CHAPTERS
Why talking to users matters: lessons from Kiko and Justin.tv
Emmett opens with two startup stories to show the cost of building without user understanding. Kiko failed partly because the team neither used calendars nor interviewed calendar users; Justin.tv succeeded initially by “being the user,” but that approach limited growth when they needed to expand to new use cases.
The Twitch pivot: interviewing users to find a scalable use case
When Justin.tv explored new directions (mobile vs. gaming), Emmett led gaming and realized they lacked knowledge about broadcasters. They ran many user interviews, and the insights shaped years of Twitch’s product decisions and even led to building a dedicated user-research function.
Choosing who to interview is strategic (broadcasters vs. viewers)
Emmett emphasizes that selecting the right interview targets can matter as much as the questions. For Twitch, broadcasters were the leverage point because audiences follow content; interviewing only viewers would have produced a different—and less strategically useful—product roadmap.
Exercise: Identify interview targets for a lecture note-taking app
The class workshops step one: deciding who to talk to for a lecture-focused note-taking app. Emmett pushes students to think beyond obvious users and to explicitly list where and how they’d find interviewees.
Broadening the target: students, IT admins, and other payers
After a student suggests interviewing college students across majors and study styles, Emmett adds a key business lens: students may not pay. He suggests including stakeholders like college IT administrators (potential buyers) and parents (potential payers) to understand adoption and purchasing dynamics.
Live demo interview: uncovering current behavior (not feature requests)
Emmett conducts a mock user interview with a student (Stephanie) to model the approach: ask about current habits, tools, and contexts. The conversation surfaces a mixed workflow (laptop + paper), tool switching (Google Docs vs. Evernote), and the importance of collaboration and personalization.
Interpreting interviews: avoid the “horseless carriage” feature trap
Emmett explains why early interviews should avoid discussing app features: users often ask for incremental improvements that don’t solve the real problem. The job is to identify pains, motivations, and blockers; the first interview may not reveal a big enough problem, so patterns across multiple interviews matter.
From insight to hypothesis: propose one ‘quantum improvement’
The class shifts from discovery to ideation: based on the interview, propose one improvement that could beat an incumbent like Google Docs. A student suggests lighter-weight, sticky-note-like capture integrated with collaborative sharing—bridging Evernote-style snippets with Google Drive collaboration.
Validating ideas: don’t ask ‘is this good?’—test commitment instead
Emmett warns against pitching features to users and asking whether they like them; people will often say yes but won’t switch. Instead, validate by putting something in front of users quickly—via hacks like extensions—or by using the ‘money test’ where possible.
Twitch case study: feedback from current users can be the wrong priority
Emmett shares condensed excerpts from Twitch/Justin.tv gaming broadcaster interviews. Existing users asked for detailed feature tweaks (ban list management, editing titles, chat personalization), but the team learned these weren’t necessarily the biggest blockers because users tolerated them and stayed anyway.
Comparative interviewing: competitor users reveal the real switching blockers
Interviewing broadcasters on competing platforms surfaced different, more fundamental needs—especially making money, reliability, and global video stability. Twitch prioritized what prevented adoption/switching rather than polishing what current users complained about.
Non-users: the biggest market is people not using anything yet
Emmett argues non-users are often the most important segment because they define how the market can expand. Their blockers were about feasibility and incentives (hardware limits, time constraints, preference for polished uploads, strategic risk of revealing practice), driving Twitch to reduce broadcasting friction and integrate streaming into platforms.
From requests to underlying goals—and keeping the org aligned
Emmett explains Twitch’s synthesis: prioritize the core goals behind feedback (monetization, stability, global reach), even if no one explicitly asked for the solutions built. He closes with common interview mistakes, practical tactics (recording), recruiting methods, international challenges, and how the “right” user set changes as a company grows.
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