• Speaker: Jocelyn Graf
• Room: 332
• Time: Saturday, Oct 24th 11:30 – 12:20pm

• Format: Talk/Demo (50 minutes)
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Track: Entrepreneurship & Product Strategy
• Additional Tags: Customer Discovery, User Research, Startups, Open Source, Product Validation, Interviewing
  * Experience: Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of California Riverside and advisor for the Los Angeles Small Business Development Centers, specializing in startup viability and sustainable business models.

Whether launching an open-source project, starting a freelance business, or building a startup, success depends on understanding what users actually need rather than relying on assumptions. This session distinguishes customer discovery from traditional UX research, focusing on uncovering the deep motivations that drive a user to abandon their current routine for a new solution. Through a series of live, abbreviated interviews featuring a Seattle-based worker-owned cooperative team, the presenter will demonstrate techniques to bypass “agreeable” feedback and extract valuable, honest data. Attendees will learn how to construct a hypothesis—identifying the problem, solution, and target customer—and how to analyze interview data to either validate or pivot their venture.

Target Audience:

• Aspiring entrepreneurs and startup founders
• Open-source project leads seeking to ensure long-term sustainability
• Freelancers looking to identify and validate market needs