---
name: customer-interview-guide
description: "Use this skill when you want to learn from customers or prospects in a structured interview: \"write customer interview questions\", \"voice of customer research\", \"why did customers buy\", \"jobs to be done interviews\". Plans who to interview, writes a guide that uncovers the buying story (the trigger, the alternatives, the decision, the outcome) without leading questions, and turns the transcripts into themes, buyer language and changes for messaging, ICP and product. Produces an interview guide, a recruit message and a synthesis template."
license: MIT
metadata:
  title: Customer interview guide
  category: research
  tags: "Founders, Marketing, Sales Leaders, Customer Success"
  author: prosyo
  version: "1.0.0"
  keywords: "customer interview questions b2b, voice of customer research, jobs to be done interview guide, claude customer research skill, buyer interviews"
  inputs: "What you want to learn, Customers or prospects to interview, Product and ICP"
  outputs: "Interview guide, Recruit message, Synthesis of themes and buyer language"
---

Use this when messaging, ICP or roadmap decisions rest on guesses. Ten good interviews with recent buyers usually reveal more than a hundred survey responses.

## Inputs

- The decision the research should inform (positioning, ICP, pricing, a feature).
- Who to talk to: recent buyers (last 90 days) are best; also recent churns and lost deals.
- What you already believe, written down, so you can test it.

## The play

### 1. Recruit the right people
Recent buyers remember the story. Aim for 8 to 12 interviews across segments. Recruit with a short, honest ask:

> Hi Maya, you started with us last month. Could I ask you 20 minutes of questions about how you decided? No sales pitch, just learning. As thanks, <a small, appropriate gesture>.

### 2. Ask about the story, not opinions
Follow the timeline of the purchase:
1. **Before**: "What were you doing before? What was annoying about it?"
2. **Trigger**: "What happened that made you start looking then?"
3. **Search**: "What else did you look at? What did you almost choose?"
4. **Decision**: "What made you pick this? Who else had a say? What almost stopped it?"
5. **After**: "What's different now? What would you miss if it disappeared?"

Read [references/interview-guide.md](references/interview-guide.md) for the full guide with follow-ups and the synthesis template.

### 3. Avoid leading questions
Not "Would you say our reporting saved you time?" but "What happened the last time you needed a report?" Ask for specific past events, not hypothetical future behaviour.

### 4. Capture the exact words
Record (with permission) and pull verbatim quotes. The buyer's phrases are the raw material for headlines, emails and battlecards.

### 5. Synthesise into decisions
Group findings into triggers, alternatives, decision criteria, objections and outcomes. A theme needs 3+ interviews. Each theme ends with a recommended change.

## What good looks like

- Interviewees do most of the talking and tell stories with specific moments.
- The synthesis includes surprises, not just confirmation.
- Buyer phrases end up in the next round of copy.
- The common mistake is turning the interview into a demo or a satisfaction survey, which produces polite praise and no insight.

## Rules

- MUST get permission before recording and anonymise quotes unless the person agrees otherwise.
- MUST ask about past events, not hypothetical opinions.
- NEVER sell during a research interview.
- NEVER present a single interview as a pattern.

## Example prompts

- "Write a customer interview guide to find out why our last 20 customers bought."
- "Here are 9 interview transcripts. Synthesise themes and buyer language for our homepage."
- "Write a recruit email for interviews with customers who churned last quarter."