Skip hospital doctors because they don't make purchasing decisions. Doctors who own their own practice either outright or as a group partner are actually very easy to interview: in the US (assuming where you're located) there are at least a dozen within each county. Have you tried door-to-door? I helped a friend with healthcare customer discovery interviews for a few months, and it's surprisingly effective.
Ask HN: How do you ask users about their pain point?
81–90 of 121 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you ask users about their pain point?
#82I really loved this thread. After reading all the comments and based on personal experience I would recommend getting a job in a hospital, anywhere, even in the restaurant. Build up a circle of friends who work there and brainstorm with them every day over lunch. They will soon tell you what works and doesn’t
Re: Ask HN: How do you ask users about their pain point?
#83[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you ask users about their pain point?
#84Pay! Expert interviews can be had through expert networks. I know it’s a hustle to get free ones, and worth it, but you could go to GLG, Coleman, ThirdBridge etc and just pay for interviews if you need them done. An interesting alternative is with Arbolus, who lets you write questions and get asynchronous video responses. Research interview sourcing is very hard, and made harder when it is commercially motivated since people are wary of SUGR (selling under the guise of research). The expert networks impose codes of conduct and fees that make the process more costly, but also much more productive.
Re: Ask HN: How do you ask users about their pain point?
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not want to incentivize people to give me BS feedback just to get paid. If they need money or a gift to tell me about their pain point, it's not a pain point.
Why should they spend their time talking to you though? You're asking busy people to help you come up with a business idea for free. > If they need money or a gift to tell me about their pain point, it's not a pain point. This just doesn't follow. There are issues I face, but still have no incentive to spend time explaining them to you.
"Kvetch and eat: aspiring entrepreneur wants to make practicing medicine easier. Will buy steak dinner if you complain about things that drive you nuts about practicing medicine. Side effects may include catharsis and hope for the future."
If you phrase it that way, it sounds like win-win. Free dinner AND I get to complain with no social downsides!
Re: Ask HN: How do you ask users about their pain point?
#86I understand that you're asking a slightly different question than the one I'm answering, but having been involved in the JTBD world, my spidey sense is that you could save yourself a ton of pain if you watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQjBawcU_qg
and maybe read this (optional)
https://therewiredgroup.com/case-studies/milkshakes/
TL;DR: A lot of folks (myself included) think that the sort of discovery interview you're describing is somewhere between unhelpful and dangerous. People cannot tell you what their problem is, they can only tell you what they think you want to hear. Yes, I'm generalizing, but it's hard to estimate how many entrepreneur-years have been burned by attempting to solve a problem someone told them that they have.
My suggestion is that you figure out a way to deeply embed yourself in a world or industry, possibly for a few years. The less sexy the domain, the better. Pay close attention, look for solvable problems with your own eyes.
Often there are opportunities hiding in plain sight that people don't see because there's an entrenched "way things are done". But frankly, you have no business disrupting how soup gets canned if you have never worked in a soup canning plant. Don't bring on an industry expert as a startup co-founder; be the industry expert.
Re: Ask HN: How do you ask users about their pain point?
#87>I'm pretty clear I'm just looking to learn/listen and not pitch. They have no reason to trust you. I would think you're just looking for an angle to sell me on no matter what you say. You might try attending/crashing medical conferences in the area. You could also talk to folks on the periphery of the healthcare industry to look for opportunities. One that I experienced personally is the difficulty in matching a spe…
You hit the nail on the head on BOTH points. They do not trust me (why would they) and they think it's a sales tactic. I couldn't be purer in my intentions, but people are on the defensive. And your pain point is actually one I've heard firsthand. Got a few ideas and connections in this area.
You are asking for them to spend a considerabe amount of their time on you. If you wrote me a super short mesage about my field (not medicine), I might feel too that this will be 30-60 minutes of my time wasted on a likely sales call.
On the other hand, if you write me a longer message, explaining your background and position, give me all the background info, and let me answer via email, I might be more inclined to help, assuming you demonstrate that you at least have some understanding of the field.
Alternatively, you could offer to pay people for their time, which is not something sales people typically do.
Re: Ask HN: How do you ask users about their pain point?
#88Get an actual job in the domain and you'll quickly discover all the pain points. For example, become a medical physicist or dosimetrist and try working in a cancer clinic. Asking to shadow random medical professionals won't work well unless you have a friend on the inside greasing the wheels.
This is great advice because it works for so many professions. Want to make a product for lawyers? Go to law school and be a lawyer for 10 years. Bam. Next question.
Be an assistant at a law firm for 3 months would presumably cut it. Domain knowledge for something like this is not optional.
Re: Ask HN: How do you ask users about their pain point?
#89>I'm pretty clear I'm just looking to learn/listen and not pitch. They have no reason to trust you. I would think you're just looking for an angle to sell me on no matter what you say. You might try attending/crashing medical conferences in the area. You could also talk to folks on the periphery of the healthcare industry to look for opportunities. One that I experienced personally is the difficulty in matching a spe…
You hit the nail on the head on BOTH points. They do not trust me (why would they) and they think it's a sales tactic. I couldn't be purer in my intentions, but people are on the defensive. And your pain point is actually one I've heard firsthand. Got a few ideas and connections in this area.
Beyond trust - they have nothing to gain. You learn from the interview. They get...what exactly?
Re: Ask HN: How do you ask users about their pain point?
#90[0] "What problems do you have?" is too vague.
[1] The response rate correlates to the product of how painful the problem is and whether the potential responder has some faith that you have a solution.