Well, there's some value in interviewing unhappy users too, particularly around improving onboarding & conversion rates, but it's most useful to interview happy users because we're trying to find more people like them.

Happy users use the product in spite of problems with the it, so we can use them as a signal for which features resonate most and which channels they use to hear about us. We can use the learnings to pick the tactics most likely to get more of the type of users we want.

It's more of an uphill battle to use learnings from unhappy users because they're not the ones actually benefiting from the product. We can’t generalize their learnings — at least, not without many grains of salt.

Unhappy users will tell you what needs to change about the product, onboarding flow, etc., though, so you can focus on them after you’ve learned about the happy users to improve conversion.

^^All of this assumes that there are some ideal users. If we don't have any at all, then we're stuck with interviewing unhappy users (which usually means the product has to change).

Well, there's some value in interviewing unhappy users too, particularly around improving onboarding & conversion rates, but it's most useful to interview happy users because we're trying to find more people like them.

Happy users use the product in spite of problems with the it, so we can use them as a signal for which features resonate most and which channels they use to hear about us. We can use the learnings to pick the tactics most likely to get more of the type of users we want.

It's more of an uphill battle to use learnings from unhappy users because they're not the ones actually benefiting from the product. We can’t generalize their learnings — at least, not without many grains of salt.

Unhappy users will tell you what needs to change about the product, onboarding flow, etc., though, so you can focus on them after you’ve learned about the happy users to improve conversion.

^^All of this assumes that there are some ideal users. If we don't have any at all, then we're stuck with interviewing unhappy users (which usually means the product has to change).

There's definitely more info he can give here.

Couple thoughts:

1. Spin the pitch (a call or more info) to his benefit. This advice applies to other emails you write, e.g., cold outreach, email marketing, etc.

Some people are sold by gift cards, but $25 in Amazon bucks probably won't sell him; his time is probably worth more than $50/hr.

One idea: Pitch him on how his answers will make his investment perform better because these calls are how PRODUCT unlocks its growth.

You might also pitch how his input makes Nicole's job easier, which ends up making his life easier/saving him time (you can get more specific on how product input saves him time based on your conversation with Nicole).

2. You could also just follow up via email with a few bullet-point questions if you think he's too hard to pitch on doing a call.

15-20 mins is a good rule of thumb, but leave yourself some buffer at the end — sometimes the most useful parts of a user interview or the free-flowing conversation at the end. We've had some user interviews that were great that went 40 or 50 minutes.

Don't beat yourself up if you don't catch everything. A few ways you can do this:

Yes, definitely. Just ask up front if it's OK and also explain why you're recording it (e.g., "I'm recording it so I can fully listen and not worry if I missed something you said.")

Expect at least a ~40% response rate. Debug by looking at:

If none of these work, it’s a signal users may not be as happy as you think.