{"id":114,"date":"2015-03-12T16:04:36","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T16:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/?p=114"},"modified":"2025-01-21T10:29:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T09:29:22","slug":"how-email-interviews-helped-us-build-saas-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/how-email-interviews-helped-us-build-saas-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How can email interviews help you build a SaaS business? (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first part of this article<\/a>, I wrote about how we started the interviews with personal trainers at 52Challenges<\/a> via email. I also mentioned that the interview included more than one email. Here’s about the second one.<\/p>\n

Treat this blog post as a guide that’ll show you how you can leverage email interviews to help to get your SaaS business up and running.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

So how does our story go on?<\/p>\n

We already established a connection with those who responded to our two previous emails (the first touch cold email followed by\u00a0the first interview email). We noticed that the trainers were willing\u00a0to help us, so we decided to keep asking questions to get to know them\u00a0and their work specifics as well as possible.<\/p>\n

As soon as we identified a pattern in the answers of our interviewees, we moved on to more detailed questions. Those were questions focusing on the specific pain of tracking fitness progress \u2013 the problem that we planned to solve with our SaaS.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\"Interview_trainers_mail_2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Why should you keep your prospects updated?<\/h2>\n

I believe it\u2019s very important for the addressee to be aware of the upcoming steps, regardless of the purpose of your emails. Whether you ask someone for an interview, or invite them to test your app, or are in the process of closing\u00a0a deal. Tell them what\u2019s going to happen next. This gives them a sense of security \u2013 they know what to expect of you.<\/p>\n

As you may notice, my email starts with a short update (right after the thank you note, which is rather obvious and self-explanatory).<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ll take a look at our two previous emails, you\u2019ll notice that I hadn\u2019t given the\u00a0trainers\u00a0any details regarding the beta tests (unless they specifically asked me about those in their response to the first touch email). That\u2019s why I briefly told them here, what they could expect from us and the beta tests.<\/p>\n

How do you move on with the interview?<\/h2>\n

An email should make sense to your addressee. What is clear and obvious to you is not necessary\u00a0clear and obvious to them. It\u2019s crucial to create the context that will be as clear to them as it is to you. They will only reply if they know what you want from them and why.<\/p>\n

As the email was a continuation of the interview, we needed a short introduction to the next set of questions. Because \u2013 as my academic writing teacher used to always kindly point out \u2013 \u2018LOGIC, you fools!\u2019.<\/p>\n

Hence, I made the\u00a0short intro: \u201cIn the meantime, we\u2019ve noticed that PTs often point to tracking their clients\u2019 progress as time-consuming and sometimes problematic. (\u2026)\u201d before I passed on to asking questions.<\/p>\n

How do you ask the second set of questions to get answers?<\/h2>\n

Make answering your questions as easy as possible.<\/p>\n

Ask open-ended questions, but keep them simple and give your prospects an idea of what their answers might look like, just to trigger a more in-depth description.<\/p>\n

As Bob Warfield<\/strong> points out in his great article<\/a> about interviewing customers, they usually are not able to express a problem in their own words, but they are always able to resonate when you state some possibilities that are close enough to their real situation.<\/p>\n

As you can see, there are three questions listed in my email. In fact, the second one is a kind of continuation to the first one. The first one is about the \u2018factors\u2019 they measure.<\/p>\n

Our aim here was to identify the most popular types of tracked data which we would then put into our software as a predefined set of categories to track. In the answer to the first one, we expected a list of factors like: weight, circumferences, BMR, body fat %, etc. And that\u2019s what we got.<\/p>\n

In the second question, we asked about the very process of measuring those factors. We wanted to know more about the very methods the trainers use and the tests they perform on a daily basis. This one was to elicit a more descriptive answer. And that\u2019s what it did.<\/p>\n

The third question was crucial for us. We wanted to know more about the process of recording the data and storing them. That\u2019s where our SaaS was supposed to help. That was the part we wanted to improve in the whole process of tracking progress.<\/p>\n

Note that the question here is open, but it\u2019s also followed by some triggers the trainers could refer to. Just like in my first interview email<\/a>, I wanted to make the questions easy to answer.<\/p>\n

In the third question, I gave them some options to comment on (just like I did in my previous email). And considering the effects, I can confirm that it worked.<\/p>\n

The funny thing about the answers to this one was that they would often state that ‘they don\u2019t use any software, just Excel files’\u2026 Well, Excel is software.\u00a0As a matter of fact, it appeared to be the most commonly used\u00a0software among the personal trainers we interviewed. But nothing could\u00a0come even close to the traditional pen and paper.<\/p>\n

\n