Your interview script
How many to run
The script
Read the boxed parts aloud. Numbered questions are in order; skip any that their story already answered.
Rules for the room
The ones that matter most for who you're talking to.
Don't ask, ask instead
The questions everyone is tempted to ask, and what to say instead.
What to listen for
Decide this before the first interview, so the answers can't talk you into it.
Keep going if
Rethink if
Follow-ups for any answer
When an answer is vague, use one of these before you move on.
After the interviews
Turn what you heard into personas
Experience Builder transcribes your interview notes and turns them into proto personas, so the patterns across five conversations are in one place instead of five notebooks.
Explore Experience BuilderCustomer interview questions, briefly
What the script above is built on, if you want to adjust it or write your own.
What makes a good customer interview question?
It asks about something that already happened. "Tell me about the last time…" gets a real story with real details. "Would you…?" and "Do you think…?" ask people to predict their own behavior, and people are kind and optimistic about the future, so the answers mislead you.
How many customer interviews do I need?
Five to eight per type of person is usually enough to see a pattern. If the same story keeps coming up by the fifth interview, you have it. If every interview sounds different, you may be talking to more than one audience, and each needs its own five.
How long should a customer interview be?
Thirty minutes suits most interviews. Fifteen works for people who barely used your product or are doing you a favor. Forty-five is for when you want to see their workaround on screen or hear the whole buying process.
Should I show them my idea?
Not until the end, and only if you're testing a concept. Once they've seen it, everything they say is about your idea rather than their problem. If you don't yet know whether the problem is real, start with the Project Validation Methods tool to choose the right test.