Find the people who need your product now.
Magpie is an AI-powered framework that helps companies find their early adopters, interview them well, and turn them into product influencers and advocates.
- Method
- Early adopter research
- Engine
- AI interviewing
- For
- Start-ups, scale-ups and new product launches
- By
- Ida Dilfer
Why early adopters, and why not focus groups.
Forty years of innovation research points the same way: choose the right few people, talk to them one at a time, and stay close.
Four stages, from signal to advocacy.
Most founders never properly define their early adopters, so they build for whoever is willing to talk. Getting this right can save you a whole funding round.
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STAGE 01
Identify the real early adopters
Separate the people who need the product now from the merely interested.
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STAGE 02
Interview them at scale
An AI interviewer, guided by research best practice, runs the conversations.
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STAGE 03
Find the patterns
Needs, frustrations and moments of delight, synthesised into what matters.
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STAGE 04
Turn them into product influencers and advocates
The people who shaped the product become the ones who promote it.
People don't always say what they mean.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Like an AI tool, people can give a confident answer that isn't quite true. They guess at what they'd do, tell you what you want to hear, or ask for a solution when what they have is a need.
Early adopters are different. They're the enthusiasts and tinkerers, often people who think differently, who live with the problem and can talk about it in depth. Their insight is gold, but it doesn't always arrive as a neat sentence.
That's why Magpie pairs the method with a trained AI agent that stays with them.
- PROFILESBuilds a picture of each early adopter: what they need, and how they tend to express it.
- STAYS ONStays with them for as long as your product and team need it, checking in at every iteration instead of surveying once.
- DIGS DEEPERAsks the next question, past “faster horses” to the need underneath. Always disclosed as AI.
Research you can act on, not a deck that sits in a drive.
Early adopter research
Screening that finds the people with the problem today, not the polite enthusiasts.
You get: a scored shortlist
AI interviewing
Structured conversations run by an AI interviewer, always disclosed as AI to participants, so you hear from many people without losing depth.
You get: tagged transcripts
Synthesis
The patterns behind the quotes, turned into clear priorities for product, positioning and launch.
You get: a priority report
Influence and advocacy
An opt-in path for participants to be quoted, named or invited back as first customers. Nobody is used without consent.
You get: an influencer and advocate plan
- Duration
- 4 weeks
- Interviews
- 20 to 30
- From
- £4,500
- Then
- Magpie AI stays on, £750 a month
Built for start-ups and scale-ups getting ready to launch.
- You have a product, or a strong idea, and need proof that someone needs it now.
- You've talked to users, but the feedback is polite, vague or contradictory.
- You want your first customers to become the ones who spread the word.
Ida Dilfer
In 2011 I took second place in the MIT Enterprise Forum business plan competition and started my first company. A bootstrapping course at MIT taught me the lesson that became Magpie: early adopters decide whether a product lives, yet most founders never define them or know where to find them.
Since then I've spent over ten years as a product designer across AI, healthcare, fintech and SaaS, specialising in onboarding, retention and product education. Magpie brings it together: the right people, the right questions, and the follow-through that turns early users into product influencers and advocates.
Your first hundred customers are already out there.
Book a 30 minute call to see how Magpie fits your launch.
Book an intro call