People are motivated to help you because it benefits them psychologically. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, helping you can satisfy their needs for esteem, belonging, and self-actualization.

• We like helping others.

We live in a society where helping others is socially approved behavior. After an interview, a person will feel good about themselves.

• We like feeling smart.

Think about how you feel when someone asks for your advice. It’s nice to know you have valuable experience to share.

• We like solving others’ problems.

This motive is similar to the first, but the difference is that by helping, a person feels powerful. In interviews with such people, emphasize that you couldn’t manage without their help.


Should You Pay for Interviews?
There’s no definitive answer here. On one hand, people are spending their time. On the other hand, you can test the viability of your idea early on. If people are willing to help develop the product for free, it means they’re “buying into it,” just paying with their time instead of money.

Of course, you shouldn’t reach out to just anyone who fits the target audience criteria. Find those who feel the “pain” the most. These people will eagerly share all the issues they face. They’ll be waiting for the first version of your product and will later share ideas on what else needs to be done.

Many people believe that you need to create a product first and then enter the market. They think you can’t find users without a ready service or app. In reality, finding potential customers isn’t much different from finding actual customers. The only difference is that it’s less stressful since there are no sales KPIs to meet.

Where would you look for customers if everything was ready? That's where you can find people for CustDev too.


Friends of Friends and Extended Network
Chances are, someone in your network already fits your target audience (TA). They likely have many friends who are similar. This way, your friend can connect you to the right community.

Keep in mind that they might feel uncomfortable sharing contacts with someone who is essentially a stranger. Prepare a short message describing your project that your friend can forward to their acquaintances. This way, your friend only has to pass on the message, and people can decide for themselves if they want to talk to you.


Social Media
Settings and tags can help narrow your search but won’t give you a precise list of people who meet your TA criteria.

So, before inviting someone for an interview, have a conversation and ask a few clarifying questions.


Communities, Forums, and Blogs
There are many Telegram chats with like-minded people: professional groups, interest-based groups. Joining these and immediately posting that you’re looking for people for CustDev is a bad idea. It’s better to contribute to the community first: share useful material, participate in discussions. Then, post in the chat or message members directly. Now, it’s not a message from a stranger but a request from a community member.

Forums and blogs work similarly. Earn a reputation first, then ask for help.


Offline
In our digital world, this idea often comes last because it’s more comfortable for us to connect online than approach strangers in person.

You can find young moms near playgrounds, seniors at clinics, and IT professionals in co-working spaces.

Just approaching someone is like cold sales. You need to look presentable, be able to pique interest in a few seconds, and accept that the conversion rate will be low.

But you don’t need many people. Just a few, and they can introduce you to others.


Thematic Events
Conferences, exhibitions, workshops, and other events gather your TA in one place, where people are open to new connections.

At these events, you can speak as a lecturer, which will make future communication easier. The response rate to a request from an expert is likely to be higher than from an unknown person.

CustDev is conducted to test assumptions and gather new information about users' problems. It might seem like you just need to explain your idea and ask for opinions.

However, direct questions won't yield truthful information. People tend to give socially acceptable answers and say what they think you want to hear.

Additionally, people are often overly optimistic about the future. For example, we all plan to exercise regularly in the future, even if that's not the case now.

Therefore, your conversation should focus on the user's existing experience. Ask them, "How do you solve this problem currently?" Have them recall the last time they faced this issue and how they dealt with it. Ask about what they did before and after, and who helped them.

Even if respondents are honest, they might not remember the problematic situation. Often, we don't see problems in the familiar; we accept things as they are. We tend to solve problems in the same way repeatedly, not recognizing new opportunities.

So, ask the question, "If you had a magic wand, how would you solve this problem differently?" This question encourages imagination, offers new perspectives, and allows for a broader view of the situation.

A specific list of questions will be provided in the next article.

Become a team with your users. Learn to communicate with them, build relationships, and truly hear what they are saying, not just what you want to hear. In such a partnership, you can create a highly desired IT product.