In Customer Interviews, Never Ask ‘Would You Use This Product?’

In his blog post “The One Customer Development Question You Need to Stop Asking Immediately“, Mike Fishbein cautions against asking Would you use this product during a customer interview.

If you ask “would you use this product” during your customer interview, your potential customer may say yes or no.
If he says no, you don’t know why.

If he says yes, you still don’t know why.
You don’t know if he’s just saying that to be nice.

If he isn’t just saying it to be nice, you still don’t know if he’ll follow through.

…
Don’t guess whether he’s being sincere and will follow-through. Go ahead and ask him what Fishbein calls The One Dollar Test. Will your potential future customer pay a dollar for the service?

You’d be surprised how different your responses during your customer interviews will be if you change “Would you use this product” to “Will you give me a dollar today for this product”. Try it!