Entrepreneurs and startup founders want to learn from customers about their needs and abilities to come up with sustainable businesses. Let's get more detailed here. Many people talk about methodologies such as user research, usability testing, etc. I'm interested in figuring out what are the most important **questions** entrepreneurs want to answer with UX research.

What is one question you as an entrepreneur or startup founder want to answer based on research with existing or potential users of your product?

[If you think of others who are perfectly suited to join this discussion, feel free to add them]

"Is this valuable enough that people will keep on using it, and tell others about it?"
Really hard to glean the truth in qualitative discussions, but necessary to try in order to understand the motivations behind the truth you see in the quantitative results.

Another critical area, albeit extremely context-specific, is validating your business model, which in some cases means "can you (pre)sell it?"

I wouldn't be going to basic "will you recommend this to a friend" but I think it's a strong indication of satisfaction. Even by inviting a friend to the service. Also, did this solve an every day problem? If so, which one.

Giff - by 'can you sell it', do you mean 'are people willing to pay for this?'
Alon - is this aimed at finding out if the problem that founders think they solve is identical to the one users think it solves (if at all), or is it to identify a problem to be solved?

For all of your questions, do you aim at finding answers before, during, or after a product or an MVP is developed?

@tsharon yes, if the business model implies a sale (license, subscription) then I try to do so as early as possible. However, I partition UX conversations talking about challenges and behavior from an attempt to sell.

Per your second question, I think of MVP as a process rather than a point release, and so yeah, I'm trying to test for product market fit, customer acquisition ideas, and business model, from a very early state and as continually as possible (although there are always ebbs and flows in terms of learning vs building).

So if I understand you correctly, Giff, the following are questions you need answers to:
- Is it valuable?
- Will people try it? Will they use it?
- Will people pay for it?
- Will people recommend it to others?
- What are the best ways to acquire customers?
I'm a little confused about product/market fit. Isn't this 'happening' after all the stars already aligned in a certain way? How do you test for it? How can customer behavior help (except for buying the product)?

@tsharon yes, I'm looking for signs that I'm on the path to that hazy concept called PM-fit, which, frankly, a huge percentage of new products / startups never get to.

With regard to customer behavior, I'm trying to see if they felt the problem before, and have felt enough pain that they have actually tried to solve it in some way.

Excellent. Thanks Giff!