Indie devs often think user research is for funded companies. A few light days before building avoids the fatal 'made something nobody wants'. Five methods, zero budget, solo.
Method 1: Treat app-store reviews as a survey
Competitors' bad reviews are the best needs list. Feed competitor product reviews to AI; ask for 'top 3 complaints' and 'wanted-but-missing features' — your opening is there.
Method 2: AI-simulated user interviews
Define a persona; let AI play them and probe pain points. Not real research, but it exposes logic gaps and rehearses your questions before real talks.
Method 3: Mine real language from comments
Use the user's own words for copy. Have AI pull the most frequent phrases from real comments; drop them into the landing page and ads — usually better than invented words.
Method 4: Competitor changelog trends
- Watch what competitors ship week by week
- Ask AI what direction they're betting on
- Then sharpen your own differentiator
Method 5: Tiny real-user validation
All above are indirect. Finally, 5 target users, 15-min calls, confirm the AI-built hypotheses. Five people expose 80% of directional errors.
Research isn't to prove you're right — it's to find out you're wrong, early.