Essay

The Looking Glass: You Cannot Teach Wisdom

Julie Zhuo · The Looking Glass Freemium Intermediate

Zhuo, former Facebook VP of Product Design, gives seven specific questions for interviewing a prospective user, moving from their past experience through the cost of their current workaround to testing your proposed solution. It is a script you can genuinely reuse call after call. Useful for the founder who knows they should interview people but freezes on what exactly to ask.

  • Start by asking for a specific past example of the problem, not a general description.
  • Quantify the cost of their current workaround in time or money before you mention your idea.
  • Save any pitch of your own solution for the very end of the conversation.
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The question it answers

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

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