Idea Stage: Finding and Interviewing First Users

At the idea stage you have nothing to demo, which is an advantage: there's nothing to pitch, so you're forced to do pure discovery. Your goal is to find users with the problem and mine their stories.

Finding them is less mysterious than founders think. Start with yourself if you have the problem. Then your network, coworkers from past jobs, and cold outreach into communities where the problem lives. Dropbox recruited early testers off forums like Hacker News, where their target users already hung out.

Keep it casual. You don't need a lab, a script, or an hour on the calendar. Some of the best interviews happen as normal conversations, at events or in line for coffee. Take notes or ask to record, and afterward write down the key learnings before they evaporate.