Skeleton · Interview
Customer discovery interview
📋 Template · 🎯 30-min sessions · Mom Test-aligned
A script that gets people to talk about their world, not their opinion of yours. Open with their context, dig into specific moments, never pitch. The signal is in what they did last week, not what they think they'd want.
Pre-interview rules
- Don't pitch the product. The moment they know what you're selling, they start being polite.
- Ask about specific past moments, not general behaviour. "Tell me about the last time X happened" beats "do you usually do X?"
- Three followup questions per answer. The first answer is rehearsed; the third is honest.
- Note what they did, not what they said they'd do. Future intentions are 80% noise.
The skeleton
0–2 MIN · INTRO (don't pitch)
"Thanks for the time. I'm researching how [people in your role] handle [problem space] — looking for patterns. I'll ask about your actual workflow. Nothing being pitched today; recording? OK to take notes?"
2–6 MIN · CONTEXT
- Tell me about your role / company / team size.
- How long have you been doing this?
- Walk me through what your week looked like.
- What problem are you currently most frustrated with at work?
6–14 MIN · LAST-TIME QUESTIONS (this is where the signal lives)
"Tell me about the last time you [behaviour we care about]."
[Listen. Don't interrupt.]
Followup chain:
- "And what did you do next?"
- "What was annoying about that?"
- "Why didn't you [obvious alternative]?"
- "How long did the whole thing take?"
- "What did you wish you had?"
Repeat for 2–3 specific incidents.
14–22 MIN · WORKAROUNDS & ALTERNATIVES
- "How are you solving this today?" → [tool / process / human]
- "What did you try before that didn't work?"
- "What would have to be true for you to switch?"
- "How much do you spend (time + money) on this today?"
- "What does it cost you when this goes wrong?"
22–28 MIN · COMMITMENT TESTS (Mom Test gold)
The pitch killer: ask for something real, not feedback.
- "Would you be willing to introduce me to [colleague who has this same problem]?"
- "If we built a pilot, would you put 30 minutes on the calendar to test it?"
- "Would your team pay [specific price]?"
- "Would you sign an LOI today if we shipped X by [date]?"
NOTE: Compliments without commitment = no signal.
"That sounds great" = polite. "I'll intro you to [name] today" = signal.
28–30 MIN · WRAP
- Anyone else I should talk to?
- Anything I should have asked but didn't?
- OK to follow up in 4 weeks with a quick update?
- Thank them by name. Send the followup that day.
POST-INTERVIEW (within 24 hr)
Note in your CRM:
- 3 quotes verbatim (the exact words they used about the problem)
- Specific incidents they described
- Stack / tool names mentioned
- Commitment given (intro / pilot / dollars / LOI)
- Counter-signal — anything that pushed against your hypothesis
The Mom Test heuristic. If you'd ask a question to your mum about your business idea and she'd lie to be nice — don't ask the question. Ask about their world instead.
Red flags (you're getting noise, not signal)
- Lots of "we should/we'd love/that sounds great" — the answers are about your idea, not their behaviour.
- No specific past incident in 30 min. Either the problem isn't real for them, or you let them stay abstract.
- "Maybe we'd pay $X." Maybe = no. Real = "we already spend $X on Y; if you replaced it for $Z, we'd switch by [date]".
Sample sizes & cadence
- Pre-MVP: 20–30 interviews to find the wedge. Pattern-match across 5+ identical pain points.
- Pre-launch: 8–12 interviews per persona to validate ICP and pricing.
- Post-launch: 3–5 per quarter, ongoing. Talk to users, not just buyers.
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