First day as an entrepreneur in training + some example interview questions you can use

[shneebz]

Hello, apologies if this isn't the right forum area to post this.

After reading some threads on here, I decided to start investigating potential problems and opportunities within a niche industry (no business idea yet).

Sharing for my own accountability and to share some things that might be helpful to others.

Process

1. Found a niche industry that I can see is ripe for opportunity (it's a type of service I use frequently so that's how I found it)
2. Using Airtable to organize (because Airtable is awesome and free) and noting down businesses in my city in this industry (using Google, Yelp, blog lists, etc)
3. Reaching out via email or text (will see about Linkedin if I find individuals) to those businesses for a quick chat about challenges they're facing.

Execution
For #3, I can share a little that may be helpful: I'm a user experience researcher by trade so talking to people to uncover insights is my bread and butter (along with other methods). Here are some questions I like to reuse/other tips:

• What sorts of challenges is your business/team/etc facing right now?
• [if they describe a problem] How do you deal with that today? What workarounds do you have? [workarounds are GOLD, they're basically giving you the solution to their problem]
• Tell me more... Why....? [great to just get them to open up more with more details]
• Can you give me a recent example of xyz? [ie when they experienced this problem or when they did a certain process or used a certain tool etc]
• What would make things easier for you?
• What would be more helpful for you?
• What would be more enjoyable for you?
• What is most frustrating for you? Why is that frustrating?
• What is most time consuming for you? Why is that time consuming?
• What is the most annoying thing about xyz? Why is that annoying?
• What, if anything, would you change about xyz?

I may not know much about entrepreneurship, but I am an expert in qualitative research methodologies, so hit me up if you need help/bounce ideas off regarding that. I use these sorts of questions to improve or build products that rake in millions of dollars for a giant (likely evil) corporation. Why not utilize this skill for myself instead eh?

 

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[Mikkel]

You don't need to be an expert in entrepreneurship. I would say the majority of people on this forum are not. Even those who are close to successing or have succeeded are still not experts.

I think you are on the right path. It seems you have a solid plan to identify gaps in the market and plan on validating these claims by speaking to real people.

Something to think about when looking at specific niche markets. Is the audience size big enough to spend your time?

You could find a huge problem in the market. It might be the best product for that solution, but if your going to spend 2 years building the product/service/solution and there are only a couple hundred people who are willing to pay a low value for the product, then is it worth while.

I believe the term we use is TAM(total available market). If you have a small TAM then you will have to be very successful in your niche just to have a small business. If you have a large TAM then you could have small success in the niche and have a small business or you could grow that success and ultimately have a large and successful business.

Make sure your audience size is large enough to be worth your time. There are many problems that can be fixed. Not all of them are worth fixing.

 

[uhhfeef]

• What sorts of challenges is your business/team/etc facing right now?
• [if they describe a problem] How do you deal with that today? What workarounds do you have? [workarounds are GOLD, they're basically giving you the solution to their problem]
• Tell me more... Why....? [great to just get them to open up more with more details]
• Can you give me a recent example of xyz? [ie when they experienced this problem or when they did a certain process or used a certain tool etc]
• What would make things easier for you?
• What would be more helpful for you?
• What would be more enjoyable for you?
• What is most frustrating for you? Why is that frustrating?
• What is most time consuming for you? Why is that time consuming?
• What is the most annoying thing about xyz? Why is that annoying?
• What, if anything, would you change about xyz?

Thank you! I will definitely be using these.

Do you recommend any books on this topic? I'm trying to learn how to get user feedback and I've been hitting a wall. Recently discovered users love to talk about what their ideal self would do and not what they actually do.

Best of luck with your venture!