Yes! That's part of why "get out of the building" is such a popular Lean Startup mantra. More generally, I tell novices to cycle between qualitative and quantitative learning.
For example, I recently had an idea, so I did a bunch of interviews with potential users. That gave me enough information to form a quantitative hypothesis: if I offer users app X, then Y% will use it regularly over a two week period.
Whether that fails or succeeds, my next step will be to talk with users. If it succeeds, the interviews will tell me where to take the product next. If it fails, interviews will help me distinguish between a fatal failure (e.g., nobody will ever use this) or a fixable one (e.g., minor UI issues make friction too high for frequent repeat usage).
For example, I recently had an idea, so I did a bunch of interviews with potential users. That gave me enough information to form a quantitative hypothesis: if I offer users app X, then Y% will use it regularly over a two week period.
Whether that fails or succeeds, my next step will be to talk with users. If it succeeds, the interviews will tell me where to take the product next. If it fails, interviews will help me distinguish between a fatal failure (e.g., nobody will ever use this) or a fixable one (e.g., minor UI issues make friction too high for frequent repeat usage).