How to talk to users

What we recorded

Full transcript read in Chrome 2026-11-11 (machine transcript with errors; page says over a year old). Interview by video, phone or in person; you learn more from a five-minute video interview than 500 or 5,000 survey responses. Most important: do not introduce your idea until the end, or at all. Ask: how do you do X today, the hardest thing about X, why it is hard, how often, why it matters, what you do to solve it today; watch them do it if you can. Do not ask: will you use our product, which features would make it better, yes/no questions, what a better product would look like, two questions at once. Record, or at least take notes. Five or ten interviews before drawing conclusions. One YC partner’s advice, no data.

Claims that cite it

• YC’s Gustaf Alströmer advises keeping your idea out of a user interview until the end or entirely, asking how they do the task today, what is hardest and what they already do about it, never asking whether they would use your product or which features they want, and recording or taking notes; YC’s earlier version of the talk was based on The Mom Test, though its author later said he rarely uses the method. (moderate)