The product was perfect. At least, that's what we thought.
Beautiful design. Clean code. Every feature our team thought customers would want.
Sales calls went well. People said nice things. Demo reactions were positive.
And then we launched.
Crickets.
Not a single paid customer in the first week. Not five. Not one. Zero.
That night, I called a potential customer I'd been courting for months. I asked the question that changed everything:
"If you don't buy this, what's stopping you?"
The answer wasn't about features or pricing. It wasn't about timing or competition.
"I don't have the problem you're solving."
Four months of work. A beautiful product. And we'd built something nobody actually needed.
That experience taught me the most important lesson in startups: the only way to know what to build is to talk to the people who might buy it.
The Interview That Saved a Company
Let me tell you about a founder who almost made the same mistake.
She'd built a project management tool for creative agencies. Beautiful. Feature-rich. Everything a creative agency should want.
Her first 20 interviews were with other founders and product managers who said, "This looks great! Agencies would love this."
Then she talked to an actual creative agency owner.
The interview lasted 12 minutes.
"Do you have this problem?" she asked.
The owner laughed. "I have five different tools for project management. I don't need another one. What I need is something that helps me get clients to pay on time."
Three weeks later, the entire product had pivoted. The new product helped agencies get paid faster. Revenue: $50,000 in the first month.
The lesson: Talk to users, not to people who think they understand users.
Why Customer Interviews Matter
Customer interviews aren't optional—they're essential.
Avoid Building Something Nobody Wants
The startup graveyard is full of products that solved problems nobody had. Customer interviews help you discover what problems are real before you invest in solutions.
Discover Language and Priorities
Customers use specific words to describe their problems. They have specific priorities. Interviews help you learn:
- The language to use in marketing
- The features that matter most
- The obstacles to adoption
Build Relationships Early
The customers you interview become your first advocates. They feel invested in your success because they helped shape your thinking.
Reduce Risk
Every customer interview reduces uncertainty. You learn what's real and what's assumption.
Types of Customer Interviews
Different interview types serve different purposes.
Problem Interviews
Goal: Understand the problem space
Focus on understanding the problem, not your solution. Ask about their current world, challenges they face, and how they currently cope.
Use these early in your journey to validate that the problem is real.
Solution Interviews
Goal: Get feedback on your approach
Once you have a solution concept, test whether your approach resonates. Show mockups, prototypes, or descriptions and gather reactions.
Product Interviews
Goal: Evaluate your actual product
With a working product, assess usability, value delivery, and experience. Watch people use your product and identify friction points.
Validation Interviews
Goal: Confirm willingness to pay
Near the end of development, test whether people will actually buy. Talk to potential customers about pricing, commitment, and decision-making.
Prepare for Interviews
Success depends on preparation.
Identify Your Target Customers
Be specific about who you want to interview:
Too vague: "Startup founders"
Specific: "B2B SaaS founders who are non-technical and have 10-50 employees"
Find Interview Subjects
Where do you find people to interview?
- Your network (best)
- Warm introductions
- LinkedIn outreach
- Online communities (Reddit, Slack, Discord)
- Cold outreach
Create a Discussion Guide
Structure your interview around key questions:
- Opening rapport-building questions
- Core questions about the problem
- Follow-up and probing questions
- Discussion of your solution (if relevant)
- Wrap-up and next steps
Conduct Effective Interviews
The interview itself is where insights are generated.
Set the Right Context
- Be clear about purpose: "I'm here to learn, not to sell"
- Get permission to record
- Create safety: "There are no wrong answers"
- Establish confidentiality
Use Open-Ended Questions
Bad (closed): "Do you struggle with project management?"
Good (open): "Tell me about how you manage projects at your company."
Listen More Than You Talk
The 80/20 rule: listen 80% of the time, talk 20%.
Avoid:
- Pitching your solution
- Interrupting answers
- Leading toward answers you want
- Defending your idea when criticized
Probe for Depth
When they say something interesting, dig deeper:
- "Tell me more about that."
- "What does that look like in practice?"
- "Can you give me a specific example?"
- "What makes that challenging?"
Don't Pitch
Resist the urge to show your product. Save it for the end, make it brief, and ask for reactions.
Questions That Work
The quality of your questions determines the quality of your insights.
Understanding the Problem
- "What's the biggest challenge you face in [area]?"
- "Walk me through how you currently handle [task]."
- "What would happen if you couldn't solve this problem?"
- "How do you decide what to focus on?"
Understanding Current Solutions
- "What tools do you use for [task]?"
- "What do you like about your current solution?"
- "What do you wish your current solution could do?"
- "How did you choose your current tool?"
Understanding Priorities
- "When you think about improving [area], what's most important?"
- "If you could change one thing about [process], what would it be?"
- "What would make you try a new solution?"
For Solution Feedback
- "What do you think this would help you with?"
- "What would make this more useful for you?"
- "What might prevent you from using something like this?"
- "How does this compare to what you're using now?"
Analyze and Synthesize
The interview isn't complete until you've processed what you learned.
Document Immediately
Write up notes while the conversation is fresh. Include direct quotes that capture key insights.
Look for Patterns
After 10-15 interviews, patterns emerge:
- Common themes
- Shared frustrations
- Repeated phrases
- Contradictions between what people say and do
Create a Synthesis Document
Capture:
- Key insights (what you learned)
- Patterns (what multiple people said)
- Quotes (powerful language to use)
- Open questions (what you still don't know)
- Hypotheses (what you now believe)
Share Learnings
Share insights with your team. Customer understanding should be a shared asset.
Common Interview Mistakes
These are the patterns that lead to useless interviews:
Mistake #1: Pitching Instead of Learning
Talking about your solution instead of understanding their problem. This biases responses and wastes the opportunity.
Mistake #2: Leading Questions
Asking questions that suggest the answer you want. This leads to agreement but not insight.
Mistake #3: Not Going Deep
Accepting surface answers without probing. The first answer is often what people think you want to hear.
Mistake #4: Too Few Interviews
One or two interviews aren't enough. Plan for 10-15 to find patterns.
Mistake #5: Not Listening
Having a list of questions and not deviating from it. Missing interesting tangents.
Mistake #6: Ignoring Contradictions
When what people say doesn't match what they do, explore the gap rather than dismissing it.
Build an Interview Practice
Make customer interviews an ongoing practice.
Regular Cadence
Interview customers regularly—monthly at minimum. The market changes, your product changes, and your understanding needs to evolve.
Different Segments
Interview customers at different stages:
- Prospects
- New customers
- Long-term customers
- Churned customers
Cross-Functional Participation
Have multiple team members participate. Engineers who hear customers directly build better products.
Capture and Share
Record, transcribe, and share interviews (with permission). Not everyone can attend every interview, but everyone should have access to insights.
Take Action
Insights without action are worthless. After each interview round:
- Update your roadmap based on findings
- Update your messaging with new language
- Update your priorities based on customer needs
- Plan next interviews based on remaining questions
The Final Word
The founders who build successful companies are the ones who truly understand their customers.
Customer interviews aren't a nice-to-have activity. They're the foundation of product-market fit.
Start talking to your customers today. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Today.
Your next insight could change everything.
Related Reading
- User Onboarding Complete Guide - Applying interview insights to product design
- Product-Market Fit Framework - Using interviews to validate fit
- MVP Testing Strategies - Testing your product with customers
Want to build a customer development practice?
At Startupbricks, we help startups conduct customer research and apply insights to product development. We've seen what works and what doesn't.
Let's talk about building your customer development practice.