Summaries Entrepreneurship and Startups Mastering User Interviews for Startup Success: Insights from Emmett Shear

This is a summary of a YouTube video "How to Run a User Interview with Emmett Shear (How to Start a Startup 2014: Lecture 16)" by Y Combinator!

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Startups should prioritize talking to users, understanding their habits and needs, and continuously seeking feedback to build successful products.

• 🚀
  00:00

  Startups should prioritize talking to users and identifying the right use case to achieve success, as demonstrated by Twitch's insight from user interviews.
• 🎓
  07:36

  To build a successful note-taking app for college students, it's crucial to understand their habits and target the right audience.
• 📝
  12:29

  Taking effective notes is crucial for summarizing main points and recalling information for future events or interview preparation.
• 📱
  19:07

  A mobile version of Google Drive with better note-taking could convince people to switch from their current collaborative workflow.
• 💰
  24:03

  To test a product idea, put it in front of people and use sales as a cure-all, while also seeking feedback from non-broadcasters and potential users to expand your market.
• 🎮
  30:52

  Improved broadcasting software was built into gaming platforms to address issues of making money, quality stability, and universal access for viewers, based on user research and feedback.
• 🎙️
  36:49

  Record interviews to understand user needs and influence decision-making, while in-person or Skype interviews are more effective than email.
• 🚀
  41:42

  Startups should focus on solving the problem that users care about, continuously talk to new users, and receive their feedback to build better features.

Detailed summary

• 🚀
  00:00

  Startups should prioritize talking to users and identifying the right use case to achieve success, as demonstrated by Twitch's insight from user interviews.

  • Emmett Scheer, CEO of Twitch, discusses the importance of talking to users in starting a startup and shares his experiences of not doing so in his previous ventures.
  • Startups should not just be built for the founder's needs, but for a broader spectrum of users, and identifying the right use case is crucial for achieving success.
  • Twitch was founded based on the insight that watching video games was fun, but acquiring the content to start broadcasting was important, which was discovered through a large number of user interviews.
  • Talking to broadcasters and viewers is equally important in user interviews to gain insights on how to build a product for them.
  • Think about who you would go ask for feedback on a lecture-focused note-taking app that improves the experience of taking notes in class or while listening to a lecture online.
  • Write down the five types of people you talk to and identify the most important one to help you remember and practice effectively.
• 🎓
  07:36

  To build a successful note-taking app for college students, it's crucial to understand their habits and target the right audience.

  • Identifying the target user and finding them is the first step in building a startup, and running user interviews is crucial for product development.
  • To target college students as consumers, it is important to understand their note-taking habits and find the most important person to market to, as they don't typically spend much money.
  • To sell a note-taking app, it is important to talk to college students, IT administrators, and parents who are willing to spend money on their kids' education.
  • An app is needed to make college students productive and there are various groups critical to the app's success.
• 📝
  12:29

  Taking effective notes is crucial for summarizing main points and recalling information for future events or interview preparation.

  • The speaker takes notes in a variety of ways, primarily text-based on their laptop, but also using pen and paper for more complex diagrams, and reviews their software-based notes more often than their pen and paper notes, using Google Docs and Evernote to collect and share them.
  • The speaker prefers using Google Docs for note-taking collaboration and personal use, and tends to take most of the notes themselves due to their particular preferences for organization and formatting.
  • Taking notes is useful for summarizing main points and recalling information for future events or interview preparation.
  • When conducting user interviews, it's important to avoid asking about specific features and instead focus on understanding the user's behavior and needs.
  • It's difficult to say no to building a feature for a real person's problem, but after talking to many people, it's unclear if there is a big enough problem to justify building a whole new product.
  • Talk to different types of people to gather a variety of information and ideas, even if the first few people you talk to don't provide much insight.
• 📱
  19:07

  A mobile version of Google Drive with better note-taking could convince people to switch from their current collaborative workflow.

  • Think of a new feature to add to Google Docs that would convince someone to switch from their current collaborative workflow.
  • A mobile version of Google Drive with a feature for smaller notes and better note-taking could be useful.
  • Validate your idea before building it by creating diagrams and workflows to show people, rather than just asking them, to see if it's something people would actually switch to.
  • Don't ask people if they like a future idea because their feedback may not be accurate, instead find the minimum way to validate the idea without asking directly.
• 💰
  24:03

  To test a product idea, put it in front of people and use sales as a cure-all, while also seeking feedback from non-broadcasters and potential users to expand your market.

  • To test the viability of a product idea, it's best to hack something together and find a way to put it in front of people, and for bigger things, sales is a cure-all for this problem.
  • The speaker discusses the importance of the "money test" in determining excitement for a product and shares representative feedback from Twitch's launch.
  • Existing justin.tv broadcasters provided detailed feedback on their experience broadcasting, including common requests for features such as the ability to clear the banned list in chat rooms and edit titles of highlights, as well as positive feedback on the lack of ads and band trolls, and suggestions for interactivity with viewers.
  • The biggest problems with the Justin TV broadcasters' product were not necessarily the issues they identified, as users were willing to overlook certain limitations, and competitor broadcaster feedback highlighted different concerns such as the need for a rev share program and video stability.
  • To improve their service, the company talked to non-broadcasters and focused on addressing video stability issues that were particularly problematic in Europe.
  • Talking only to your competitors and current users will limit your market expansion, so it's important to also talk to potential users who haven't tried your product yet.
• 🎮
  30:52

  Improved broadcasting software was built into gaming platforms to address issues of making money, quality stability, and universal access for viewers, based on user research and feedback.

  • The speaker's team faced a problem with broadcasting their practice sessions, so they worked with gaming broadcast software companies to improve broadcasting and built it into gaming platforms like Xbox and PlayStation 4.
  • The focus of the project was on addressing the issues of making money, stability in quality, and universal access for viewers, which were not mentioned in interviews, but by conducting user research and implementing features that addressed these problems, they were able to impress and convert their target audience.
  • Addressing the concerns of small and medium-sized users is different from addressing problems on justin.tv, where they spent a lot of time analyzing data but it didn't necessarily tell them where they needed to go.
  • User feedback can be disappointing as it often reveals that users are concerned about different things and don't care about what you thought was important, so it's important to avoid showing them your product and asking about your pet feature direction.
  • Talk to the people you need to talk to, not just the ones who are easy to access, as they will provide the best data, and most people are willing to share their thoughts when asked.
  • How to get buy-in from the rest of the company: talk to the users and present your findings.
• 🎙️
  36:49

  Record interviews to understand user needs and influence decision-making, while in-person or Skype interviews are more effective than email.

  • Record interviews to show people what should be built and why, as it has a powerful influence on their thoughts and decision-making.
  • Interviews over email are not interactive and are basically useless, so it's better to insist on Skype or in-person interviews to get more interesting and unexpected information.
  • It's difficult to conduct user interviews in non-English speaking countries and find representative samples, which is why companies find it easier to build markets in their home country.
  • To reach out to users, we used on-site messaging systems and attended events to exchange business cards and get in touch, without compensating them.
  • On-site user feedback tools are important for identifying issues with a product before launch, but they do not provide guidance on what to build.
• 🚀
  41:42

  Startups should focus on solving the problem that users care about, continuously talk to new users, and receive their feedback to build better features.

  • The focus of early user interviews for startups should be on solving the problem that users care about, and in this case, the focus was on competing users who were already interested in the behavior needed for the product.
  • The game publisher is a crucial player in the video game industry, but small start-ups may struggle to get their attention.
  • We couldn't talk to them because they weren't interested, but once we gained traction, they were nice enough about it.
  • Game publishers have become an increasingly important constituency for Twitch, and it's important to remember that the pool of people you care about will shift over time.
  • To build better features, it's important to continuously talk to new users and receive their feedback, which should include their likes, thoughts, problems, and personal context.