EN
Film-style poster for the Customer Interviews for Mentors presentation

A guide for mentors: Customer Interviews for Mentors

How to send Customer Interviews, read the answers and talk them through.

English

What this guide covers

What this guide covers

What this guide covers

What it is

Interviews logged, then summed up

Your mentee plans questions, logs each interview, then reads a summary of the answers.

When to send it

Send it before they build

It helps most while the problem itself is still unproven.

  • A new idea before the first build
  • Mixed signals people like it, nobody buys
  • A new kind of customer before selling to them

An honest frame

A practice, not a tested method

These rules are common practice; their effect has not been tested on its own.

  • Ask about the past the last time it happened
  • No pitching listen, do not sell the idea
  • Count steps, not praise a trial or a payment says more

Sending it

Send it from your pairing

It takes a minute, and your mentee gets an email.

Open your pairing

Choose Assign a tool and find Customer Interviews.

Try it as your mentee

Fill it in yourself first; nothing is saved or sent.

Suggest how many to log

Say how many interviews to log before you meet.

Open your pairing

Choose Assign a tool and find Customer Interviews.

Try it as your mentee

Fill it in yourself first; nothing is saved or sent.

Suggest how many to log

Say how many interviews to log before you meet.

Reading the answers

Count commitments, not compliments

How many agreed to a next step says more than how many liked it.

  • Interviews how many were logged
  • Have a big problem the share who said big
  • Agreed to a next step another meeting, a trial or payment

Questions to ask

Ask about the answers

People who ask follow-up questions are liked more (Huang and others, 2017).

  • Which answer surprised you most? then: what would it change?
  • Where did people only say nice things? then: what had they actually done?
  • Who should you talk to next? then: how will you reach them?

Feedback that helps

Talk about the answers, not the idea

Feedback can backfire, so start from what people did, not your view of the idea.

1 in 3 Over a third of feedback effects lowered performance in one large review Kluger and DeNisi, 1996

One step

Agree the next interviews

Plans in the form "if this happens, then I do that" help people act.

94 Tests found that if-then plans help people reach their goals Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006

After the meeting

Keep it all on Mentornity

The interviews, your comments and the next steps stay in one place.

Read it at a glance

Interviews and agreed next steps are counted for you.

Add next steps

Write what will be done, by whom and by when.

Ask to fill it again

Send it again after the next round of interviews.

Read it at a glance

Interviews and agreed next steps are counted for you.

Add next steps

Write what will be done, by whom and by when.

Ask to fill it again

Send it again after the next round of interviews.

Ask for five interviews this week

Agree on five short talks about the last time the problem happened.

Sign in to Mentornity All tools
Sign in to Mentornity Sign in All tools