12 MVP — Talking to Humans

Talking to humans
Maxime Pico 
 
Startup guide and Partner @ 12MVP 
maxime.pico@12mvp.fr
12MVP Copyright © 12MVP All rights reserved.

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“Understand your users. That's the key. The essential task
in a startup is to create wealth; the dimension of wealth you
have most control over is how much you improve users' lives;
and the hardest part of that is knowing what to make for
them. Once you know what to make, it's mere eﬀort to
make it, and most decent hackers are capable of that.”
- Paul Graham

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talking to users is hard
no one wants to have his startup
crushed 
it takes a lot of time and discipline

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it all starts with…
empathy

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people are liars
they want to be nice with you

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the truth is
people care about themselves

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so how do you do?
???

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well…
you care about
them!

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DOs and DON’Ts
Do
Go in prepared.
Know your goals and
questions ahead of
time

Don’t 
Have an endless list
of questions 

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Do
Be smart about who
you target

Don’t
Talking to anyone
with a pulse 
DOs and DON’Ts

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Do
One to one sessions
with note takers

Don’t
Try focus groups too
early

 
DOs and DON’Ts

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Do
Prepare to hear
things you don’t want
to hear

Don’t
Tip your hand
towards what you
want to hear

DOs and DON’Ts

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Do
Get stories on past
behaviour

Don’t
Ask people to
speculate (money &
solution)

DOs and DON’Ts

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Do
Ask for advice

 
Don’t
Pitch unless you
actually try to close

DOs and DON’Ts

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Do
Listen. 95% of the
conversation should
be them talking 
Don’t
Talk too much and be
afraid of silences. Let
them think

DOs and DON’Ts

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Do
Follow your nose and
drill down when
something of interest
comes up 
Don’t
Feel like you have to
follow a script

DOs and DON’Ts

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Do
Ask for introductions 
Don’t
Leave empty handed 
DOs and DON’Ts

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Do
Look for patterns 
Don’t
Take any one
conversation literally

DOs and DON’Ts

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what to search for?
Customer 
Discovery
Customer 
Validation
Customer 
Creation
Company 
Building
Iteration Execution

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where to search?
What is your most important business
model hypothesis?

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you want to find insights
Capacity to gain accurate and key
intuitive understanding of a person or a
thing

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let’s try!
“what is the last thing you bought for
over 100€?”

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problem validation
Problem interview script

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how to sell?
it’s the same!!!

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SPIN selling
Building value is the key

Opening Investigating
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what they discovered
Demonstrating
capabilities
Obtaining
Commitment

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more precisely
Need-Payoff
Questions
Implication
Questions
Problem
Questions
Situation
Questions

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more precisely
Beneﬁts
Need-Payoff
Questions
Implication
Questions
Problem
Questions
Situation
Questions
Implied
Needs
Explicit
Needs

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meanwhile in the customer’s head…
Problem 1
Price
Problem 2
Problem 3
Problem 4
Seriousness Cost

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if you have to pitch
Start With Why

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why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
“It’s a 4 month acceleration
program”
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
program”
“Yeah, like Numa and
others, so what’s
different?”
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
“We focus on giving the right
methodology, network and
ressources to hackers”
program”
others, so what’s
different?”
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
program”
“Ok… and why should
I believe that’s better
than the others?”
others, so what’s
different?”
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
“We do not want any beautiful
tech innovation to die in the wild
because they didn’t reach their
market fast enough”
program”
than the others?”
others, so what’s
different?”
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
program”
than the others?”
others, so what’s
different?”
“Meh… Shouldn’t that
be the case for
everyone?”
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
“We built a 4 month acceleration
program”
“Right that sucks, and
how do you do that?”
“Yeah they need that!
And how does it look
like?”
“Meh… Shouldn’t that
be the case for
everyone?”
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
like?”
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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What?
How?
Why?
program”
like?”
why?
What?
How?
Why?

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startup pitch template
1. problem (why)
2. (problem size)
3. solution (how + what)
4. demo
5. testimonial
6. team
7. metrics
8. next steps
9. CTA

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startup pitch template
rules: http://www.themacro.com/
articles/2015/11/how-to-design-
a-better-pitch-deck/
 
template: http://
peetch.slidor.fr/

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now it’s your
turn :)

12 MVP — Talking to Humans

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