16 - Emmett Shear - How to Run a User Interview

16 - Emmett Shear - How to Run a User Interview

Author: Y Combinator and Stanford University: Sam Altman, Dustin Moskovitz, Paul Graham, Adora Cheung, Peter Thiel, Alex Schultz, Kevin Hale, Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway, Ben Silbermann, Alfred Lin, Patrick and John Collison, Aaron Levie, Reid Hoffman & more January 6, 2016 Duration: 46:27

Building product, and talking to users. In the early stages of your startup, those are the two things you should focus on.

In this lecture, Emmett Shear, Founder and CEO of Justin.tv and Twitch, covers the latter. What can you learn by talking to users that you can’t learn by looking at data? What questions should you ask? How can user interviews define or redefine your product goals?

From YC Startup Class - How to Start a Startup - Stanford CS183B

Lecture Transcript: tech.genius.com/Emmett-shear-lecture-16-how-to-run-a-user-interview-annotated

See the slides and readings at startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec16/

Discuss this lecture: startupclass.co/courses/how-to-start-a-startup/lectures/64045

Click to view: show page on Awesound


What if you could sit in on the most practical business seminar ever assembled? That’s the experience offered by How to Start a Startup, a podcast that brings a legendary Stanford University lecture series directly to you. Originally organized by Sam Altman and Y Combinator, this isn't theoretical fluff-it's a direct transmission of hard-won knowledge from people who have actually built companies. Each episode features a different luminary breaking down a fundamental piece of the startup puzzle. You’ll hear Paul Graham on the core of what makes a company, Peter Thiel on competition and monopolies, and Adora Cheung on the gritty reality of executing an idea. The roster extends to voices like Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, and the Collison brothers, offering perspectives on fundraising, product design, hiring, and culture. This podcast functions as a complete, sequential course. The conversations are dense with actionable advice, from formulating your initial idea and talking to users, to scaling a team and navigating the complexities of company leadership. It’s a masterclass in turning an ambition into a functioning organization, with every lecture grounded in real-world success and failure. For anyone with an entrepreneurial itch, this series provides the foundational toolkit, straight from the investors and founders who shaped Silicon Valley.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 20

How to Start a Startup
Podcast Episodes
08 - How to Get Started, Doing Things that Don't Scale, Press [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:13
Lecture 8 features 3 speakers:Stanley Tang, Founder of Doordash, covers How to Get Started.Walker Williams, Founder of Teespring, covers Doing things that Don't Scale.Justin Kan, Founder of TwitchTV and Partner at Y Comb…
07 - Kevin Hale - How to Build Products Users Love [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:02
Kevin Hale, Founder of Wufoo and Partner at Y Combinator, explains how to build products that create a passionate user base invested in your startup's success.This is lecture 7 from startupclass.coLinks:Transcript of thi…
06 - Alex Schultz - Growth [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:27
Alex Schultz gives an overview of Growth for startups, speaking from a position of authority as the VP of Growth at Facebook.Lecture Transcript: tech.genius.com/Alex-schultz-lecture-6-growth-annotatedView the readings Al…
05 - Peter Thiel - Competition is for Losers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:16
Business Strategy and Monopoly TheoryPeter Thiel, founder of Paypal and Palantir, discusses business strategy and monopoly theory in "Competition is For Losers".Lecture Transcript: tech.genius.com/Peter-thiel-lecture-5-b…
04 - Adora Cheung - Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:22
So you have an idea. How do you go from zero users to many users?Adora Cheung, Founder of Homejoy, covers Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing, in Lecture 4 of How to Start a Startup.Lecture Transcript: tech.g…
03 - Paul Graham - Before the Startup [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:07
Counterintuitive Parts of Startups, and How to Have IdeasPaul Graham delivers an informative (and highly amusing) talk, addressing counterintuitive parts of startups, in Lecture 3 of How to Start a Startup.Lecture Transc…
02 - Sam Altman - Team and Execution [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:19
Sam Altman finishes up "Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution" by covering Team and Execution, in Lecture 2 of How to Start a Startup.Links:Blog post: Stupid Apps and Changing the World by Sam AltmanBlog post: Do things t…