User Research

3 claims4 moments2 on the cutting room floor

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Lenny's Written Position

Observing users interacting with products two to four times per month, paying attention to micro details like facial expressions and hesitations, builds stronger product intuition than reading research reports.

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Startups should not build everything users ask for but instead focus on understanding user pain points and independently designing the best solutions.

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If you survey users asking how they would feel if they could no longer use the product and over 40% say 'very disappointed,' you have product-market fit.

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Podcast Moments

Bob Moesta00:00:00

“The moment you hear a story, you go, 'I can't believe that,' nine times out of 10, it's because you don't have the rest of the story. And so part of it's being able to understand the rest of that context that would drive somebody to say, 'Why would somebody cut their arm off?'”

The ultimate guide to JTBD | Bob Moesta (co-creator of the framework) · Bob Moesta

David Singleton00:00:00

“The way we think about product development at Stripe, it really is to find the correct set of early users to kind of co-create the product with. Maybe the best example of that is Stripe billing.”

Building a culture of excellence | David Singleton (CTO of Stripe) · David Singleton

Christine Itwaru00:00:00

“Speaking as a former PM, I would not ever give up spending time with customers and watching their pain. That's how I fell in love with product was I saw my internal customer 12 years back now fighting with the keyboard, fighting with the mouse, and I was just like, 'Oh, my gosh. What's this guy doing?'”

Understanding the role of product ops | Christine Itwaru (Pendo) · Christine Itwaru

Teresa Torres00:15:00

“The biggest mistake I see teams make in customer interviews is asking customers what they want. Customers are not good at telling you what they want. They are really good at telling you about their experience. So instead of asking 'What do you want?' ask 'Tell me about the last time you did X.'”

Teresa Torres on how to interview customers, automating continuous discovery, the opportunity solution tree framework, making the case for user research, common interviewing mistakes, and much more · Teresa Torres

Cutting Room Floor

Guest insights on this topic that Lenny hasn't (yet) written about in his newsletters. Potential material for future posts.

Bob MoestaUnsynthesized

“The moment you hear a story, you go, 'I can't believe that,' nine times out of 10, it's because you don't have the rest of the story. And so part of it's being able to understand the rest of that context that would drive somebody to say, 'Why would somebody cut their arm off?'”

The ultimate guide to JTBD | Bob Moesta (co-creator of the framework) · Bob Moesta

Teresa TorresUnsynthesized

“The biggest mistake I see teams make in customer interviews is asking customers what they want. Customers are not good at telling you what they want. They are really good at telling you about their experience. So instead of asking 'What do you want?' ask 'Tell me about the last time you did X.'”