The 20 Interview Rule: Essential Customer Discovery Before Building Your SaaS Product

Jason Lemkin argues that SaaS founders should conduct 20 interviews with real, potential customers before writing code to understand their target market and avoid building products that miss the mark. The article contrasts two $1M ARR startups, showing how early customer knowledge creates better positioning for scaling to $5M-$10M ARR. Lemkin breaks down the 20-interview framework into three phases: understanding the white space (interviews 1-5), confirming patterns (6-10), and refining pitch and strategy (11-20).