Essay

How I Interview Customers

Justin Wilcox · Justin Wilcox, Customer Development Labs Free Beginner

Wilcox gives you a literal five question script built entirely around a recent problem, not your product, which is exactly the reframe your short answer calls for. It is the most tactical resource on this list, useful whether you are interviewing a friend, a friend of a friend, or a total stranger.

  • Never mention your idea, only ask questions and affirm what they tell you
  • Anchor every question in a specific recent event, not a general habit or a guess
  • The five question sequence surfaces the real problem even when the interviewee wants to be helpful
Open on customerdevlabs.com ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. How do I get honest answers when the person I'm interviewing is a friend or someone in my network?
  2. How do I recruit and interview my competitor's customers without it getting weird or them shutting down?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. A YC partner turns 'talk to users' into a repeatable 5-question interview script you can use this afternoon. It's The Mom Test... YC Startup Library Video · ~25 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky (YC / founder of Pebble)
  3. Turns the vague feeling of product-market fit into a number you can move. Ask users how they would feel if they could no longer... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit Rahul Vohra
  4. A deep conversation on why direct questions fail and how story-based interviews surface real behaviour. Torres names the common... Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · ~75 min Teresa Torres on how to interview customers Lenny Rachitsky and Teresa Torres
  5. This is the practical way to act on the route around your inner circle entirely part of your short answer: it is a marketplace... Respondent.io Tool Respondent Respondent.io
  6. A short, practical field guide to customer discovery: who to talk to, how to find them, and how many. Pairs perfectly with The... talkingtohumans.com Book · ~80 pages (free PDF available) Talking to Humans Giff Constable
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