Emmett Shear, co-founder of live video platforms Justin.tv and TwitchTV, has a great talk on “How to Run a User Interview.”

He make the case that who you talk to is just as important as what you ask them

User interviews should often be a PRECURSOR to building the product.

Because it’s vital that you can validate the problem that’s being faced by your potential customer.

Emphasis on potential customer. There is not point getting a pain or problem validated by someone who isn’t going to buy from you.

I do think there is opportunity for innovation in everything, but innovation that people are willing to pay for is a lot more rare. And conducting user interviews is a good way to ensure that is the cases. (Although you may find that you don’t have a big enough problem to solve!)