The document provides guidance on conducting customer interviews to better understand customer needs and problems. It emphasizes that preparation is key, including having a group of interview subjects, a list of questions, and a plan to document the interviews. The interviews should focus on understanding customers' real problems, emotions, and solutions they have tried. After conducting multiple interviews, the trends found in the data should be analyzed and used to update the product strategy as needed. Continuous validation with customers is also important.

1. @ m a e g h a n s m u l d e r s
C u s t o m e r I n t e r v i e w s
c u s t o m e r a n d m a r k e t d e v e l o p m e n t

2. Hi again. 😊
@maeghansmulders

3. @maeghansmulders
YAY!

4. @maeghansmulders
Customer
Interviews

5. @maeghansmulders
Talking to potential customers helps you to better understand
their wants, needs, and consequently - create a better product.

6. @maeghansmulders
are important at every stage of your business.

7. @maeghansmulders
Customer interviews can provide insight
for almost half of your business model!

8. Say
whhhattttt!?

9. @maeghansmulders
Marketing &
Sales Strategy
Pricing &
personas
Product
strategy &
messaging
Pitch

10. @maeghansmulders
Connect

11. @maeghansmulders
What kind of data do you get from interviews?

12. @maeghansmulders
Quantitative
Data

13. @maeghansmulders
Qualitative
Data

14. Surveys.
Product Data.
In-person interviews.
@maeghansmulders

15. Surveys.
Product Data.
In-person interviews.
@maeghansmulders

16. To get started, you need..
@maeghansmulders

17. Group of
people
@maeghansmulders

18. @maeghansmulders
Start with your
customer personas.

19. Friends & family who fit
your persona
Guerrilla interviews - take
to the streets!
G R O U P O F P E O P L E
@maeghansmulders

20. Friends & family who fit
your persona
Guerrilla interviews - take
to the streets!
G R O U P O F P E O P L E
@maeghansmulders
5-10
Interviews

21. @maeghansmulders
Group of
people
List of
questions

22. Preparation is key,
write a script for all
your questions.
Your goal is to listen
and learn.
Q U E S T I O N S & P R E PA R AT I O N
@maeghansmulders

23. @maeghansmulders
1.) Get to know the person you are interviewing
2.) Learn about their problems
3.) What solutions they’ve tried
4.) Ask about their emotions and motives
5.) Introduction to your solution
Genre of questions

24. @maeghansmulders
Use words/phrases like
“show me”, “tell me more”, “what’s a real world example of
that”, “why”, “who”, “how come”, “tell me that story”, “how
do you do that right now”, “sketch that” “how do you” etc.
•

25. Biased questions.
Try not to tell them it’s
“your new product
idea”.
T H I N G S T O AV O I D …
@maeghansmulders

26. @maeghansmulders
“My company X is working on an app for people who love
watching TV on their phone or tablet but hate having
multiple services like Netflix, Disney+ and Cable TV.”

27. @maeghansmulders
“This is a service for people who love watching TV on their
phone or tablet but are annoyed by the way current
services work today.”

28. Avoid asking “what do
you want" or close
ended questions.
Standardize some
answers
T H I N G S T O AV O I D …
@maeghansmulders

29. @maeghansmulders
🔴 How many times do you use X app?
Rarely / Not often / Sometimes / All the time
🔴 Do you use X app?
Yes / No
🟢 How many times do you use X app?
Every day / A few times a week / Once a week / Once a month / Not at all.

30. @maeghansmulders
🔴 Are you satisfied?
🟢 How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with this process and why?
🔴 Did it act as you expected?
🟢 What would (did) you expect to happen?
🔴 Does that work for you -or- What do you think about that? -or- Have you done this before?
🟢 What kinds of questions or difficulties did you have when doing this in the past?
🔴 Do you like this? Do you use X?
🟢 What would you change about X?
🔴 Would you pay $150 a month for this product?
🟢 Tell me about how much you would pay for a similar product?

31. Try not to influence
the interviewee’s
answers.
T H I N G S T O AV O I D …
@maeghansmulders

32. @maeghansmulders
👩🏫 - Do you use a movie subscription service?
🧑🦰 - Yes, Netflix… It has tons of films and series.
👩🏫 - Why do you like watching films and series on Netflix, have you tried any other
movie services?
🧑🦰 - They’re HD and I pay only $10 a month. I don’t know of any other services.
👩🏫 - Why do you think $10 is a reasonable price? *awkward silence*……………….
🧑🦰 - Because I can’t afford renting movies every day but I can afford $10 a month.
👩🏫 - Why?….

33. @maeghansmulders
Group of
people
List of
questions
A plan

34. Record a voice memo if you can.
Have a script with questions in
hand.
Pick a team lead - who will lead
the interview with participant
and who will observe.
A P L A N T O D O C U M E N T
@maeghansmulders

35. @maeghansmulders
in the beginning:
1) Hi there, before we start I wanted to ask if it was okay for me to
record this interview for internal use.
2) The goal of today is to ask you # of questions about how you
currently deal with XYZ problem.
3) Do you have any questions before we start? Great! Let’s jump
in.
— ALL YOUR QUESTIONS —
in closing:
4) Thank you so much for your time and insight.
5) Would you be interested in being contacted about our service
and when it is available in a few weeks? (Collect email)

36. @maeghansmulders

37. @maeghansmulders
Group of
people
List of
questions
Analyze A plan

38. Find the trends.
Were there
commonalities among
your interviews?
A N A LY Z E
@maeghansmulders

39. @maeghansmulders

40. The learnings you take away
from these interviews will give
you confidence in your idea
moving forward.
Or will show you that you need
to pivot and learn more about
the underlying problem at hand.
@maeghansmulders

41. @maeghansmulders
Interview ready!

42. @maeghansmulders

43. @maeghansmulders
SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/foundingfreedom/sample-customer-
discoverydevelopment-problem-interview
7 . 4 0 T I M E S TA M P

44. @maeghansmulders
R E A L P R O B L E M S

45. @maeghansmulders
R E A L P R O B L E M S
E M O T I O N S

46. @maeghansmulders
R E A L P R O B L E M S
E M O T I O N S
S O L U T I O N S T H E Y
H AV E T R I E D

47. @maeghansmulders
Once you have enough data.
Update your product strategy accordingly.

48. @maeghansmulders
Finishing
your day
like…This is my nephew and I
taught him to dance.

49. @maeghansmulders
To recap…

50. @maeghansmulders
Preparation
is key

51. @maeghansmulders
Listen

52. Find the
trends
@maeghansmulders

53. @maeghansmulders
Keep Validating

54. Thanks so much.
If you have feedback or want to get in touch, I’m online!
@maeghansmulders

55. @maeghansmulders
Some resources:
https://medium.com/@johnpcutler/50-interview-questions-for-b2b-
saas-customer-research-ecdc093c5127
https://www.quora.com/What-are-your-favorite-
questions-to-ask-customers-when-validating-a-product-
or-feature

56. B 2 C
• Do you have problem x?
• How much does problem X cost you?
• Would a product or service like this solve your problem?
• How often does this problem occur?
• How does it solve problem X?
• Does this create any new problems?
• What is your background?
• Have you tried to solve this problem? How? What did you
do / what were the results?
• What does the perfect solution have?
B 2 B
• What might prevent you from using XYZ product?
• How are decisions and approvals made in your
organization?
• Can you tell me how you solve this pain point today?
• What tasks are you responsible for doing in your
business day to day?
• Who is affected by XYZ problem?
• Who else, other than you would be involved in or
impacted by the decision to use this product?
• How much time and money are you currently
investing into solving XYZ problem?
• Can you walk me through the last time you
experienced this pain point and what you did?
@maeghansmulders