# Customer discovery in a week > A week of customer discovery: a short, planned round of visits and calls, with the rule for dropping a problem written down before the first one, confirms or kills a problem before any code. - Course: [From Idea to Profitable Product: Building Without Investors](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product.md) - Module: One repair shop, one problem - Lesson 7/30, ~27 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/checking-the-problem-in-a-week ## A customer discovery week, not a feeling **Alex Tutor:** Another session with GarageDesk's founders, where you're my co-advisor. Oscar's notebook is filling up. **Sofia:** Oscar now has notes from a handful of shops. Is that enough to choose a problem? **Alex Tutor:** Not yet. Those were chance conversations, each with different questions. Now plan one week of **customer discovery**, talking to customers to check a problem before you build: 8 to 14 December. **Nina:** We have three candidates. A: phone chaos with bookings. B: regulars who forget their next service and don't come back. C: repair history kept on paper. **Oscar:** I can do nine visits on my route that week. Nina takes five by phone. Fourteen shops. **Alex Tutor:** Good. And not only shops that already know Oscar. His regulars like him and will be kind. Mix in shops he's never visited. > **Exercise:** Nina and Oscar plan one week of visits and calls to repair shops to check three candidate problems before building anything. Which of these belong in their plan for the week? Select all that apply. **Alex Tutor:** Oscar asks whether the five unknown shops are really worth the extra effort. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** if Oscar talks only to the nine shops on his route that already know and like him, the week will give an equally reliable picture. ## Problem validation: decide what kills a problem first **Alex Tutor:** Before the first visit, write down the rule that drops a problem. Otherwise, by Friday you'll find reasons to keep whichever one you already liked. ![A notebook lies open at its first page with one firm line drawn across it and a round date stamp beside it, a pen resting on top.](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/inline/checking-the-problem-in-a-week-illustration-2.webp) *Write the rule down before Monday, or by Friday you'll find reasons to keep your favourite.* **Nina:** What rule, though? **Alex Tutor:** Something about spending, since mentions are cheap. For example: a problem stays only if at least a quarter of the shops already spend money or regular hours on it. **Oscar:** A quarter of fourteen is three and a half. **Alex Tutor:** So round up: at least four shops. Write that on the first page of the notebook, with the date. > **Exercise:** Suppose Nina and Oscar could reach only 10 shops that week, with the same rule: a problem stays only if at least a quarter of the shops already spend money or regular hours on it. How many spending shops does a problem need? Whole shops only. ## Customer discovery questions: the same for everyone **Sofia:** Do Nina and Oscar ask about all three problems in every shop? **Alex Tutor:** Yes, and in the same words. Start open: what took the most time last week? Then, for each problem, ask about the last time: what happened, who dealt with it, what it cost. **Alex Tutor:** No demo during the week. The moment you show a screen, people start reacting to your idea instead of describing their day. **Alex Tutor:** Nina is drafting her first question for the calls. She has two options. > **Exercise:** Which question should open every conversation in the discovery week? **Nina:** I'll make a sheet: one row per shop, and for each problem two columns: mentioned, and already spends. **Oscar:** I'll ask Dennis and Paul again too, with the same questions, so their answers count the same as everyone's. > **Exercise:** Put the steps of the problem-check week in order. ## The tally: which problems passed **Nina:** Sunday night. A: 11 of 14 shops mentioned phone chaos, 4 already pay for a workaround. B: 9 mentioned lost regulars, 6 already spend money or hours. C: 7 mentioned paper history, 1 spends. **Sofia:** So A wins? Eleven is the biggest number. **Alex Tutor:** Eleven is how many people talked about it. Look at the other column. Of the shops that mention B, two out of three already spend on it. For A, only about one in three. ![Two jars on a workbench, a tall one stuffed with speech bubbles and a shorter one filled with coins; a mentor points at the coins.](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/inline/checking-the-problem-in-a-week-illustration-3.webp) **Oscar:** The six who spend on B: Dennis's niece with her notebook, Martha typing in Viber, an owner who gives up his Saturday mornings to it… > **Exercise:** 11 of the 14 shops mentioned phone chaos with bookings (problem A), and 4 of them already pay for a workaround. What percentage of the shops that mention A already spend on it? Round to one decimal place. **Alex Tutor:** Now the same calculation for C, Nina's favorite. > **Exercise:** 7 of the 14 shops mentioned paper repair history (problem C), and 1 of them already spends on it. What percentage of the shops that mention C already spend on it? Round to one decimal place. **Alex Tutor:** Now apply the rule you wrote on Monday. At least four shops that spend. **Nina:** A has exactly four, B has six, C has one. ![Phone chaos is mentioned most (11 of 14) but only 4 shops spend on it; lost regulars: 9 and 6; paper history: 7 and 1. The rule of at least 4 keeps A and B.](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/diagrams/m2-l3-tally.png) *The “already spends” column decides.* **Alex Tutor:** Then two problems stay. Choosing between them is next lesson's job. **Oscar:** And C is out. > **Exercise:** Suppose Nina and Oscar had written a stricter rule on Monday: a problem stays only if **at least a third** of the 14 shops already spend on it. With A: 4, B: 6, C: 1 spending shops, which problems stay? ## Nina’s favorite **Nina:** C was my favorite. A clean repair history per car is the part I most wanted to build. **Alex Tutor:** That's exactly why the rule was written before the week. The problem isn't dead forever: it may come back as part of the product later. It just can't be the reason a shop pays today. **Sofia:** Can I write the note to Nina about C? **Alex Tutor:** Go ahead. Use the numbers from the sheet, and be kind about it. > **Exercise:** In a week of talks with 14 repair shops, 7 shops mentioned problem C, paper repair history, and only 1 already spends on it. The rule written before the week kept a problem only if at least 4 shops already spend on it. C was Nina's favorite. Write her a short note (3–4 sentences) explaining why C is dropped for now. Use these numbers and say what may happen to C later. > **Key ideas** > > - Check candidate problems in one planned week: a fixed number of shops, a mix of friendly and unknown ones, the same questions for everyone. > - Write the rule that drops a problem before the first visit, and base it on spending, not mentions. > - No demo during the check: you want their day, not reactions to your idea. > - Keep two columns per problem: “mentioned” and “already spends”. The second one decides. > - A problem that fails the rule can return later as part of the product; it just isn't the reason to pay today. **Alex Tutor:** Next: two problems passed. Compare them on the same criteria and commit to one. - Previous lesson: [Who decides and who pays](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/who-decides-who-pays.md) - Next lesson: [Choosing one problem](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/choosing-one-problem.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.