# Scary questions you avoid

> When your calls are honest but trivial: how to ask the scary questions that could kill the idea, welcome a lukewarm “meh”, start broad, and tell a painkiller from a vitamin and product risk from market risk.

- Course: [Customer Development: Talking to Customers](https://productovi.com/courses/customer-interviews.md)
- Module: Asking what matters
- Lesson 7/15, ~40 min
- Source: https://productovi.com/courses/customer-interviews/scary-questions

## What makes a question important?

**Alex Tutor:** Back at CatChow, you're deep into customer calls about the product team's food subscription. Today: the scary questions that show whether a problem is a painkiller or a vitamin.

**Sofia:** Second round of calls is done. No compliments, no fluff, only past specifics. And somehow I learned almost nothing.

**Alex Tutor:** Read me a few of your questions.

**Sofia:** “How old is your cat?”, “Which brand did you buy last?”, “How many bowls does he have?”

**Alex Tutor:** All honest, none biased. And not one of them could change a single decision at CatChow. You've swapped bad questions for trivial ones.

**Sofia:** So what makes a question worth asking?

**Alex Tutor:** An **important question** is one where a surprising answer would change the plan, or kill it. Quick test: if the answer shocked you, would you do anything differently? If not, drop it.

![A small figure grips a big railway switch lever where the track splits two ways; tiny pebbles lie ignored beside the rails.](https://productovi.com/courses/customer-interviews/inline/scary-questions-illustration-2.webp)

*Ask the questions whose answers could move the plan, not the ones that only fill the call.*

> **Exercise:** Which question passes the test “a surprising answer would change CatChow's plan for the subscription”?

## The question that scares you

**Alex Tutor:** Now the uncomfortable part. Which question have you been avoiding?

**Sofia:** Probably whether people would actually leave their pet shop. Olivia has bought from the same shop by her building for years.

**Sofia:** And whether they'd pay for a month upfront. If the answer is no, the whole subscription falls apart.

**Alex Tutor:** That's a **scary question**: important, and you dodge it because the answer might hurt. Those are the ones worth asking most. In every conversation, at least one question should make you a little nervous.

**Sofia:** What if I freeze when it's time to ask?

**Alex Tutor:** Imagine a friend's startup had your plan. What would you tell her to ask? You'd be blunt with her. Be just as blunt for yourself, and write the question down before the call.

> **Exercise:** Sofia drafts questions for next week. Which of them are **scary** in the sense of this lesson? Select all that apply.

## Love bad news

**Sofia:** I did ask one scary thing yesterday. Here's what Olivia said:

**Olivia:** Pay a month ahead for food? Hm. I don't know… I walk past the pet shop on my way home anyway. It's fine as it is.

**Sofia:** Then I spent ten minutes convincing her. In the end she said, “OK, maybe I'd try it.”

**Alex Tutor:** So you traded honest data for a polite maybe. Her first answer, that lukewarm “meh”, was the most valuable moment of the call.

**Sofia:** It didn't feel valuable. It felt like failing.

**Alex Tutor:** Compare the costs. Hearing “meh” from ten people now costs two weeks of calls. Hearing it after launch costs four months of development and the marketing budget. A “meh” is usually more honest than a “wow”.

![Two paths: on a short one a person meets a shrug and turns back early; a long one ends at a huge warehouse full of unsold cat-food bags.](https://productovi.com/courses/customer-interviews/inline/scary-questions-illustration-3.webp)

**Sofia:** So next time I don't argue. I ask why?

**Alex Tutor:** Yes. Is the problem smaller than we thought? Is she the wrong customer? Does she dislike one detail, like paying ahead? And thank her. She helped you more than anyone who “loved it”.

> **Exercise:** A customer hears about the subscription and says: “Hm, not sure I'd need that.” What's the best next move?

## Look before you zoom

**Alex Tutor:** Another pattern in your notes. How did you open each call?

**Sofia:** “What's your biggest problem with buying cat food?”

**Alex Tutor:** That's **zooming in too early**: you dive into one narrow problem before checking she cares about that area at all. She'll name a problem because you asked for one. Often one she's never really thought about.

**Sofia:** So where do I start?

**Alex Tutor:** Broad. “What's been taking your time and money with Whiskers lately?” If getting food home is a real pain, she'll bring it up herself.

**Sofia:** And if she talks about the vet instead?

**Alex Tutor:** Then you've learned something true: buying food isn't near the top of her list. Zoom in only after a strong signal, when she raises the problem herself.

**Alex Tutor:** Try it on a fresh call. Here are two ways to open with an owner you've never spoken to. Which one leaves room for the real problem?

> **Exercise:** Two ways to open a call with a cat owner you've never spoken to. Which one leaves room for the **real** problem to come up?

**Alex Tutor:** Now flip it. Say another owner, Mark, brings the problem up all by himself. What then?

> **Exercise:** Sofia opens a call with Mark broadly: “What's been taking your time and money with your cat lately?” He spends five minutes on hunting for his cat's brand, because the shop near his office keeps running out of it. What should Sofia do next?

**Sofia:** So Mark earned the zoom by raising the problem himself.

**Alex Tutor:** Yes. Before that, your only job is to open the door wide enough for the real problem to walk in.

**Sofia:** I bet other teams fall into the same trap.

**Alex Tutor:** All the time. Here's one from an online bookshop. Try fixing their opening.

> **Exercise:** Kate, a marketer at an online bookshop, is testing a monthly book box. She opens every call with: “What's your biggest frustration when buying books online?” Rewrite the opening so it starts broad.

## Painkiller vs vitamin: will they pay to fix it?

**Sofia:** Olivia did say she ran out of food twice this year. Isn't that a signal?

**Alex Tutor:** A signal of what size? What happened those two times?

**Sofia:** She went down to the shop by her building. Ten minutes, she said.

**Alex Tutor:** Then for her a subscription is a **vitamin**: nice to have, easy to put off. A **painkiller** fixes something that hurts right now, and painkillers get paid for first.

![One cat owner puts a small vitamin bottle aside on a high shelf; another person winces and urgently grabs a painkiller pack.](https://productovi.com/courses/customer-interviews/inline/scary-questions-illustration-4.webp)

*People put vitamins off. They go looking for painkillers.*

**Sofia:** How do I tell them apart in a conversation?

**Alex Tutor:** That's problem validation in short: look for cost. Is she already spending money or time on it? Has she searched for a fix? Is it among her top three worries? A cat on a prescription diet that's often out of stock locally, now that's a painkiller story.

> **Exercise:** Olivia ran out of food twice this year and both times fixed it with a ten-minute walk to the shop. That makes the subscription a painkiller for her.

## The obvious problem: who pays?

**Alex Tutor:** One more trap: stepping around the obvious problem. Didn't you also call an animal shelter?

**Sofia:** Yes, Sarah, the volunteer coordinator. The pain is huge: forty cats, and food runs out every single week.

**Alex Tutor:** And who pays for the food?

**Sofia:** Mostly donations, bags people bring in… I didn't ask about money. It felt awkward, they're a charity.

**Alex Tutor:** That's the elephant. A real, urgent pain with no budget is a dead end for a paid subscription. Same if the person can't decide: find out who the **decision maker** is.

**Alex Tutor:** Quick check before you plan what to ask Sarah next.

> **Exercise:** Sarah's shelter runs out of food for its forty cats every single week, so it's one of the strongest leads for CatChow's paid subscription.

**Sofia:** So I ask about money even when it feels rude.

**Alex Tutor:** Especially then. Politely, and about the past: how was food paid for last month, and who signed off on it?

**Sofia:** And if the answers about money are awkward?

**Alex Tutor:** Let them be. One awkward answer now saves months of selling to someone who can't buy. Try writing the questions yourself.

> **Exercise:** Sarah's animal shelter has forty cats, and the food runs out every week; it comes mostly from donations and bags people bring in. Write one or two questions Sofia should ask Sarah, the shelter's volunteer coordinator, to face the obvious problem head-on.

## Product risk vs market risk

**Megan:** Good news from my side! Three customers told me they'd switch today if we deliver the same day and cost less than their shop.

**Sofia:** Alex, that sounds like strong validation, doesn't it?

**Alex Tutor:** It says “give me more for less and I'll take it”. Who'd refuse? Whether CatChow can deliver same-day and cheaper than a shop is a **product risk**: can we build it and make it work at scale?

**Alex Tutor:** Conversations can't remove product risk; only building and piloting can. What conversations test well is **market risk**: do people want it, will they pay, and are there enough of them?

![Market risk (do people want it, will they pay, are there enough of them) is tested by conversations; product risk (can we build and scale it) only by building and pilots.](https://productovi.com/courses/customer-interviews/diagrams/m3-l1-two-risks.png)

**Sofia:** So Megan's customers told us about our logistics, not about demand.

**Alex Tutor:** Exactly. Keep both risks on your list. A business can die of either one.

> **Exercise:** Which of these uncertainties about the CatChow subscription are **market risks** that conversations can test? Select all that apply.

## Four lines from this week

**Sofia:** Let me go through the rest of this week's notes with all this in mind. Four lines stand out.

**Alex Tutor:** Good. For each, ask two things: what does it really tell us, and what would I do next?

**Sofia:** One isn't from a cat owner at all. Lucy, who runs a small cat hotel, said it when I asked how they buy food for their guests.

**Alex Tutor:** The traps are the same whoever's talking. Different segments just hide them in different places.

> **Exercise:** Match each line from Sofia's notes to what it really tells her.

## Planning the next call

**Sofia:** Tomorrow I'm calling Andrew. He buys food at a pet shop near his office. I want to do it right this time.

**Alex Tutor:** Then plan before you dial: a broad opening, your scary questions written down, and a decision about how you'll react to a “meh”.

**Sofia:** Decide that now? Why?

**Alex Tutor:** Because in the moment you'll want to argue. Deciding calmly the day before is much easier than being brave in the middle of a call.

> **Exercise:** Plan Sofia's call with Andrew.

## What to remember

**Sofia:** Honestly, I'm a bit scared of tomorrow's call now.

**Alex Tutor:** Good. That usually means you're finally asking something that matters.

> **Asking what matters**
>
> - **Important question:** a surprising answer would change or kill the plan.
> - **Scary question:** at least one per conversation, written down in advance.
> - **Love bad news:** a “meh” today is cheaper than a failed launch. Dig into it, don't argue with it.
> - **Look before you zoom:** start broad, zoom in only when they raise the problem.
> - **Painkiller or vitamin:** look for money, time and searching already spent.
> - **The obvious problem:** ask who pays and who decides.
> - **Two risks:** conversations test market risk; product risk needs building.

**Alex Tutor:** Next time: how to pick your three big questions before every conversation, so the scary ones never get lost.

- Previous lesson: [Feature requests: digging for the real problem](https://productovi.com/courses/customer-interviews/feature-requests-and-digging.md)
- Next lesson: [3 big questions and a discussion guide](https://productovi.com/courses/customer-interviews/three-big-questions.md)

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