Benefits: ✅ Refine product features 📈 Increase user engagement 🎯 Achieve product-market fit

YC Partner Eric Migicovsky outlines a framework for asking questions and collecting feedback from your users.

Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6g-how-to-talk-to-users

This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at https://www.startupschool.org/

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:00:27 Best founders maintain a direct connection to users
• 00:02:03 Write code and talk to users
• 00:02:43 The Mom Test book - Three common errors when conducting user interviews
• 00:03:22 1. Talk about their life, not your idea
• 00:03:58 2. Talk specifics, not hypotheticals
• 00:05:16 3. Listen, don't talk
• 00:05:56 Five great questions that everyone can ask during their early customer interviews
• 00:06:05 1. What is the hardest part about [doing this thing]?
• 00:08:16 2. When is the last time you encountered this problem?
• 00:09:15 3. Why was this hard?
• 00:11:14 4. What, if anything, have you done to solve this problem?
• 00:13:06 5. What don't you love about the solution you already tried?
• 00:14:16 Three critical phases to a early-stage company – Talking to users is extremely beneficial
• 00:14:58 1.1. Idea stage - Find first users with problem
• 00:18:08 1.2. Idea stage – Tips
• 00:19:30 2.1. Prototype stage - Identify your best first customer
• 00:20:01 2.2. Prototype stage – Framework to identify your best first customer
• 00:25:21 3.1. Launched stage – Superhuman Product-Market Fit Engine (https://app.chapterme.co/player/video/19WpIbBhxJU)
• 00:28:24 3.2 Launched stage – Tips
• 00:30:55 conclusion

Benefits:

• 🎯 Find product-market fit
• 📈 Prioritize high-value customers
• 💰 Validate willingness to pay

YC Partner Eric Migicovsky outlines a framework for asking questions and collecting feedback from your users.

Transcript and lecture slides: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6g-how-to-talk-to-users

This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at https://www.startupschool.org/

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc):

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:00:27 Best founders maintain a direct connection to users
• 00:02:03 Write code and talk to users
• 00:02:43 The Mom Test book - Three common errors when conducting user interviews
• 00:03:22 1. Talk about their life, not your idea
• 00:03:58 2. Talk specifics, not hypotheticals
• 00:05:16 3. Listen, don't talk
• 00:05:56 Five great questions that everyone can ask during their early customer interviews
• 00:06:05 1. What is the hardest part about [doing this thing]?
• 00:08:16 2. When is the last time you encountered this problem?
• 00:09:15 3. Why was this hard?
• 00:11:14 4. What, if anything, have you done to solve this problem?
• 00:13:06 5. What don't you love about the solution you already tried?
• 00:14:16 Three critical phases to a early-stage company – Talking to users is extremely beneficial
• 00:14:58 1.1. Idea stage - Find first users with problem
• 00:18:08 1.2. Idea stage – Tips
• 00:19:30 2.1. Prototype stage - Identify your best first customer
• 00:20:01 2.2. Prototype stage – Framework to identify your best first customer
• 00:25:21 3.1. Launched stage – Superhuman Product-Market Fit Engine (https://app.chapterme.co/player/video/19WpIbBhxJU)
• 00:28:24 3.2 Launched stage – Tips
• 00:30:55 conclusion

This routine covers strategies for finding and interviewing early users before building a product.

Benefits: ✅ Validate problem-solution fit ✅ Gather user pain points ✅ Test messaging and positioning

YC Partner Eric Migicovsky outlines a framework for asking questions and collecting feedback from your users.

Transcript and lecture slides: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6g-how-to-talk-to-users

This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at https://www.startupschool.org/

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:00:27 Best founders maintain a direct connection to users
• 00:02:03 Write code and talk to users
• 00:02:43 The Mom Test book - Three common errors when conducting user interviews
• 00:03:22 1. Talk about their life, not your idea
• 00:03:58 2. Talk specifics, not hypotheticals
• 00:05:16 3. Listen, don't talk
• 00:05:56 Five great questions that everyone can ask during their early customer interviews
• 00:06:05 1. What is the hardest part about [doing this thing]?
• 00:08:16 2. When is the last time you encountered this problem?
• 00:09:15 3. Why was this hard?
• 00:11:14 4. What, if anything, have you done to solve this problem?
• 00:13:06 5. What don't you love about the solution you already tried?
• 00:14:16 Three critical phases to a early-stage company – Talking to users is extremely beneficial
• 00:14:58 1.1. Idea stage - Find first users with problem
• 00:18:08 1.2. Idea stage – Tips
• 00:19:30 2.1. Prototype stage - Identify your best first customer
• 00:20:01 2.2. Prototype stage – Framework to identify your best first customer
• 00:25:21 3.1. Launched stage – Superhuman Product-Market Fit Engine (https://app.chapterme.co/player/video/19WpIbBhxJU)
• 00:28:24 3.2 Launched stage – Tips
• 00:30:55 Conclusion