customer_interviews v1.0.0

name: customer_interviews description: Run customer discovery interviews for product decisions: recruit the right people, ask neutral questions about real problems, take usable notes during the call, and turn answers into clear themes. Use when choosing what problem to solve, testing a product direction, or planning discovery interviews.

Customer Interviews

Purpose

This skill runs customer discovery interviews that feed product decisions. It covers who to recruit, what to ask, how to take notes during the call, and how to turn answers into themes. The goal is to find problems worth solving, not to validate a solution you already like.

Not this skill: interview-technique covers conducting recorded interviews for video or podcast, with guest research, story-driven questions, active listening, and ethical editing into narrative. Use that skill when the output is a story or episode. Use this skill when the output is a product decision.

Workflow

1. Define the decision first. Write one sentence: what product choice will these interviews inform? If you cannot name the decision, do not start recruiting.
2. Recruit for behavior, not demographics. Target people who recently did the job your product touches. Screen with a short written screener about recent actions. Avoid friends, coworkers, and anyone who will praise you to be polite.
3. Keep the sample useful. Cover different roles, contexts, and levels of experience with the problem. Continue until new interviews stop surfacing new problems.
4. Design neutral questions. Ask about past behavior, concrete situations, and workarounds. Avoid leading questions, hypotheticals, and solution pitches. Do not ask "Would you use this?" Ask what they did last time, what broke, what they tried next, and what it cost them.
5. Run a short structured call. Open with the purpose and get permission to take notes. Follow the participant's story, but return to the core questions. Keep your opinions out of the room.
6. Take live notes in two columns: what they said or did, and what you infer from it. Capture short direct quotes for pain points. Mark timestamps for moments worth revisiting. Do not try to transcribe everything.
7. Synthesize after the interviews. Group notes by problem, not by person. For each theme, keep the supporting quotes and count how many interviews showed it. Separate repeated patterns from one-off comments. End with the problems that look strongest and the next test you will run.

Output Contract

Provide:

• The product decision the interviews were meant to inform.
• The recruiting criteria and a short note on who was actually interviewed.
• The interview guide, with questions written in neutral form.
• Raw notes organized by interview, with observations separated from inferences.
• Themes grouped by problem, each with supporting quotes and interview counts.
• A short list of the strongest problems and the next test or decision.

Operating Rules

1. The interview serves the product decision. If an answer does not help that decision, note it and move on.
2. Recruit people with recent relevant behavior. Polite supporters do not count as evidence.
3. Ask about the past and the concrete. Do not ask people to predict the future.
4. Never lead the witness. Do not suggest the answer, praise the idea, or correct the participant.
5. Record observations separately from interpretations. Quotes are evidence. Your read is not.
6. One strong quote is not a theme. A theme needs repeated evidence across interviews.
7. End with a decision or a test. Interviews that only produce notes are unfinished.