The second 2026 Winter Founder Fundamentals session was led by Judy Wong, who guided founders through one of the most overlooked drivers of growth: customer discovery. Rather than treating research as a one-time task, Judy positioned discovery as an ongoing practice that helps founders reduce uncertainty, sharpen their positioning, and build offerings grounded in real demand. The session emphasized that strong discovery is less about “getting answers” and more about building the discipline to listen well, test assumptions properly, and turn insights into clear next steps.
Customer Discovery Starts With Curiosity, Not Confirmation
Judy opened with a mindset shift: discovery is not a pitch. It is a listening process. Founders were encouraged to stay curious, remain open, and avoid the common trap of only looking for information that confirms what they already believe.
Testing a hypothesis, Judy explained, is different from validating your own bias. Real discovery intentionally surfaces what you didn’t expect, because those insights are often what prevent costly mistakes later.
Another key reminder: discovery is iterative. You do it more than once, refining your understanding as your idea evolves.
How Much Research Is “Enough”?
A major question in the session was volume: How many interviews or surveys do I need?
Judy offered a practical benchmark: aim for 100 responses (either 100 surveys or 100 interviews), especially if the market is broad, mainstream, or competitive. That number is large enough to reveal patterns and reduce guesswork.
At the same time, she made it clear there is no magical number. If your space is niche, or if responses become highly consistent, you may reach clarity much earlier (10, 20, 30). The point is not to hit a target. The point is to reach repetition in the signal.
A Simple Four-Step Framework for Discovery
To keep founders from collecting random information without direction, Judy shared a straightforward framework:
1. Identify Your Information Gaps
Start by clearly naming what you don’t know yet. Many founders already have insights, but they’re scattered and unstructured. Defining your gaps helps focus discovery on what actually matters; your customer, their real problem, and what drives decisions.
2. Find Where the Information Lives
Once the gaps are clear, figure out where answers already exist. Early adopters often gather in online communities, forums, events, and competitor spaces. The key is to go where the problem is already being discussed and solved.
3. Choose the Right Method: Interviews vs. Surveys
Interviews are best when you’re exploring unknowns, emotions, and workflows. Surveys work better once you have clarity and need to validate patterns at scale. As a rule of thumb: explore with interviews, confirm with surveys.
4. “So What?” Turn Insights Into Decisions
Discovery only matters if it informs action. Insights should directly shape personas, customer journeys, product decisions, and messaging. Research isn’t the goal—better decisions are.
The Most Important Boundary: Discovery Is Not Early Adopter Acquisition
One of the strongest takeaways was Judy’s distinction between customer discovery and recruiting early adopters.
Customer discovery is about identifying:
- who the adopter could be
- what problem they have today
- what they currently do to solve it
- what’s missing and why it matters
It is not about convincing them, offering incentives, or pitching your solution.
Judy cautioned that incentives too early can distort results and reduce integrity. If you plan to offer something free (like during a pilot), that belongs later, once you have clearer evidence of who the real user is and what they truly want.
Avoiding the “Would You Buy This?” Trap
Judy emphasized a key research principle: avoid future-focused questions.
People are unreliable when predicting what they will do later—especially if the product doesn’t exist yet, pricing is unclear, or the solution may change. Instead, discovery should stay rooted in current behavior and past experience, because that data is far more truthful.
Interview Questions That Keep You Out of “Sales Mode”
To help founders avoid pitching during discovery, Judy shared a short set of interview questions focused on understanding real experiences. The goal is to surface context and pain without steering the conversation toward a solution too early.
Begin by asking why the person agreed to speak with you. This often signals whether the issue is top of mind or simply theoretical. From there, explore how they currently experience the problem, what makes it difficult, and what they are doing today to deal with it. Close by asking what is not working well about their current approach.
Judy stressed the importance of following up with “why” until you move beyond surface complaints and understand the underlying constraint.
She also showed how these insights feed directly into strategy, from building clearer personas and mapping customer journeys to prioritizing segments and refining messaging using the customer’s own language.
The central point was straightforward. Founders do not need perfect data. They need honest input that leads to better decisions.
About Founder Fundamentals
Founder Fundamentals is a 12-week workshop series hosted by YSpace and Black Enterprenurship Alliance and powered by City of Markham designed to equip you with essential entrepreneurial skills. Attend 9+ workshops to earn a Certificate of Completion and take the first step toward entrepreneurial success!
About the Speakers
With over 25 years of experience in the CPG sector, Judy Wong has led multi-million-dollar brands across North America, driving business strategy, brand management, and analytics. She excels at building high-performance teams, coaching emerging leaders, and guiding businesses through collaborative, entrepreneurial approaches that deliver measurable results.