This episode is all about learning from customers...early and often. Our guest, Michael Margolis, UX Research Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), has made a career of helping teams do this successfully. He joins to share his Bullseye Customer Method, which is the result of his experience (it's also the subject of his latest book, "Learn More Faster," which is available for free).

Michael breaks down the Bullseye Customer Method, including best practices for recruitment, question design, and analysis. He's found that research is more successful when it's a team effort, and shares ways to promote cross-team collaboration throughout the Bullseye process, like using watch parties for share-outs. Michael also weighs in (using his 30+ years in the industry) on topics like the current UX job market, the impact of AI on researchers, and the power democratization for resource-limited teams.

It's a must-listen for anyone working on early-stage products or struggling with visibility and buy-in from stakeholders.

Highlights

06:33 Defining Core Value Proposition
16:29 Founders' Key Concerns Analysis
21:58 Clarifying Customer Understanding
26:38 Effective Open-Ended Survey Questions
31:46 Leveraging Associations for Networking
43:01 Benefits of Team Watch Parties

About Michael
Michael joined GV in 2010 as the venture industry’s first UX research partner. As a UX researcher with over 30 years of experience, Michael has boosted conversion, tested new concepts, streamlined workflows, and defined bullseye customers for hundreds of companies. He helped develop the design sprint method made famous by the seminal book, Sprint. He has also written about his research work for startups at medium.com/@mmargolis.

Resources

Choose the right method with this selection tool
Making research essential to company success
The steps to asking better UX research questions

Listener Dispatch: Camping Gone Awry