Launching Sightspool

Users always surprise me. No matter how deeply I understand a problem space, they find a way of looking at it that I hadn't considered. That's what makes talking to users so valuable.

But I'll admit, it's not easy to talk to users today. Alongside the logistical difficulties, there's a hesitancy in us all: not being sure what to say, what to ask or how to ask it. And the opportunity to talk to users is fleeting..., you don't this chance one too many times. That's why I created Sightspool. It's my attempt to make it easy for anyone to talk to their users. And not just talking, but talking with a clear ask and who to ask it to.

The clear ask

When you are a solopreneur or a new founder, it's not easy to pin down your most pressing need or unknown. Of course, you'd like explosive growth and revenue. But those big things are usually dependent on smaller things, as mundane as making your product more usable. In addition, identifying where your customer journeys are breaking, where the friction lies and how it's changing with each release is in itself a big ask. That's what Sightspool does for you: it connects to your data sources, including Posthog, Amplitude, Stripe and Github, and monitors your product and user behaviour on a daily/ weekly basis.

That's the idea behind mixed-methods research: bringing qualitative insights from conversations together with quantitative evidence to investigate the same question. Our question stack is designed to be contributed to by everyone on the team, including the Sightspool agent. We'd show you what might be your most pressing questions, or you can add your own.

Either way, we'd help you define and refine what's the top unknown you'd like your users to answer.

How to ask

There's a right way to ask questions, and many wrong ways. “Why don't you sign up for my max plan, my friend?” is not a useful research question. But even an open-ended question can be too vague. “Tell me about your experience” can leave someone unsure where to start. A useful conversation needs a little more direction.

Rob Fitzpatrick’s The Mom Test is a useful guide here: ask about specific things people have done, rather than inviting approval of your idea. Sightspool would suggest cues and questions that actually brings out the best from your users.

Who to ask

Then there's deciding who can answer it. Users who left paid plans? Users who haven't finished onboarding? Different people can help you understand different parts of the problem. Sightspool is designed to help you choose the users whose experiences are relevant to your question, so you know both who to talk to and what you want to learn.

Talk to your users, or delegate to Sightspool

Now that you know what to ask and what the cohort is, you need to make time for the conversations. That's the idea behind 'user hours'. In line with the concept of HN office hours, these are hours you set aside for talking to users. User hours are designed to connect you with users who are available during those hours, with interview prep notes to help you get started.

Of course, setting aside time doesn't mean you'll always be available. Sightspool will call your mobile phone when a user is ready to talk. If you don't answer, the Sightspool agent would take that interview on your behalf, provided you've enabled that option.

Sightspool is built to keep those conversations going when you can't. But I hope it also helps you spend more time interviewing yourself. There's something special about hearing a user's answer firsthand and being able to ask the next question yourself.

The spool of insights

Over time, those conversations build a spool of insights (hence the name) you can act on. Update your prices, change onboarding steps, build trust first, do the things that don't scale (and what those things are), these nuggets will be available to you, not as vague maxims but clear, actionable insights that actually improve your KPIs.

Sightspool draws on what I've learned over 15 years working in enterprise product, research and UX. My hope is that it makes this kind of learning easier to build into everyday product work.

So, jump in. The first interview is free anyway. Or sign up at Sightspool and let me interview you.