customer-interview-script

What this skill does

# Customer Interview Script Expert

## Overview

Running a customer interview is harder than it looks. The difference between a 60-minute conversation that produces three actionable insights and one that produces zero is almost entirely method: what you ask, when you ask it, and what you do *not* ask. This skill is the live-interview companion to `discovery/interview-synthesis/` (which handles post-interview analysis) and `discovery/identify-assumptions/` (which produces the questions you go in to test).

The script structure draws from four canonical sources: Steve Portigal's *Interviewing Users* (rapport, listening, "tell me about the last time"), Teresa Torres' *Continuous Discovery Habits* (story-based probing, weekly cadence), Rob Fitzpatrick's *The Mom Test* (avoiding compliments, opinions, and futures), and Lewis Lin's behavioral interviewing patterns (concrete-recent-relevant). The goal is to leave each interview with at least one story, one contradiction, and one surprise.

### When to Use

- **Problem discovery** -- You have a hypothesis about a customer pain and need to learn whether it is real, who has it, and how acute it is.
- **Solution validation** -- You have a wireframe, prototype, or written concept and want feedback grounded in past behavior, not hypothetical reactions.
- **Journey research** -- You need to understand the end-to-end flow of how a customer accomplishes a job today (tools, workarounds, handoffs).
- **Churn or win/loss interviews** -- You need to understand why customers left, stayed, or chose a competitor.
- **Continuous discovery cadence** -- Weekly customer touchpoints to keep the team grounded in real evidence rather than internal opinion.

## Frameworks

### Portigal: Rapport and Active Listening

Portigal's central insight is that interview quality is bounded by rapport quality. The first 5-10 minutes are not "warm-up" -- they are the foundation of every honest answer that follows.

**Rapport rules:**

1. **Introduce yourself as a learner, not an expert.** "I'm here to learn from you" produces openness. "I'm the PM for this product" produces sales calls.
2. **Establish that there are no wrong answers.** Explicitly say: "There's nothing you can say that's wrong -- I'm here to understand your world."
3. **Ask permission to record.** State the use, the storage policy, and offer the option to decline without consequence.
4. **Make the first question easy.** Something they can answer in 2 minutes without thinking ("Walk me through your role").
5. **Use silence as a tool.** After the participant finishes a sentence, count to 3 before speaking. They will often add the most important detail in that gap.

### Torres: Story-Based Probing

Torres' *Continuous Discovery Habits* argues that opinions are low-evidence ("I would like a faster dashboard") but stories are high-evidence ("Last Tuesday I tried to pull the Q3 report and gave up after 11 minutes"). Every meaningful question should pull for a story.

**Story prompts:**

- "Tell me about the last time you [did the job]."
- "Walk me through what happened."
- "What did you do right before that? What did you do right after?"
- "Who else was involved? What did they say?"
- "Where were you? What tools did you have open?"

**The story funnel:**

```
Broad: "Tell me about a recent time you needed [X]."
  -> Narrow: "What specifically were you trying to accomplish?"
    -> Concrete: "What did you do first?"
      -> Behavioral: "Show me how you did that."
        -> Emotional: "How did you feel when [event]?"
```

### Fitzpatrick: The Mom Test

Fitzpatrick's *The Mom Test* lists three things that bias interviews toward false positives -- things even your mother would say to be polite:

1. **Compliments** ("That's a great idea!")
2. **Fluff** -- hypotheticals, generics, opinions about the future ("I would probably use it")
3. **Ideas** -- the participant pitching you a feature ("You should add X")

**The three Mom Test rules:**

1. Talk about their life, not your idea.
2. Ask about specifics in the past, not generics or opinions about the future.
3. Talk less, listen more.

**Conversion table -- bad question -> good question:**

| Bad (low-evidence) | Good (high-evidence) |
|--------------------|----------------------|
| Would you use a product that... | Tell me about the last time you tried to... |
| Do you think X is a problem? | When was the last time X happened? What did you do? |
| How often do you do X? | When was the last time you did X? Walk me through it. |
| Would you pay for X? | What do you currently spend on solving this? Show me the invoice. |
| What features do you want? | What is the most frustrating part of [job] today? |

### Lewis Lin: Concrete-Recent-Relevant

Lewis Lin's behavioral interviewing distills story quality into three properties:

- **Concrete** -- A specific event with names, dates, tools, outcomes (not a generalized pattern).
- **Recent** -- Within the last 30-90 days (memory decays; old stories are reconstructions).
- **Relevant** -- The job-to-be-done you care about, not a tangentially related anecdote.

If a story is missing any of the three, probe for one that has all three: "Has anything like that happened more recently?"

## The Interview Script Structure

Every interview, regardless of type, follows this 5-phase structure. Total time: 45, 60, or 90 minutes.

### Phase 1: Opening (5 min)

**Goal:** Establish rapport, consent, and frame.

```text
"Thanks for making time today. Before we start I want to share three things:

1. There are no wrong answers. I'm here to learn how you work, not to test you.
2. I'd like to record this for my notes. The recording stays internal and
   will be deleted in 90 days. Is that okay?
3. We have [45/60/90] minutes. If anything I ask is uncomfortable or
   confusing, just say so and we'll move on.

To start, can you walk me through your role -- what you do day to day?"
```

### Phase 2: Context & Background (5-10 min)

**Goal:** Understand the participant's environment so later stories have context.

Sample questions:
- "What does a typical week look like for you?"
- "Who do you work with most closely?"
- "What tools do you spend the most time in?"
- "What does success look like in your role -- how is it measured?"

### Phase 3: Story Collection (25-40 min) -- THE MEAT

**Goal:** Collect 2-4 concrete-recent-relevant stories about the job-to-be-done.

**Opening story prompt** (varies by interview type -- see Question Bank below):

> "Tell me about the last time you [job-to-be-done]."

**Then probe with the 5 Whys and story funnel:**

1. "Walk me through what happened."
2. "What did you do right before that?"
3. "What were you trying to accomplish?" (Why #1)
4. "Why was that important?" (Why #2)
5. "What would have happened if you had not done that?" (Why #3)
6. "Who else was involved?" (expands the story to the system)
7. "What tools or systems did you use?"
8. "What was the outcome? How did you feel?"

**Collect 2-4 stories.** Each story should produce 5-10 snippets for synthesis.

### Phase 4: Probing & Synthesis (10-15 min)

**Goal:** Test contradictions, fill evidence gaps, validate or invalidate top assumptions.

- "Earlier you said X. Later you mentioned Y. Help me understand how those fit together."
- "If [current workaround] disappeared tomorrow, what would you do?"
- "What would have to be true for you to [behavior change]?"
- "Who else should I talk to about this?"

### Phase 5: Closing (5 min)

**Goal:** Leave the door open for follow-up.

```text
"That was incredibly helpful. A few last things:

- Is there anything I should have asked but didn't?
- Can I follow up if I have a clarifying question?
- Who else do you think I should talk to about [topic]?

Thanks again for your time."
```

## Question Bank by Interview Type

### Problem Discovery

- "Tell me about the last time you tried to [job]."
- "What is the most frustrating part of [job] today?"
- "What workarounds have you built to deal with