1. MIT GSL
2018
week #1 | day 4

3. If there is already a market research report out there with all the information you need, it is probably TOO LATE for your new venture

4. What is PMR?
DIRECT interaction with potential customer to gain knowledge specific to your potential new venture

5. What is PMR?
DIRECT interaction with potential customer to gain knowledge specific to your potential new venture
“Bottoms-up” market information
Not secondary research!
Not necessarily end-users – could be “economic buyers”, “influencers”, “champions”
Never ends – this is step 0, which underlies every single steps

6. Goal of PMR

7. Goal of PMR
Understand your customer in ALL dimensions; rationally, emotionally, economically, socially, culturally, and more

8. Goal of PMR
Understand your customer in ALL dimensions; rationally, emotionally, economically, socially, culturally, and more
To understand who the buyers and users are
To understand what is pain points for potential customers
To understand the context in which the product will be used
To understand use cases
To help prioritize the feature set
To understand customer satisfaction/ pricing elasticity

9. What is NOT to do in PMR?
Not a sales pitch! – it’s to learn, not to sell
Don’t talk about the product during problem research
Don’t ask leading questions
Don’t ask friends or family

10. Obstacles to Successful PMR
Lack of a structured process
Not executing the process
Confirmation bias
Selection bias
Social acceptability bias

11. Make a plan! Write out the goals and objectives of the research
Define recruitment criteria for interviewees
Develop a recruitment questionnaire
Develop supporting content (ex. discussion guide)
Recruit subjects
Run the research program
Digest results, next steps

12. Process and Techniques
Start with secondary research – BUT not too much
Start Qualitative before quantitative – go deep to understand potential customers.
Source candidates – find “watering holes”
Act like a great journalists – Active listening & 150% attention!
Team is better than solo – one person takes notes while another asks questions

13. Process and Techniques
Interviewing the Right people - make sure demographic and psychographic characteristics match your target customer group
You should be surprised! – it’s not right PMR if no surprise

14. Process and Techniques
Observe/Ask people’s habits (Non-verbal actions > Words)
Open ended questions
“Tell me about the last time..”
”Tell me the story of…”
“You said X. Tell me more…”

15. Results See the pattern Not biased
Create another hypothesis to test and keep doing
Trust but verify
Never ends

16. Tools Customer interviews – we will do today! Observational research
Immersion
User tests
Focus groups

17. Break!

18. Listening and Interviewing

19. Attending skills
Posture of involvement – look involved, arms uncrossed, learn forward toward the speaker when seated
Eye contact – steady, comfortable eye contact for a few seconds. Not glance toward distant objects
Distance – neither too close nor too far apart
Eliminating barriers – remove any possible distractions. NO phone!

20. Encouraging skills
Open-ended questions – Not a question which can be answered with Yes or No
Door openers – non-judgmental, reassuring ways of inviting other people to speak. Not criticizing, advising, stage-hogging.
“You look upset. Care to talk about it?” vs “You get all upset no matter what we do!” or “I was upset when I first heard of this too, but all you have to keep in mind is..”
Attentive silence and encouragers – Silence gives the other person time to think and to set the pace. Show interest by nodding your head and using “I see,” “Yes,”, or “Uh-huh”

21. Following skills
Paraphrasing content – restate a few keywords or summarize the key thoughts or idea. “Seems as though your major concern here is”
Paraphrasing feelings – listen “between the lines”. Be aware of the speaker’s tone of voice, volume, facial expression, and body movement. “Looks like you’re pleased with those results”
Note-taking or recording – be careful about it, especially in one- to-one situations. You might concentrate too much on writing. Explain why you are taking notes and consider sharing the notes

22. Let’s go out!