# Customer Interview

One file per interview. Save to `_inbox/` as `YYYY-MM-DD-interview-<name>.md`, then run [`prompts/03-customer-and-problem.md`](../prompts/03-customer-and-problem.md) to fold the pattern into `stack/02-customer/`.

**Record the call if they agree.** A transcript is worth ten remembered summaries, and it is what lets an AI find the pattern across twenty interviews that you could not hold in your head.

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## Before you go in

**The one rule: do not pitch.** The moment you describe your solution, the interview is over — everything after it is politeness. You are here to learn what they do today and what it costs them, not to find out whether they like your idea.

**Ask about the past, not the future.** "Would you use something like this?" produces a yes that means nothing. "Walk me through the last time this happened" produces facts.

**Aim for at least ten interviews before building anything expensive.** Patterns do not appear at three.

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## Details

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Date | |
| Name | |
| Role / segment | |
| Company / context | |
| How you found them | |
| Recorded? | |
| Length | |

## The questions

Adapt, but keep the order — context before problem, problem before money.

**1. Walk me through how you currently handle `[the situation]`.**

> Let them talk. Do not interrupt. The unprompted detail is the valuable part.

**2. When did you last do that? Tell me about that specific time.**

**3. What is the most frustrating part of it?**

**4. What do you do outside your main system to cope?**

> Spreadsheets, WhatsApp, a notebook, a phone call to a specific person. Workarounds are where the unmet needs hide.

**5. What have you already tried? Why did you stop?**

**6. If you could change one thing tomorrow, what would it be?**

**7. What does this currently cost you?** — money, time, missed work, risk, annoyance

**8. Who else is involved in deciding this?** — for B2B: user, buyer, blocker

**9. What would make you try something new? Who signs it off?**

**10. What would have to be true for you to pay for a solution? What is a reasonable price?**

**11. Is there anything I should have asked and did not?**

> The single most productive closing question. It regularly produces the most important thing in the whole interview.

**12. Who else should I talk to?**

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## Notes

*(Verbatim where you can. Their words are better than yours and you will use them in your copy.)*

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## After

| | |
| --- | --- |
| **Top pain, in their words** | |
| Second pain | |
| Current alternative and what it costs them | |
| Frequency | |
| Would they pay? Evidence for that, not opinion | |
| Price they mentioned | |
| **What surprised me** | |
| **What I got wrong going in** | |
| Willing to try a pilot? | |
| Referrals given | |
| Follow-up needed | |

## The honesty check

Answer these before you file the note:

- **Did I pitch?** If yes, discount everything after that moment.
- **Did they describe a real past event, or a hypothetical?** Only the first counts.
- **Did I hear something that contradicts my plan?** If not, ask whether I was really listening — ten interviews that all agree with you usually means leading questions.