changes after interviews — that’s the point.