How to Run a User Interview with Emmett Shear (How to Start a Startup 2014: Lecture 16)

TL;DR

Emmett Shear explains that user interviews are critical for startups, contrasting failures (Kiko – no user interviews) and successes (Twitch – extensive interviews with broadcasters). The core lesson is to identify the right users to talk to, avoid asking about features or showing your product, and instead focus on understanding users' underlying problems and goals.

Key insights

• Who you interview is as important as what you ask; talking to viewers vs. broadcasters at Twitch yielded completely different insights, and choosing the right target user requires judgment, not a reci
• Most startups don't do user interviews at all; those that do make common mistakes: showing the product, asking about pet features, and only talking to easily accessible users (e.g., forum members).
• Users' explicit feature requests (e.g., “clear the ban list,” “edit titles”) are often not the real problems, because if users already tolerate those issues, they aren't blocking usage.