Now that you have a target customer profile, you’re ready to start looking for customers to talk to. They will help you explore who they are, where you can find them, and how to reach out to them and schedule interviews. There are probably two things concerning you right now: that you have no idea how to find the right customers to talk to, and that they wouldn’t spend their time talking to you even if you could find them.

If you have a product and existing customers, you may still find it surprisingly hard to get in direct contact with them. If you don’t have a product yet, why would someone want to spend time talking to you about a product that doesn’t even exist yet? This will tackle both of those fears head-on. You’re going to learn how to use personal connections, social media, websites, and physical places to find the people who will benefit from the product you’re trying to build. I’ll also discuss the factors that motivate people to share and collaborate. By understanding some basic social psychology, you’ll be better able to convince people to help you and make them feel happier for having done so.

In effect, if you think of customer development interviews in terms of who, what, where, how, and when, this point helps you find out concretely who to talk to, decide how you will talk to them (in person, by telephone, or using video), where you’ll do the interview (whether a physical place or the environment from which you’ll conduct your phone or video interviews), and when (especially in terms of scheduling and spacing them).