Michael Margolis: Why bullseyes beat ICP personas in one day

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

December 1, 2024

Duration

1h 29m

Channel

Lenny's Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Michael Margolis has been a UX research partner at Google Ventures (GV) for nearly 15 years. He has developed a unique approach to helping startups identify their “bullseye customer”—the specific subset of their target market who initially is most likely to adopt their product. Michael has conducted over 300 hands-on research sprints with GV portfolio companies across various industries and helped develop the “design sprint” process made famous by the book Sprint. In our conversation, we discuss:

• The step-by-step process of running a bullseye customer sprint
• The most common mistakes founders make when picking their first customers
• Practical tips for conducting effective customer interviews
• How to create simple but effective prototypes for user research
• The power of “watch parties” in aligning teams around customer insights
• How to apply these methods beyond typical tech startups

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• Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments: https://www.geteppo.com/
• Paragon—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want: https://www.useparagon.com/lenny
• Enterpret—Transform customer feedback into product growth: https://enterpret.com/lenny

Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/finding-your-bullseye-customer-michael-margolis Where to find Michael Margolis:

• X: https://x.com/mmargolis
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmargolis/
• Website: https://www.learnmorefaster.com/
• Medium: https://medium.com/@mmargolis

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Michael’s background (09:11) Bullseye customers vs. ideal customer profiles (ICPs) (12:32) An overview of the bullseye customer sprint (20:56) When to use the bullseye customer sprint (22:19) Step one: Agree on goals and key questions (23:48) Step two: Define your bullseye customer (25:52) The importance of a narrow target audience (29:00) An example of step two in action (38:24) Narrowing attributes and exclusion criteria (43:28) Step three: Recruiting and compensating participants (56:11) Step four: Creating effective prototypes (01:01:10) Step five: Drafting your interview guide (01:08:49) Step six: The watch party method (01:19:40) Common pitfalls and final thoughts (01:24:43) Closing thoughts and where to find Michael Referenced:

• Learn More Faster: How to Find Your Bullseye Customer and Their Perfect Product: https://www.learnmorefaster.com
• Alcoa: https://www.alcoa.com
• Dupont: https://www.dupont.com
• Ericsson: https://www.ericsson.com
• Google Ventures: https://www.gv.com/
• Kate Aronowitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katearonowitz/
• Vanessa Cho on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veecho/
• How to kickstart and scale a consumer business—Step 2: Identify your super-specific who: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/consumer-business-super-specific-who
• When enough is enough | Andy Johns (ex-FB, Twitter, Quora): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/when-enough-is-enough-andy-johns
• Zipline for health care: https://www.flyzipline.com/solutions/healthcare
• Jobs to Be Done framework: https://www.christenseninstitute.org/theory/jobs-to-be-done
• User Interviews: https://www.userinterviews.com/
• Respondent: https://www.respondent.io/
• Flatiron Health: https://flatiron.com/
• How to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-identify-your-ideal-customer
• Gong: https://www.gong.io
• Linear: https://linear.app
• Gusto: https://gusto.com/
• Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling: https://bookshop.org/p/books/humble-inquiry-second-edition-the-gentle-art-of-asking-instead-of-telling-edgar-h-schein/14739375
• Figma: https://www.figma.com

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Lenny Rachitsky

  host

• Michael Margolis

  guest

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Lenny Rachitsky and Michael Margolis, Michael Margolis: Why bullseyes beat ICP personas in one day explores nail Your Bullseye Customer In One Intense, Insight-Packed Day UX researcher and GV partner Michael Margolis shares a one-day, highly structured sprint for identifying a startup’s “bullseye customer” — the narrowest subset of users most likely to adopt your product early. He argues that most teams stay far too broad, which creates mushy feedback, slow learning, and misaligned roadmaps.

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