Early Customer Conversations: Use Appreciative Inquiry and Amplify Positive Deviance

December 15th, 2009 Sean Murphy

Q: Does anyone have a customer interview script that they use?  What is the focus of the interview and can some of that interaction be replaced by really evaluating analytics (for web based enterprises)?

This question came up on the Learn Startup Circle List recently and I took the time to answer it.

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