Customer Discovery Interviews

The best way to begin your product discovery journey is to talk to prospective customers. In product discovery we use a very specific technique called customer discovery interviews to get the most out of these encounters. What makes this approach unique is that it avoids directly asking the customer what they think of our solution. Instead we ask open ended questions to uncover opportunities and understand behaviors, beliefs, and motivations.

Even if you already think you know your customer, these types of interviews can be eye opening. You may even discover you are targeting the wrong customer.  Interviews also bring your customers to life in a way that research reports can never match.

How to Interview

Even though customer discovery interviews follow an open ended approach, this doesn’t mean they aren’t structured. You will create a script beforehand to make sure you don’t forget any important questions.  For a B2B product, these might include:

●      Tell me about your role at the company?

●      What’s a typical day like?

●      What is the hardest problem you currently face?

●      What solutions have you tried to solve that problem?

●      What do you like and dislike about those solutions?

Whom to Interview

As discussed, an underlying philosophy of customer discovery interviews is to avoid making assumptions about your target customer. Therefore, you should start by forming a hypothesis about the profile of your target customer. Then, conduct a few interviews with that customer profile to test your hypothesis. If it turns out you were wrong, form a new hypothesis and start the process over. Eventually, you will discover the correct profile or realize that you have reached a dead end, at which point, it may be time to start working on a new idea.  Another challenge you may face is recruiting interview subjects. This can be time consuming and requires creative thinking. Here are some of the most common recruiting approaches:

• Networking – Ask friends and colleagues for introductions. Use Linkedin and other social media sites to recruit candidates.

• Introductions from interviewee – Each person you interview provides an opportunity for further introductions. For example, if you are interviewing B2B subjects, your script should include questions like “Is there anyone else in your department you think I should speak to about this problem.” 

• Meetups – Attend a meet-up focused on your target industry or start one yourself.

A Few Final Points

• Practice makes perfect  – The customer discovery interview approach is unnatural for most people. We are used to asking for feedback, not asking open ended questions, and listening carefully for nuggets of insight.  Therefore, your first few interviews may not be very productive. Instead of wasting the opportunity, do some practice interviews with friends or colleagues first. You can also hire an experienced researcher to conduct the interviews for you.

• The goal is learning, not selling  –  Whatever you do, resist the temptation to ask for specific feedback about your idea. This is likely to bias your data because most interviewees will try to please you. If you feel the need to ask for direct feedback, wait until the end of the interview until after you have received sufficient unbiased information from the interviewee.

• Invite your team – As discussed, discovery is a collaborative process. If at all possible bring along your designer and engineer. This will enable them to more effectively extract insights  from the interviewee’s responses by observing body language and facial expressions. It will also give everyone on the team a shared reference point during later discussions about product features.  That said, make sure your interviewee is comfortable with multiple observers. You also minimize discomfort by conducting the interview so that you are the only one speaking with your teammates remaining silent observers. 

Next Up – The Customer Journey

Next in the series we dive into Customer Journey Maps – a highly effective way to surface your customers' pain points.