Out of the building, into the fire: An analysis of cognitive biases during entrepreneurial interviews

• Main Authors: Tianxu Chen, Mark Simon, John Kim, Brian Poploskie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Publishing 2015-03-01
• Series: New England Journal of Entrepreneurship
• Subjects: biases; interview; entrepreneur; productmarket fit; opportunity identification
• Online Access: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/NEJE-18-01-2015-B004/full/pdf?title=out-of-the-building-into-the-fire-an-analysis-of-cognitive-biases-during-entrepreneurial-interviews

A major source of failure for new ventures is the entrepreneurs’ misunderstanding of the product-market fit. Recently, researchers have suggested that to get a better understanding of the product-market fit, entrepreneurs should “get out of the building” and interview many customers. This approach, while advantageous, is not without drawbacks. This article presents a conceptual model that incorporates the characteristics of “getting out of the building” to conduct customer interviews, and the biases that can arise to influence the entrepreneurs’ misjudgment of the product-market fit. We provide recommendations to overcome these biases.