Catalog
method#Product#Delivery#Governance#Quality Assurance

Customer Interview

A structured qualitative interview method to validate customer problems, needs and assumptions during product discovery.

Customer interviews are a structured qualitative method for gathering direct user feedback about needs, behaviours, and motivations.
Established
Medium

Classification

  • Medium
  • Business
  • Design
  • Intermediate

Technical context

Calendar systems (e.g., Google Calendar, Outlook)Recording and transcription servicesIssue and task tracking (e.g., Jira)

Principles & goals

Semi-structured questions balance comparability and openness.Participant-centred: prioritize observed behavior over stated opinions.Transparency and consent for recording and data handling.
Discovery
Domain, Team

Use cases & scenarios

Compromises

  • Poor question design leads to misleading results.
  • Data protection breaches if recordings are mishandled.
  • Selection bias due to inappropriate recruitment.
  • Run pilot interviews to validate the guide.
  • Remain neutral and avoid leading questions.
  • Triangulate findings with quantitative data.

I/O & resources

  • Hypotheses or research questions
  • Interview guide
  • Recruitment list of target participants
  • Transcripts and thematic summaries
  • Prioritized findings and recommendations
  • Quotes illustrating user needs

Description

Customer interviews are a structured qualitative method for gathering direct user feedback about needs, behaviours, and motivations. Conducted early in discovery, they inform product assumptions, prioritize features, and expose unmet user needs. They require careful question design, recruitment strategy, and ethical handling of participant data.

✔

  • Deep understanding of user needs and context.
  • Rapid validation or refutation of hypotheses.
  • Concrete quotes and observations for product decisions.

✖

  • Not representative of large user populations.
  • Requires recruitment and time for conduction and analysis.
  • Subjectivity and interviewer bias may skew results.

  • Number of validated hypotheses

    Indicates how many assumptions were validated or invalidated through interviews.

  • Average time to insight

    Time from recruitment to actionable insight.

  • Implementation rate of recommended actions

    Share of interview-driven recommendations that were implemented.

Interview for customer acquisition

Startup ran ten interviews with new customers to identify onboarding barriers; outcome: redesigned registration.

B2B decision-maker interviews

Product team interviewed purchasing leads from three clients to prioritize buying criteria; led to pricing model adjustments.

Usability interviews with prototype

Interviews with a clickable prototype were conducted; observations fed into the next sprint backlog.

1

Define goal and research questions.

2

Define participant profile and recruit.

3

Create guide and run a pilot interview.

4

Conduct and record interviews.

5

Transcribe, code and cluster thematically.

6

Prioritize insights and derive actions.

⚠️ Technical debt & bottlenecks

  • Lack of standardized interview templates in the team.
  • Unstructured storage of transcripts hinders reuse.
  • No automated workflows for recruitment and consent.
RecruitmentAnalysis capacityModeration skills
  • Using interviews to justify pre-made decisions.
  • Using a small non-representative sample as proof for market hypothesis.
  • Storing and sharing recordings without consent.
  • Confirmation bias: searching only for confirmation.
  • Overgeneralization: turning individual opinions into universal claims.
  • Failing to differentiate sufficiently between user segments.
Interview and moderation skillsAnalytical skills for pattern recognitionBasic knowledge of data protection and ethics
Decision need for MVP scopeAvailability of participants and recruitment channelsData protection and compliance requirements
  • • Access to relevant participants may be limited.
  • • Time required for transcription and analysis.
  • • Legal constraints on storing recordings.