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/ (post-interview analysis) and discovery/identify-assumptions/ (which produces the questions you go in to test).

The interviewing method itself is well known; what this skill adds is the 5-phase timing for 45/60/90-minute slots, the bad-to-good question conversions, the type-specific question banks, and two thresholds: the interviewer talks under 25% of the time, and stories come from the last ~90 days. The goal is to leave each interview with at least one story, one contradiction, and one surprise.

Core Capabilities

• 5-phase script -- opening/consent, context, story collection (the meat), probing/synthesis, closing -- timed for 45/60/90-minute slots.
• Story-based probing -- the story funnel and 5-Whys turn opinions into concrete-recent-relevant evidence.
• Mom Test discipline -- bad-question to good-question conversions that strip out compliments, fluff, and feature pitches.
• Question banks by type -- problem discovery, solution validation, journey mapping, churn/win-loss.
• Interview craft -- rapport rules, silence handling, pacing, pair-interviewing roles, recording/consent/storage.

When to Use

• Problem discovery -- test whether a customer pain is real, who has it, and how acute it is.
• Solution validation -- get feedback on a wireframe/prototype grounded in past behavior, not hypotheticals.
• Journey research -- understand the end-to-end flow of how a customer does a job today (tools, workarounds, handoffs).
• Churn or win/loss -- understand why customers left, stayed, or chose a competitor.
• Continuous discovery cadence -- weekly customer touchpoints to keep the team grounded in evidence.

Clarify First

Before building the interview script, settle the inputs below. When one is missing or vague and would change the result, ask about it; when it wouldn't, use a sensible default and say which one you used.

• Interview type: problem discovery / solution validation / journey / churn-win-loss (selects the question bank and phase emphasis).
• Must-answer questions: the 2-3 assumptions you go in to test (drives the custom story-collection prompts).
• Time slot: 45 / 60 / 90 minutes (sets the per-phase timing).
• Participant recency: how recently they did the job (story-based probing degrades past ~90 days, which weakens the script's core).

Ask about the two or three inputs that matter most for this request, not the whole list. If the user wants a result straight away, produce it and state your assumptions at the top.

Quick Start

The workflow, start to finish:

1. Pull top assumptions from discovery/identify-assumptions/; write 2-3 must-answer questions and pick the interview type.
2. Customize assets/interview_script_template.md and pull type-specific prompts from assets/question_bank.md.
3. Run the 5-phase script (rapport first, stories in the middle, contradictions at the end); debrief within 30 minutes; hand the transcript to discovery/interview-synthesis/.
4. Verify that the script fits the slot, every must-answer question has a story prompt about a recent, real event, and no question asks about the future or invites a compliment before calling it done.

See references/interview-execution-playbook.md for the full method, scripts, question banks, pacing, and troubleshooting.

Anti-Patterns

Interviewing the wrong people

Mistake: All eight interviews are with happy power users, but the question is why prospects don't convert.
Why it happens: Current users are easy to recruit and glad to talk.
Instead: Write the research question first, then recruit the population that can answer it. For churn, talk to churned users. For acquisition, talk to prospects who chose a competitor. Check recency too, since story recall weakens past about 90 days.

Demoing instead of listening

Mistake: The interview turns into a 40-minute product demo, and the interviewee nods politely.
Why it happens: Showing the product feels productive, and silence feels awkward.
Instead: Keep the product out of a discovery interview. In a 60-minute session, the PM should talk less than 25% of the time. Spend the middle phase collecting stories with "tell me about the last time".

Notes without quotes

Mistake: The notes hold only the PM's reading ("user wants faster setup") and no direct quotes.
Why it happens: Summaries are faster to write than verbatim quotes.
Instead: Capture 5-10 direct quotes per interview and debrief within 30 minutes. discovery/interview-synthesis/ needs the customer's own words.

Nine more, each with a bad and a good example: references/red-flags.md.

References

• references/interview-execution-playbook.md -- read this before running an interview: the four-source frameworks, the verbatim 5-phase script, question banks by type, what-not-to-ask table, pacing, pair-interviewing roles, recording/consent, silence handling, workflow, troubleshooting, and success criteria.
• references/interviewing-methodology-guide.md -- read this for the deep method with worked examples (Portigal, Torres, Fitzpatrick, Lin).
• references/red-flags.md -- read this when auditing a transcript or technique for biasing anti-patterns before trusting the findings.
• assets/interview_script_template.md -- ready-to-customize 5-phase interview script.
• assets/question_bank.md -- question bank organized by interview type (problem / solution / journey / churn).

Scope & Limitations

In scope: live discovery interview script structure and pacing; question banks (problem / solution / journey / churn); rapport, listening, and silence techniques; recording consent and retention policy; pair-interviewing role definitions.

Out of scope: interview synthesis and theme clustering (discovery/interview-synthesis/); assumption mapping before interviews (discovery/identify-assumptions/); survey design and quantitative research; usability testing protocols (task-based, not story-based); recruiting operations (panel sourcing, screening, incentives).

Caveats: this skill produces interview technique, not research operations. Story-based interviewing is bounded by participant memory -- events older than 90 days are reconstructions. B2B enterprise interviews often need procurement-style approval; build 2-4 weeks into recruiting. Continuous discovery assumes weekly touchpoints; one-off rounds produce shallower evidence -- weight findings accordingly.

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