The problem with customer interviews is that people are trying to help you. They fill silences, they agree with premises, and they answer hypothetical questions with hypothetical honesty. The interview feels productive and the evidence is worthless. The fix is not asking more questions. It is asking about the past instead of the future.
Why most customer discovery produces nothing usable
Three habits ruin it, and all three feel like good interviewing at the time.
- Asking about the future. “Would you use this?” measures politeness, not demand. Nobody knows what they will do next quarter.
- Leading with your idea. Once you describe the solution, the conversation becomes feedback on your solution rather than evidence about their problem.
- Accepting the first answer. The first answer is the rehearsed one. The useful answer is usually two follow-ups deeper.
What to ask instead
Ask what happened, not what would happen
“Tell me about the last time this came up” produces a story with dates, people and consequences. “Would you find this useful” produces a yes.
Ask what it cost them
Time, money, a missed deadline, an internal argument. If the problem never cost anything specific, it is an irritation, not a budget line. Irritations do not get funded.
Ask what they tried
Every real problem has a graveyard of attempted fixes: a tool they bought, a contractor they hired, a spreadsheet someone still maintains. That graveyard is your actual competition.
Ask who else was involved
This surfaces the buying committee before you meet it. The person feeling the pain is often not the person approving the spend.
Ask for the words, then use them
Write down the phrasing they use, verbatim. That language belongs in your positioning and messaging. Founders who invent their own vocabulary end up marketing to themselves.
How to run the conversation
- Do not pitch until the end, if at all. The moment you describe your solution, you stop collecting evidence and start collecting reactions.
- Let silences sit. The three seconds after someone finishes is where the honest sentence arrives.
- Follow every vague word. “Difficult”, “messy”, “a nightmare” — ask what specifically happened that made it feel that way.
- Take verbatim notes, not summaries. Your paraphrase is already your interpretation. The exact words are the asset.
- Twelve to fifteen conversations. Patterns start repeating around eight; by fifteen you are mostly confirming.
How to know the interview was any good
A useful interview leaves you with at least one of these:
- A story with specifics — dates, amounts, names of tools
- Evidence someone already spent money trying to solve it
- A phrase you had not thought of, in their words
- A surprise — something that contradicts what you assumed
If none of those appeared, you had a pleasant conversation. That is not the same as research.
Where the interviews go next
Discovery is not a standalone exercise. The output feeds directly into positioning: the language becomes messaging, the workarounds become competitive framing, the triggers become the launch narrative.
This is why research sits first in the Authority Engine™ and not in parallel with content. Content built on assumed language is expensive to unwind, because by then it is on the website, in the deck, and in every post the founder has published.
How Many Customer Discovery Interviews Do You Need?
Around twelve to fifteen per segment, as above. If you are talking to two different kinds of buyer, run the interviews separately, because mixing segments hides the patterns you are looking for. Stop when new conversations no longer surprise you.
Who Should You Interview?
People who match the buyer you plan to sell to and who have had the problem recently. Avoid friends, investors and anyone whose main goal is to be supportive. If you can, include people who chose a competitor or decided to do nothing. They show you what you are actually up against.
How Do You Turn Interviews Into Positioning?
Put the verbatim notes side by side and look for repetition: the same trigger, the same cost, the same workaround, the same phrase. Those repeated elements become the core of your position and your messaging. Then test your messaging before launch with a fresh group of people, using their own words back to them.
Where Do You Find People to Interview?
Start with the places your buyers already gather: industry groups, communities, events and your own extended network, asking for introductions to people who fit rather than people who like you. Be clear that you are researching a problem, not selling anything, and keep the request short. Twenty minutes is easier to say yes to than an hour, and a specific reason for choosing them makes a reply far more likely.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a customer discovery interview?
A structured conversation with a potential buyer about how they experience a problem today: what happened, what it cost and what they tried. It is research, not a sales call.
What questions should you avoid in customer discovery?
Hypothetical ones, such as “Would you use this?” or “How much would you pay?”. They measure politeness. Ask about recent, specific events instead.
Should you show your product in a discovery interview?
Not until the end, if at all. Once you show the solution, you stop collecting evidence about the problem and start collecting reactions to your idea.
Related: what product validation actually proves, and what founder positioning is.
Written by Neha Vyas, founder of You Creatives, a Stockholm-based brand strategy, positioning and go-to-market consultancy. Ten years in strategic consumer and market research, a BSc in Computer Science Engineering and an MBA in Marketing.