How do you approach outbound discovery without feeling intrusive?
Reaching out to people who don’t know you — especially outside your network often feels intrusive. There’s always a concern: - Am I just pushing my own agenda? - Am I wasting their time? - Is this disguised selling?
At the same time, I’ve noticed something important.
When conversations actually happen, they’re often incredibly valuable. Strangers tend to give more honest, less filtered feedback than people close to you. They challenge assumptions, expose blind spots, and force clarity.
In many cases, those calls improved the product direction more than internal debates did.
How do you think about outbound discovery ethically? Do you have principles or signals that tell you you’re doing it right?
Interested in practical approaches, not growth-hack tactics.