Early Customer Conversations: Use Appreciative Inquiry and Amplify Positive Deviance

December 15th, 2009 Sean Murphy

Q: Do you have a script for a customer interview?  What should I focus on? How much of the interview  for a web based offering can be replaced by a thorough evaluation of traffic and usage analytics?

I think the “Appreciative Inquiry” model offers a very effective model for early customer interviews. At a high level it’s

• “What problems are you having?”
• “What’s working around here?”

You need to focus on their pain and problems but build on their strengths. While there is a whole methodology/discipline you can follow at the Appreciative Inquiry Commons with “What is Appreciative Inquiry” a good place to start, I found the “Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry” to be $8 and two hours well spent. It’s only 63 pages long but I found myself stopping several times and realizing I needed to change what I had been doing.

The “Amplify Positive Deviance” model developed by Jerry Sternin is another useful one to determine what the real status quo is for a category of prospect. Here are two good sources of information

• http://www.positivedeviance.org/
• The “Positive Deviant” article by Ed Dorsey in the November 2000 Fast Company has a clear codification.

I have transcribed the 7 steps in the “Positive Deviant” article and added a customer development interpretation for some of them in parentheses.

1. Don’t assume you have the answer  (treat your approach as a hypothesis to be validated, updated, or refuted)
2. Interview folks in settings where they are most likely to be forthcoming
3. Encourage small steps using a new approach/tool/technology (get simple product in customers hands)
4. Identify current status quo
5. …and how positive deviants depart from it (different between early adopters and pragmatic/late majority)
6. let deviants get others to adopt new tools / techniques (customers / word of mouth is most effective sales technique)
7. Track results, keep score (add clear ROI to anecdotes from early adopters)

Sorry if this is too theoretical, but I think it’s more about a mindset or frame of reference you bring to the conversation than a particular script or set of questions.  Here are five related blog posts about early customer interviews:

• Customer Development is a Sequence of Prototypes
• The Limits of Customer Relationship Management Systems
• How to Ask An Expert for Help
• The Best Feedback From Your Early Customers is a Story
• The Best Way to Get Feedback From Early Customers is a Conversation

Entry Filed under: Books, Customer Development, skmurphy