left arrow icon

Observe your users in their communities

Community observation means reading the threads, chats and forums where your target users talk, without posting, and noting their pains, words and workarounds. A co-author of the method says pain surfaces in almost every community, so the hard part is telling a paid problem from a complaint. The only time figure found is about 30 to 40 hours before patterns appear. Follow it with a test of willingness to pay.

Evidence C, limited evidenceSituational

Stage
Stage 1. No proven demandIs the problem real, and does anyone want this solved?
Category
Customer research
Time
10 to 40 hours over a few weeksAwiser's estimate of the active work
Cash
No cash
Live calls
No live calls
First result
Within weeks
Risk
LowReading costs only time. The risk is a list of complaints mistaken for demand.
Needs
The communities where your users talk: forums, subreddits, Slack, Discord or Telegram groupsA notes file with four headings: pain, words, worldview, recommendationsHours spread over a few weeks

When does it fit?

  • You do not know your users' words yet: Sales Safari notes sort what people write into pain, jargon, worldview and recommendations.[2]
  • Your users talk in groups you can read: the method's authors note that many communities moved to Slack, Discord and Telegram.[1]
  • You want to observe without influencing anyone: research on netnography counts its unobtrusive nature as a first advantage.[4]

When should you skip it?

  • You need to know whether people will pay: Julien T found 71 Reddit threads of real pain and not one mention of wanting to pay for a fix.[6]
  • You can only give it a couple of hours: the only time figure found, from a founder describing the method on Indie Hackers, is about 30 to 40 hours before patterns appear.[3]

How do you run it?

  1. Find where they talk

    Forums, subreddits, Slack, Discord, Telegram and Facebook groups where your target users ask each other for help.

  2. Read, do not post

    Follow each community's rules and observe before you take part.

  3. Take notes under four headings

    Pain, the words they use, how they see their world, and what they recommend to each other.

  4. Copy exact words

    Keep each quote with its link and date, so you can reuse their language later.

  5. Look for spending, not just pain

    Note every mention of a paid tool, a hire, or a workaround that costs time or money.

  6. Test payment next

    Follow up with interviews about spending, a price, or a pre-order.

What usually happens?

  • Pain is easy to find: Alex Hillman, a co-author of Sales Safari, says it is hard to find a community where pain is not being surfaced.[2]
  • Early notes look scattered: a founder trying the method found the complaints all over the place at first.[3]

Who has done it, and what happened?

Each case is one team's own report: what happened to them, not a typical result.

  • Julien T, testing an idea for freelancers who chase late payments2026, Mixed result

    Analysed Reddit threads about the problem with an automated tool the author builds, reading for pain and for any mention of paying for a fix.

    Julien T reports that 71 threads confirmed a real, painful problem, and that not one mentioned wanting to pay for a solution.[6]

    An automated analysis by a tool the author sells rather than manual observation, and willingness to pay was inferred from what people wrote before any price existed.

What does the evidence say against it?

  • Silent watching misses what taking part reveals: a review of netnography practice says passive approaches miss opportunities for co-creation in online communities.[4]
  • The method's outcome claims come from its sellers: Stacking the Bricks estimates more than $100,000,000 in product revenue from Sales Safari research, a figure nobody has checked.[1]

How do you read the result?

What to count
Pains that recur across threads and people, with exact quotes, and every mention of paying for a fix
When to read it
After two to four weeks of reading
How to decide
Move to interviews or a price test on the pains that recur and already cost people money. A long list of complaints with no spending in sight is a reason to rethink the problem, not to build.[6]

What goes wrong?

  • Posting to fish for validation: Reddit asks members to take part authentically in communities where they have a personal interest, and not to spam.[5]
  • Stopping at pain: the method asks you to write down all the pain you see, but in the one recent case pain came with no sign of payment.[2][6]

How was it graded?

Evidence
C. Limited evidenceSilent community observation is a recognised method, but its outcome claims come from the people who sell it, and the only recent documented case found pain with no sign of willingness to pay.
Verdict
SituationalA cheap way to learn your users' words and pains before interviews. Not a test of demand: pair it with interviews or a price.

How the grades and verdicts are decided

Sources

  1. 1
    Updating the Sales Safari System for 2023 (opens in a new tab)Stacking the Bricks, Alex Hillman. December 30, 2022. Method, from a seller of what it measures.
    Some communities moved to chat-based platforms like Slack, Discord, and Telegram.
    While it's hard to know for sure, we estimate that more than $100,000,000 in product revenue can be directly attributed to Sales Safari research, even if you exclude revenue from my and Amy's businesses!
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  2. 2
    EP42 - What is Sales Safari? with Eteinne Garbugli (opens in a new tab)Stacking the Bricks, Alex Hillman. November 5, 2020. Method, from a seller of what it measures.
    That was when we developed the sort of core quadrants of Sales Safari notes, which are pain, jargon, worldview, and recommendations.
    However, I will tell you that it is hard to find environments where pain is not being surfaced.
    Write down all the pain you see.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  3. 3
    How do you conduct a Sales Safari (opens in a new tab)Indie Hackers, Philipp Muens. September 15, 2020. Founder report.
    Doing this for a long time (~30 / 40 hours) should give you enough information to see patterns and figure out what your traget audience is struggling with ATM.
    There are some patterns but mostly the complaints / problems are all over the place.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  4. 4
    Netnography: Range of Practices, Misperceptions, and Missed Opportunities (opens in a new tab)International Journal of Qualitative Methods, Leesa Costello, Marie-Louise McDermott, Ruth Wallace. April 4, 2017. Analysis.
    One of the methodological advantages of netnography first described by Kozinets (2002) was its unobtrusive nature.
    Furthermore, in many cases, passive nonparticipatory approaches to netnography miss opportunities for ongoing cocreation in online communities and social media spaces.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  5. 5
    Reddit Rules (opens in a new tab)Reddit. Undated. Platform rules.
    Participate authentically in communities where you have a personal interest, and do not spam or engage in disruptive behaviors (including content manipulation) that interfere with Reddit communities.
    Read on October 20, 2026.
  6. 6
    I found 71 people complaining about the same problem. Not one would pay to fix it. (opens in a new tab)Indie Hackers, Julien T. February 21, 2026. Founder report, from a seller of what it measures.
    71 Reddit threads confirmed this is a real, painful problem.
    But here's the number that killed it: willingness to pay was zero. Not low. Zero. Out of 71 threads, not a single person mentioned wanting to pay for a solution.
    Read on October 20, 2026.

Sources last checked on October 20, 2026. First published on October 20, 2026.

Awiser is the builder network where founders show their skills, find collaborators, and grow their projects with an AI copilot.