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Eric Migicovsky: The Three Mistakes Every Founder Makes in User Interviews

By Eric Migicovsky · Product & Building · 1 min read

We're founders. We love to pitch. But during a user interview, the goal is to extract information — not to sell them on using your product.

Key Points

Mistake 1: You talk about your idea instead of learning about their life
Mistake 2: You talk about hypotheticals instead of specifics that already occurred
Mistake 3: You talk too much — restrain yourself and really listen

The goal of a great user interview is to extract information from the person you're talking to — not to sell them on using your product.

Mistake 1: Talking About Your Idea

Migicovsky: The first mistake we pretty much all make is we talk about our idea. We're founders — we love to pitch our idea, we love to talk about the product we're working on.

But during a user interview, that is not the time to be pitching the product. The goal of a great user interview is to extract information from the person you're talking to — data that will help you improve the product, your marketing, or your positioning. At the core of a great user interview, you need to learn about their life.

During a user interview, that is not the time to be pitching. The goal is to extract information.

Mistake 2: Talking About Hypotheticals

Migicovsky: The second mistake we all make is we talk about hypotheticals. We talk about what our product could be, features we want to build. We ask questions like — if we built this feature, would you be interested in using it? Would you be interested in paying for it? That is wrong.

Instead, talk about specifics that have already occurred in the user's life. This will give you stronger and better information to make product and company-changing decisions. Learn about their motivations. Learn about why they got themselves into that problem in the first place.

If we built this feature, would you use it? That is wrong. Talk about specifics that already occurred.

Mistake 3: Talking Too Much

Migicovsky: The third trap we all fall into is that we talk too much. We're founders — we're always pitching investors, pitching employees, trying to hire people, trying to partner. So we tend to spend a lot of our time talking.

In a user interview, restrain yourself and really listen. Take notes. In that 10, 20, 30 minutes you spend with the user, you're trying to extract as much information as possible — so that when you return to the office and your co-founders, you're bringing hard data, real facts about users' lives to the table.

Restrain yourself and really listen. You're trying to bring hard data and real facts back to the table.