Attending in-person meetups or conferences where your customers will be in attendance can be a great way to solicit feedback and get to clarity.

And you don’t have to have a booth in order to get feedback from customers. You just have to be willing to put yourself out there and say hi to people. I know that, especially post COVID, that might sound difficult. But it works. And here’s how I would approach it:

First go to the hallway. This is going to sound counterintuitive because you paid to come to a conference to listen to people, but the hallway is actually the place that you will learn the most.

Next, just introduce yourself to somebody who you have not chatted with. It could be as simple as, “Hi, I’m Dave”.

If they respond and they’re nice and they seem receptive to chatting, just start having a conversation. If they seem like they’re in a hurry or don’t want to chat or just aren’t open to it. That’s okay. You can just end it there.

And if they seem nice, you might. Just ask, “Hey, do you have three minutes that I could show you something really quick and, get your feedback on?”

In my experience, this works most of the time. Most people are going to be willing to give you three minutes of their time.

Just have whatever it is that you want to show them ready to go. It could be on your laptop or it could be sketches, or whatever. Pull it out and, just have them walk through it.

It’s best if you can give them the control so that they can click through themselves. It’s also important to keep to your word. If you said three minutes, keep it to three minutes. And then once they’re all done and they’re on their way, then just record your observations, and then rinse and repeat.