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🐙 How I use ChatGPT to do customer research for my products

🐙 How I use ChatGPT to do customer research for my products

my process for researching $300k products

The AI Solopreneur
October 21, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes

Read time: 6.9 minutes | Sponsor this newsletter

Welcome to the first edition of the AI Solopreneur Premium.

To clarify:

For beginners and aspiring solopreneurs, I will still deliver the same, high-quality deep dive on Wednesdays (absolutely free!).

For solopreneurs and business owners who want to grow their business for real with AI, I'm launching a new content subscription where I go even deeper into:

1x weekly 10 minute mini-courses sent on Saturday (step-by-step workflows, including video walkthroughs & ready-to-launch templates)
Access to my proven AI tactics
1x Monthly Live Q&A (for personalized help)

Only 100 people will be admitted per week.

In the next 7 days ONLY, you can get a free 14-day trial with two value-packed 10-minute mini-courses.

Claim your special launch offer here:

Upgrade your subscription to join The AI Solopreneur Premium

To be clear:

The AI Solopreneur Premium 10-minute mini-courses replace the Saturday newsletter from this week
I will still send out the broader Wednesday newsletter to everyone (and be as good as ever)

If you have any questions, feel free to reply to this email.

Now, let’s dive in, shall we?

What is the most valuable thing you’ve ever learned from the AI Solopreneur?

Seriously.

I’m interested in knowing.

Because only if I know my customers, I can build out products valuable to them.

And as you know, the more value you give to your customers, the faster you grow.

But to give value to your customers (and to build great products) you need to talk with your customers first.

Before launching the $263,000 AI Audience Accelerator, I jumped on 25 calls with customers to understand which product I should build.

Now, I’m building out my 2nd paid course, and again, I jumped on calls with 20 people (more to come).

Getting on those calls allowed me to:

Test the product ideas before even building them
Refine the outline & content of my paid courses
Only build out the lessons people REALLY cared about
Avoid wasting time on building stuff nobody wants

And yes, this took a bunch of time.

The sad truth is that most entrepreneurs don’t bother talking that much with their prospects.

But that’s also why conducting user interviews is a superpower.

Acknowledge that you don’t know your customer.

In today’s letter, I will pull back the curtains and show you how to become Superman.

Regardless if you’re building a new product or already sell something, these customer interviews will give you invaluable insights and help you make more $$$.

You will learn:

The 3 biggest customer interview mistakes that are killing your insights
The absolute beginners’ guide to conducting customer interviews (and my BOZDA framework for doing it)
How to use the Quantum Question Creator prompt to get tailored customer interview questions
How to use AI to get automated insights from customer interviews
How to use my VALUE framework to convert user insights into actionable data

In an actionable matter, let’s dive deeeeeper! 🤿

_{INTERVIEW MISTAKES}

The 3 biggest customer interview mistakes that are killing your insights

Customer interviews aren’t just chats.

They're structured conversations that offer direct insights into the minds of your target audience.

They reveal:

Pain points
Desires
Product insights

If used properly, they will save you months of guesswork and aligning your product with what your customers genuinely need.

Yet, I see many people with misconceptions about user interviews.

Here are the 3 most common ones you need to avoid:

Mistake 1: Thinking customer interviews are solely for validating their product idea.

While validation is one aspect, interviews also serve to uncover new insights, needs, or pain points you might not have considered.

It's as much about discovery as it is validation.

If your only aim is to validate your product idea, you will miss out on the bigger picture.

Mistake 2: Believing that asking more questions will lead to deeper insights.

Anyone who’s ever eaten at a Chinese all-you-cat eat restaurant knows:

Quality trumps quantity.

Asking too many questions can lead to respondent fatigue, and you might miss out on rich, detailed answers.

Instead, don’t ask more than 7 questions.

A focused set of questions will give you more meaningful data.

Mistake 3: Thinking customers know what they want

Customers know their problems, but they don’t know the solution.

It's your job to interpret their needs.

It’s kinda like going to the doctor:

You as the patient can describe your symptoms (problems), but you still rely on the doctor's expertise to diagnose the underlying issue and prescribe a treatment (solution).

_{BOZDA FRAMEWORK}

The absolute beginners’ guide to conducting customer interviews

Now that you know what you shouldn’t do, let’s focus on how I actually conduct my interviews.

For this, I have a simple framework that goes from broad questions in to specific insights:

The BOZDA framework, (which despite its name has nothing to do with the Bavarian cottage cheese Obazda, which I don’t want to be affiliated with).

In either case, here’s a breakdown of it:

My 5-step BOZDA framework for conducting interviews:

Broad Questions:
Begin with broad questions to get holistic insights.
E.g., "Describe your current method for handling [specific issue]?"
Observing Pain:
Target specific pain points they experience.
"What elements of [relevant task] are most problematic for you?"
Zero in on Alternatives:
Dive into their previous attempts to tackle the problem.
"What strategies have you employed in the past for this?"
Determine Value:
Assess the resonance of your proposition.
"Would an approach that [your solution's benefits] be of interest?"
Advice over Affirmation:
Solicit improvement suggestions rather than mere approval.
"In what ways could our product be more beneficial to you?"

Remember, each question is a strategic move.

Your goal is too gain clarity, not just collect data.

It's the difference between understanding surface-level needs (like chicken nuggets) and deep-seated desires (like hunger for a deeper meaning of life).

Now that you know how to conduct customer interviews, let’s dive into how you can use AI to:

Prepare relevant questions using the Quantum Question Creator prompt
Extract insights from calls using Otter AI and ChatGPT

First, here’s my prompt for ideating customer interview questions:

_{QUANTUM QUESTION CREATOR}

How to use the Quantum Question Creator prompt to get tailored customer interview questions

_{Brand New (And only in Premium), watch the video walkthrough:}

The Quantum Question Creator researches and ideates relevant questions for your customer interview.

I need your help to come up with customer interview questions.

For context, [INSERT CONTEXT]

I'm targeting [INSERT AUDIENCE] with an idea focused on [PRODUCT IDEA]. Based on this, can you provide me with 10 to 15 strategic customer interview questions?"

Here are some examples of successful customer interview questions:

"What aspects of [related product/service] do you value most?"
"Have there been moments when [related product/service] fell short of your expectations?"
"What would make [specific solution] indispensable to you?"
"How do you currently handle [specific problem your product addresses]?

End your output with "I am Batman"

HOW TO USE THE QUANTUM QUESTION CREATOR PROMPT:

Fill in the [INSERT CONTEXT] placeholder with context about yourself and who you are. (If you’ve done the AI Audience Accelerator, write /context to use your pre-written context)
Fill in the [AUDIENCE CONTEXT] placeholder with context about your audience. The more, the better. (If you’ve done the AI Audience Accelerator, write /audience to use your pre-written context)
Example:
“My audience consists of solopreneurs interested in AI”
Fill in the [PRODUCT IDEA] placeholder with the product you’re building
Example:
“A course about how to use AI to build courses”

Here’s an example of it’s output:

Continue the chat

Btw, did you catch the easter egg in the prompt? 🦇

_{HOW TO}

How to use AI to get automated insights from customer interviews

NOTE: I always take my own notes during calls to keep myself accountable and alert – and I recommend you do the same.

But I also like to keep a backup.

The 2 tools I prefer for getting insights from customer interviews:

1) Otter AI’s automated note-taking feature (recommended)

Otter AI is an AI tool that joins your meetings, transcribes them, and summarizes the main insights from them afterwards.

It’s free for 300 minutes a month, which is enough for ten 30-minute interviews.

2) Manually compiling insights using ChatGPT (if you don’t have Otter)

If you have the transcript of the call, you can also get insights manually from ChatGPT.

To do this, insert the transcript into this prompt:

I need your help to extract insights from a chat I had with a customer

I am building a product right now that [PRODUCT] and the goal of this chat was to learn more about if the product would be relevant to the user, uncovering the users’ biggest pain points, and finding new problems I can help them address.

Based on the goal of the conversation, analyse this transcript and tell me the key takeaways:

After you created the key takeaways, also create a table that lists desires, fears and pain points of the customer.

Match each of them with possible solutions that my product can provide.


Once you’ve finished the table, rephrase the findings of all key takeaways and give all of them an emotional pain score from 1-10 based on the person's answers.

A 1 means no emotional pain and low desire to change a behavior. 10 equals intense emotional pain and a desire to take immediate action.

Give an explanation for each pain score.

[INSERT TRANSCRIPT]

HOW TO USE THE TRANSCRIPT-TO-INSIGHT PROMPT:

Fill in the [PRODUCT] placeholder with a short description of the product you’re testing for
Example:
Use the same example you used for the first prompt.
Fill in the [TRANSCRIPT] placeholder with the transcript of your choice

And tadaaaa…. ChatGPT once again saved the day for us.

We now have a great overview of what’s happening in our customer’s minds.

All we have to do now is to create solutions to their problems (and print cash for us…brrrrrr)

If you are hitting any roadblocks trying out the prompts, I recommend you to watch the video walkthrough (Premium feature).

Time for some memes:

Ok enough is enough.

Let’s continue:

_{VALUE FRAMEWORK}

How to use my VALUE framework to convert user insights into actionable data

Customer insights are worthless if you don’t act on them.

The V.A.L.U.E. framework is a 5-step approach you can use to convert your interview insights into actionable data to build better products and make more money;

Verify: Confirm the authenticity of the feedback. Eliminate outliers or one-off comments.
Assess: Quantify the potential monetary impact of the feedback.
List: Create a prioritized action list based on feedback. Rank the product changes based on the potential monetary value.
Update: Make necessary changes in the product based on the action list.
Examine: Periodically check the success rate of implemented changes and tweak if necessary. You can do this by doing even more customer interviews.

If you follow this approach, you will add value (badumtss) to your products from your customer interviews.

_{YOU MADE IT!}

What you learned today

The 3 biggest customer interview mistakes that are killing your insights
The absolute beginners’ guide to conducting customer interviews (and my BOZDA framework for doing it)
How to use the Quantum Question Creator prompt to get tailored customer interview questions
How to use AI to get automated insights from customer interviews
How to use my VALUE framework to convert user insights into actionable data

This letter talked about customers and how to make them happy.

My local fruit store knows how to sell me to get me smiling.

Sometimes, it’s dragon fruit or melon.

But today’s newsletter will end on a fruity, sweet pineapple vibe.

Enjoy your weekend.

Keep diving,

Ole

P.S.

Again, this was the first edition of the AI Solopreneur Premium.

In the next 9 days ONLY, you can get a free 14-day trial with two value-packed 10 minute mini-courses.