Customer Interviews

Customer interviews are an important tool in continuous discovery, allowing teams to learn directly from users about their goals, challenges, and needs. These conversations help product teams move beyond assumptions by getting real insights from their audience.

The main purpose of customer interviews is to uncover opportunities — things like unmet needs, pain points, or desires —that can guide product improvements. Instead of guessing what will work, teams use these interviews to find out what matters most to users.

In continuous discovery, these interviews are ongoing, helping teams stay aligned with user needs as they evolve.

Customer interviews are often misunderstood and confused with other types of customer engagements, but they serve a very specific purpose.

What customer interviews are not:

• Usability tests or prototype tests: These focus on how users interact with a specific product or solution, evaluating its usability, rather than exploring broader user needs or goals. They are valuable but do not dig into the customer's motivations or pain points like customer interviews do.
• Sales conversations: The intent here is to close a deal or renew business. These conversations are sales-driven, aiming for a transaction, rather than understanding user challenges and needs.
• Support conversations: These interactions are about solving a customer's specific problem or complaint. While they are important for customer satisfaction, they are reactive and focus on resolving immediate issues, not on understanding the broader context of user needs.^[1]

When conducting customer interviews, start by identifying which user personas or segments matter most for your research goals. Many products serve multiple audiences, so interviewing the wrong people wastes time and leads to misguided insights. Focus on the right group based on your product and target audience.

Who to interview in customer interviews:

• Subscription products (e.g. Spotify, Adobe Creative Cloud): Interview both active and inactive customers, as well as those who recently canceled their subscriptions. This helps capture insights from users at various stages of the customer lifecycle.
• B2B products (e.g. Salesforce, Slack): Interview both decision-makers (customers) and end-users. For small teams, it's important to cover both groups, while larger companies might split responsibilities between teams that focus on each.
• B2B2C products (e.g. Shopify, UberEats): Interview a mix of business customers (e.g., restaurant owners or store owners), business users (e.g., staff using the platform), and end-consumers (e.g., shoppers or food delivery customers). As companies grow, teams may specialize in these different user groups.
• Two-sided marketplaces (e.g. Airbnb, eBay): Interview both sides, such as buyers and sellers or hosts and guests, to understand the needs and challenges of each group. Over time, different teams may specialize in one side of the marketplace.
• Early-stage startups: Interview potential prospects who match your ideal customer profile if you don’t have customers yet.

Customer interviews work best when led by someone skilled at facilitating conversations, often a UX researcher or product manager. The interviewer's job is to make participants feel comfortable and guide the discussion naturally.

While the product trio (product manager, designer, and software engineer) should all participate in discovery, bringing too many people into an interview can make customers feel interrogated or stressed.

A good approach is having one person lead the conversation while one or two others quietly observe and take notes. If you don't have a dedicated researcher, team members should develop interviewing skills so anyone can lead when needed. Rotate who conducts interviews so the team builds this habit collectively rather than relying on one person.

When everyone can take turns leading interviews, the team stays connected to customer insights and creates a more dynamic discovery process. Just remember to keep the actual interview room small and focused to maintain a comfortable environment for participants.

Forming a habit of regular customer interviews is key for product teams to stay connected with user needs. Ideally, teams should aim to interview at least one customer every week. If this seems overwhelming, start small—try monthly interviews, then biweekly, and eventually aim for weekly. The consistency is more important than the number of interviews. It's better to talk to one customer every week than to have bursts of multiple interviews followed by no feedback for weeks.

One effective way to build this habit is by incorporating interviews into everyday interactions. For example, when users reach out for support, teams can gently nudge them to participate in a research interview. A simple email asking if they’d be open to a conversation and providing a link to schedule a call can make it easy.

A simple and effective way to recruit participants for customer interviews is by asking them while they're already using your product or service. Since users are already engaged, it's a great moment to get feedback. You can add a prompt in the product flow, like “Would you be willing to spend 20 minutes sharing your experience for a reward?” This quick ask can lead to valuable insights without disrupting their experience too much.

This strategy works best on high-traffic sites where you can quickly get responses. For lower-traffic sites, it may take longer, but you can still ask users to schedule an interview through a link. This approach helps automate the process and ensures you have a steady stream of interviews, without constantly searching for participants.

For new products with fewer users, you can apply this tactic by running ads to direct traffic to a landing page where you can recruit potential interviewees. This way, even before a full launch, you can gather early feedback.^[2]

A great way to boost your customer interviews is by tapping into the team members who regularly engage with customers, such as sales, account managers, and customer support teams. These colleagues have direct access to customers and can help you recruit participants for interviews.

Start by asking a customer-facing colleague if you can join one of their meetings. Make it easy by requesting just 5 minutes at the end of the call to gather insights or ask a few specific questions. This way, neither the customer nor your colleague feels burdened by extra tasks.

Once this becomes routine, you can take it further by asking your customer-facing teammates to schedule interviews for you. To make it even smoother, set clear "triggers" for when to invite customers, such as when they request a feature or call to cancel their subscription.

Interviewing your customer advisory board can be a valuable strategy, especially when your customers are difficult to reach, such as CEOs or doctors, or when your market is small. A customer advisory board typically consists of a select group of loyal customers who are willing to engage more deeply with your product. While companies often use advisory boards for focus groups, you can extend their use by inviting members for one-on-one interviews.

Setting up monthly one-on-one interviews with advisory board members allows for deeper insights into how their needs and context change over time.

One advantage of interviewing the same customers over time is that you can build a detailed understanding of their evolving needs. However, there’s a risk that you may focus too much on a narrow subset of customers. To avoid this, you can pair this method with other recruiting strategies to ensure a wider perspective from the market.

Customers often decline interview requests because they lack time, don't see clear benefits, or feel uncertain about what the interview involves. To increase participation, try these techniques:

• Keep it short: Ask for 15-20 minutes instead of an hour. Shorter commitments feel more manageable.
• Offer clear value: Explain the benefit upfront. For example, "Do you have 20 minutes to share your experience? In return, we can offer tips to optimize your process."
• Provide incentives: Gift cards, account credits, or extended trial periods show you value their time. Even small amounts like $25-50 can significantly boost response rates.
• Share branded items: Some participants appreciate company swag like t-shirts, stickers, or notebooks as a thank-you gift.
• Give early access: Offer participants a sneak peek at new features or beta access to upcoming releases.
• Be transparent: Tell them exactly what you'll discuss and how long it will take. Removing uncertainty makes people more comfortable saying yes.

The questions you ask during customer interviews determine the quality and reliability of the feedback you gather. Humans are influenced by cognitive biases that distort responses when questions aren't framed carefully. When people are asked about general habits or future intentions, they give idealized responses rather than reflecting actual behavior. This leads to inaccurate insights that don't capture real user needs.

To get truthful insights, focus on specific past experiences instead of general patterns or future plans. Here are key techniques:

• Ask about specific instances, not habits: Instead of "How do you usually plan your day?" ask "Tell me about the last time you set your work goals for the day." This prompts users to recall actual events rather than idealized versions.
• Use open-ended questions: Rather than "Do you use a budgeting app?" (which gets a yes/no answer), ask "How do you manage your personal finances?" This invites detailed stories about real behavior.
• Avoid leading questions: Don't ask "Don't you find it frustrating when apps are slow?" Instead ask "Tell me about your experience with the app yesterday." Let them describe frustrations in their own words.
• Request step-by-step walkthroughs: "Walk me through what happened next" or "Can you describe each step you took?" keeps participants grounded in concrete details rather than generalizations.
• Focus on recent events: "Tell me about the last time you ordered food delivery" works better than "How often do you order food delivery?" Recent memories are more accurate and detailed.
• The "5 Whys" Rule: The first answer is rarely the root cause. When a user states a preference or a problem, gently probe deeper ("Can you tell me more about why that matters to you?") to uncover the underlying motivation.

While asking about past experiences is a good strategy, it’s not always easy to keep the conversation on track. Even when participants start recounting specific stories, they can often stray into generalizations. For example, they might begin with a detailed description but then shift to talking about their preferences in broader terms. As the interviewer, it’s your responsibility to gently guide them back to the specific event.

To keep users focused, try these tips:

• Ask about specific moments: “What happened next?” or “Can you walk me through that?”
• Let the participant talk without interruption, but be ready to steer the conversation back on topic if they go off track.
• Use memory aids by referring to the context of the situation to help them recall details.
• Practice active listening to avoid misinterpreting their answers, ensuring you capture the true story.