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Surface real customer problems from Day One

Validate pain points, shape your MVP, and build solutions people truly want.

I use this IMPACT method with my teams regularly.

When to Use This

• You’re pre-MVP and need to surface real needs.
• Low confidence in your roadmap’s problem/solution fit.
• To reconfirm the user problem when getting conflicting feature requests.

Foundations

Focus on answering these two key questions:

1. Is this problem painful enough?
2. Is my solution compelling enough?

Put these questions in a sticky note on your computer. Always go back to these questions.

[https://embed-v2.testimonial.to/badge/darpan-dadhaniya?backgroundColor=513dd9&starColor=ffa500&fontColor=ffffff&fontFamily=Roboto&reviewTerm=review&fontSize=16&avatarSelection=automated&reviewTermPlural=reviews&alignment=center&customTemplate=Loved+by+{total}+teams&data-resize="true" data-resize-width="true" style="width:fit-content"](https://embed-v2.testimonial.to/badge/darpan-dadhaniya?backgroundColor=513dd9&starColor=ffa500&fontColor=ffffff&fontFamily=Roboto&reviewTerm=review&fontSize=16&avatarSelection=automated&reviewTermPlural=reviews&alignment=center&customTemplate=Loved+by+{total}+teams&data-resize="true" data-resize-width="true" style="width:fit-content")

https://testimonial.to/darpan-dadhaniya

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Investigate Goals & Hypotheses

• Why are we talking to customers? (See Types of hypothesis ↓)
• What do we assume?

Explicitly document these to keep the team focused.

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Pro Tip!

• Business Model Canvas Style Hypothesis Statement </aside>

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Map Personas & JTBD Profiles

Persona

Outline 2–3 archetypes: title, responsibilities, tools, top pain-points.

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• Pro Tip for B2B and B2B2C </aside>

Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD)

Imagine your user is hiring your tool to do a job for them

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• Pro Tip! </aside>

I use a combined Persona/JTBD template to maintain up-to-date personas.

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Prepare Participants

1. Define Your Target Pool
   • Identify your top 2–3 personas or segments
   • Aim for diversity in company size, industry, and power users vs. occasional users.
2. Decide your discovery approach (See Types of discovery approaches ↓)
3. Decide if you want to offer incentives.
   • Gift cards ($25–$50), early-access credits, or product discounts
   • Mention the incentive in your first outreach to boost response rates by ~30%.
4. Build & Deploy a Screener
   • Fields: Name, role/title, company, use-case frequency, email, calendar link
   • Sample Question: “How often do you reconcile multi-channel sales data?” (weekly, daily, monthly)
5. Craft Your Outreach
   • Channels: Email, LinkedIn InMail, in-app banner, customer-success referral
   • Template Snippet:
6. Screen & Qualify
   • Review screener answers within 24 hrs
   • Politely decline any out-of-scope profiles and offer to reconnect later
7. Schedule & Confirm
   • Block 30–45 min slots with a 10 min buffer on each side
8. Ensure Coverage & Backup
   • Recruit 20% more candidates than needed to account for no-shows
   • Maintain a “standby” list from your screener to fill open slots

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Pro Tips!

• For new products
• Screener questions </aside>

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Test Insights & Iterate

Synthesis:

• Group notes via affinity mapping.
• Identify top 3–5 themes (e.g., “integration friction,” “data visibility,” “cost uncertainty”).

Prioritization:

• Score themes by frequency vs. severity.