Customers & Research

How many customer interviews do I need before I trust the signal?

A starting point

There's no magic number, you're done when you can predict roughly the next answer before they say it. In practice that's usually 15-30 conversations with the same customer type. If every interview still surprises you, keep going; if you're bored, you have your pattern.

Go deeper

Watch

▶️ Video
Free Beginner

How to Talk to Users

On YC Startup Library by Eric Migicovsky (YC / founder of Pebble) ~25 min

Why we picked it

A YC partner turns 'talk to users' into a repeatable 5-question interview script you can use this afternoon. It's The Mom Test compressed into a lecture, perfect if you want the method fast before reading the book.

  • Don't pitch your idea, you'll bias every answer.
  • Anchor on the last time they hit the problem, and what they did about it.
  • If they've done nothing to solve it, the problem may not be painful enough.
Open ycombinator.com →

Read

📄 Article
Free Intermediate

A founder-friendly playbook for early customer discovery

From First Round Review by First Round Review (Jeanette Mellinger) ~20 min read

Why we picked it

A UX-research leader (ex-Uber Eats, BetterUp) gives founders a concrete three-step discovery process, including how to recruit and take notes. First Round Review is a top-tier operator source.

  • Start with a research plan that narrows who you talk to and what you want to learn
  • Record every interview and use a note-taker to stay present
  • You understand the problem when you can predict ~75% of what a customer will say
  • Keep iterating on both the customer profile and the problem you're solving
Open review.firstround.com →

People also ask

How do I talk to customers without them just telling me what I want to hear? Stop pitching and start interrogating their past. Ask about what they actually did last time the problem hit, what it cost them, and what they trie... Beginner 3 resources → What questions should I actually ask in a customer interview? Ask about the past and the concrete, not the future and the hypothetical. 'Walk me through the last time you dealt with X', 'what's the hardest par... Beginner 3 resources → Where do I find people to interview when I have zero audience? Start with the person you already know who has the problem, then ask each interviewee for two intros. Go where the customer already hangs out, nich... Beginner 2 resources → How do I run customer discovery as an Indian founder building for Indian users? The frameworks are global but the field is local: Indian buyers often say 'yes, nice' to your face and never pay, so watch what they do, not what t... Intermediate 2 resources → How do I show a prototype to users without biasing their reaction? Hand it over, give them a goal, and shut up. Don't narrate or explain, watch where they get stuck, what they ignore, and what they say out loud. Th... Intermediate 2 resources → How do I talk to customers without getting false positives? Never pitch your idea in the interview, it invites polite lies. Ask about their real life and past behaviour: the last time they hit the problem, w... Beginner 3 resources →