This week, it was time to hit the road and talk to some folks. The steps were as follows:
1) Fine tune your opportunity - I believe I am on to something with social responsibility and financial services. So far, people's opinions are quite varied and I am still searching for and wondering if there is a pattern or trend in this regard.
2) Fine tune the "who" - My opportunity covers a very broad area and I have to interview a lot more people to get a better sense of how people conceptualize the intersection of social responsibility and financial services. I tried to interview varying types of people who had a greater exposure to financial services since last week, most of the interviews were of college students. I always felt that my "customer" can be any adult in society because financial services and the economic system impacts everyone and this belief has not changed during this process.
3) Tweaking your interview questions - I will need to ask more detailed questions at a later stage but for now, I am very comfortable with the questionnaire that I have. It covers people's understanding of social responsibility, its intersection with financial services, and their desire for socially responsible products and services.
4) Go talk to customers! I spoke to 5 people who I had never met before. 3 were women and only 1 was a college student.
5) Tell us what you learned about the opportunity. I continued to understand that the concept of social responsibility does not have a common definition yet and that whether you and old, people, in general, have not thought too deeply about it. I feel even stronger that social responsibility is needed in financial services and it will is important to help people conceptualize it as a holistic concept.
6) Tell us what you learned about interviewing customers. I found myself more open to a varied set of opinions and better suited to guide people through the interview process using examples and analogies. The three tips I can offer are that first, learn to listen with an open mind; second, take your time and clearly read the questions; third, make eye contact showing the interviewee that you are engaged and genuinely interested in their response.
You can listen to the second set of 5 interviews below.
Moosa Leiona
Ahmed
Hanan
Hi Taleem, it appears that you have done your research and are patient in obtaining the information from the interviewees. Your strategy is a good one as well; you execute your questions well allowing the interviewees to gain a good understanding thus providing some good answers. I am interested in seeing how you progress into your next interviews. Here is a link to my interviews: http://acwilliams83.blogspot.com/2016/02/interviewing-customers-no-2.html
ReplyDeleteHi Taleem, I think your research and interviews are really helping you see what you need to do with your product. On top of this, it seems like you are gaining the experience you need to help make your product successful. I also agree that you need to go into interviewing strangers with an open mind.
ReplyDeleteCheck my interviews out here
http://zackmuf.blogspot.com/2016/02/interviewing-customers-no-2.html