Conducting Interviews for Requirement Validation

Last week, I coached a product team through a user interview debrief. They were excited! Users had shown enthusiasm for a new feature! 🎉 But when I asked, “What problem does this solve for them?” the room went quiet. 🫣 This happens more often than we’d like to admit. 🧠 The Trap: Mistaking Enthusiasm for Validation When users say, “That sounds great!” we often interpret it as validation. But here's the catch: - Users want to be polite. - They might not fully understand their own needs. - As product teams, we may hear what we want. This is why relying solely on user enthusiasm can lead us astray. 🔍 The Solution: Semi-Structured Interviews We need to dig deeper to understand our users truly. Semi-structured interviews strike the right balance between guidance and flexibility. Key practices include: - Start with hypotheses: Identify what you believe to be true. - Ask open-ended questions: Encourage users to share experiences, not just opinions. - Listen actively: Pay attention to what’s said—and what’s not. - Probe for underlying needs: Seek to understand the 'why' behind their behaviours. This approach helps uncover genuine insights, leading to solutions that truly resonate. 🌟 Imagine the Impact By adopting this method: - Teams build products that solve real problems. - User satisfaction increases. - Resources are invested wisely, reducing wasted effort. It's not just about building features—it's about delivering value. 🦾 Take Action Next time you're planning user interviews: - Prepare a set of hypotheses. - Design questions that explore user experiences. - Remain open to unexpected insights. Remember, the goal is to understand your users, not just confirm your assumptions deeply.

90% OF NEW PRODUCTS FAIL—AND IT’S NOT JUST BAD LUCK. In 90% of cases, failure isn’t because of “others.” It’s because the fundamentals weren’t right—before development even started. The good news? You can reduce this risk dramatically. To make sure a product actually succeeds, you need to clear three major hurdles before even thinking about development: 📌 Strategy Fit – Does this align with your company’s direction? 📌 Problem-Solution Fit – Does your solution truly solve a relevant customer problem? 📌 Product-Market Fit – Do enough people care enough to pay for it? Today, let’s focus on Problem-Solution Fit and why it matters. Simply put, it’s about whether your solution actually solves the problem you defined—and if customers see it the same way. 1️⃣ Make sure you’re solving a relevant problem For this to work, the problem you define must be urgent and important for your customers. 💡 Jobs-to-be-Done interviews help you understand what customers need to make progress. In most cases, you already have an idea and are now looking for a problem to match it. Still, I highly recommend conducting interviews without mentioning your solution. Beforehand, define your assumptions about the problem you believe customers have—then validate how many of these are actually true. When defining the customer problem, reflect on: 📌 Jobs customers are trying to get done 📌 Pains they experience in this context 📌 Gains they are looking for Prioritize them based on the insights gained from interviews. The Value Proposition Canvas is an excellent tool to visualize how well your solution fits the problem. 2️⃣ Define how your product creates value Now, map out: ✅ How your product relieves specific pains (Pain Relievers) ✅ How your product enhances certain gains (Gain Creators) Then, turn them into clear assumptions, e.g.: “I believe that this (pain reliever) reduces this (pain) in a way that is relevant to the customer.” 3️⃣ Validate your assumptions with real customers Believing in your own solution isn’t enough—you need actual feedback and validation. 💡 Think about how you can test your assumptions. 💡 Check out the books "Pretotyping" and “Testing Business Ideas.” 💡 Formulate hypotheses that help you prove your assumptions wrong. TL;DR: ✔ Use the Value Proposition Canvas to check if your solution truly fits the problem. ✔ Define assumptions and test them, because your customers—not you—need to believe your solution will help them make progress. _ _ _ 👋 Hi, I’m Florian! 💡 I help innovation teams reduce risks in early-stage product development and turn chaos into clarity. 🌍 Passionate about #CustomerCentricity & #CircularEconomy as drivers for #Innovation. 📌 Want frameworks & tools to make better product decisions? 🗂 Get free access to my Library for Innovation & Circular Economy – full of templates, guides & checklists. 🔗 Find it in my Featured Section. 📬 Let’s connect! I’d love to hear your take.

After 5 validation sprints and over a hundred customer interviews, my AI startup still failed. The painful truth? We asked all the wrong questions. When building Autopia (our Jira AI co-pilot for developers), we made a critical mistake: we confused interest for validation. We built something "cool" that gathered 500+ WAUs but failed to solve a "hair on fire" problem. Here's my battle-tested hypothesis validation sprint process: 1. Start with what would make you fail For us, the fatal risk was customer adoption (would IT admins approve our integration?), not technical feasibility. Always ask: "What would make this company fail?" and validate against that. 2. Seek intensity of pain, not just presence of pain Asking the question: "What are your 3 big goals right now?" revealed Jira friction was rarely in anyone's top 3 priorities. When a problem isn't in someone's top 3, they won't switch tools to solve it. 3. Focus on actual behavior, not hypothetical intentions Hop on calls with customers and have them walkthrough how their process works today. When we watched teams work and asked about specific past actions, we discovered workflows that contradicted what they had told us in hypothetical discussions. 4. Look for active solution-seeking behavior The golden question: "Are you actively looking for a new tool to replace your current approach?" When engineering managers said "No, we've just accepted this is how it works," we were building a vitamin, not a painkiller. 5. Separate product risk from market risk We built a working product but discovered too late that enterprises required security infrastructure impossible for a startup to provide. We validated we could build it without validating anyone would buy it. The painful truth? If you have to explain why someone should care about your solution, you've already lost. True product-market fit doesn't require convincing. What validation methods have saved you from building the wrong thing?

Recently, I was interviewed for a Business Analyst position, and one question really stood out — both interesting and super relevant. 🔍 #BAInsightsWithShriya 🔍 Day 5 – An Interesting Interview Question That Made Me Think! 💬 “If I’m your client and I want an AI-based Meal Planner application, how will you gather the requirements?” As someone who is passionate about understanding real needs before jumping to solutions, this question was a great chance to showcase my approach. Here's how I structured my answer: ✅ 1. Stakeholder Interviews & Questionnaires Start by identifying all key stakeholders (client, users, developers, dieticians, etc.) and conduct interviews to understand expectations, preferences, and constraints. ✅ 2. Define the Problem Clearly What exactly is the need? 👉 Is it weight loss, medical-based planning, or convenience? 👉 Who are the target users—individuals, families, fitness freaks? ✅ 3. User Personas & Scenarios Create personas like “Working Professional”, “Diabetic User”, “Gym Enthusiast” to frame use cases and goals. ✅ 4. Competitor & Market Research Analyze existing meal planner apps. What’s missing? What’s appreciated? ✅ 5. Functional & Non-Functional Requirements List features like: ✔️ AI-based personalization ✔️ Ingredient filtering (allergies/preferences) ✔️ Grocery list generation ✔️ Integration with fitness trackers And NFRs like performance, scalability, security, and UX. ✅ 6. Create User Stories & Acceptance Criteria Example: “As a user, I want to enter my fitness goals so that the app can suggest daily meal plans accordingly.” ✅ 7. Wireframes & Mockups Visual aids for validating assumptions and features. ✅ 8. Validation Workshops Review findings with stakeholders to ensure alignment before development begins. 💡 Now I want to hear from you! If you were asked this in an interview, how would YOU approach it? What would you add or do differently? Let’s collaborate and learn from each other — drop your thoughts in the comments! 👇 Also, I’m currently open to new opportunities in Business Analysis or Project Coordination. If you believe I can bring value to your team, I’d love to connect. #BusinessAnalysis #RequirementsGathering #InterviewQuestions #OpenToWork #BAInterviewPrep #AspiringPM #LearningSeries