Product interview

Product Interview

Collect specific evidence about a customer's recent behavior, constraints, alternatives, and commitments without pitching for approval.

Prepare

Define:

• Decision the interviews must inform
• Target participant and qualifying behavior
• Top three unknowns
• Evidence that would support, weaken, or invalidate each belief
• Note-taking and consent plan

Interview workflow

1. Open with the participant's situation and most recent relevant episode.
2. Reconstruct the sequence: trigger, action, tools, people, time, money, workarounds, and outcome.
3. Ask for specific past examples before opinions or future intentions.
4. Explore the cost and frequency of the problem and what happens when it remains unsolved.
5. Ask how existing alternatives were selected, paid for, adopted, or abandoned.
6. Surface decision participants, constraints, and switching friction.
7. Avoid presenting the proposed solution until learning goals are complete.
8. End with an evidence-producing next step when appropriate: introduction, artifact, trial, time commitment, or payment conversation.

Evidence coding

Classify each note as:

• Observed past behavior
• Current workflow or artifact
• Existing workaround or alternative
• Money, time, reputation, or access commitment
• Reported pain or preference
• Hypothetical intention
• Compliment
• Feature suggestion

Use the first four as stronger evidence. Preserve the rest as context, not validation.

Output contract

Return the interview objective, screener, guide, prohibited leading questions, note schema, evidence summary, contradictions, confidence, and next decision.

Quality gate

• Every key belief maps to a question or observable artifact.
• Questions are about the participant's life rather than the team's idea.
• The guide contains follow-ups for recency, frequency, severity, and workaround cost.
• Synthesis distinguishes participant count from evidence strength.
• The plan includes how negative or disconfirming evidence will be handled.

Avoid

• “Would you use...?” and “Do you like...?” as evidence
• Explaining the idea until the participant agrees
• Counting compliments as demand
• Pooling unlike customer segments
• Reporting themes without traceable notes

Source grounding

Operational synthesis informed by The Mom Test and the interview and story-mapping practices in Continuous Discovery Habits.