Interview users so you learn what they actually did, not what they think they would do — ask about the past, stay quiet, and separate signal from politeness. Use when doing user research, customer discovery, or validating an idea.
--- name: run-a-customer-interview category: business description: >- Interview users so you learn what they actually did, not what they think they would do — ask about the past, stay quiet, and separate signal from politeness. Use when doing user research, customer discovery, or validating an idea. --- # Run a Customer Interview People are unreliable about the future and reliable about the past. "Would you use this?" gets you a polite yes that predicts nothing. "Walk me through the last time you had this problem" gets you facts. Everything below follows from that one asymmetry. ## Before the call Write down the **assumption you are trying to break**, not the feature you want validated. - Weak: "I want to know if they'd like a bulk export." - Strong: "I believe people export data monthly for reporting and hate doing it by hand. If they don't export at all, the feature is pointless." An interview that cannot change your mind is a sales call. If you cannot name the answer that would make you abandon the idea, do not run the interview yet.
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