Customer Interview Questions: 45 Questions for Customer Discovery
In the guide Customer interviews
In short: Good customer interview questions ask about what people did, not what they think of your idea. Below are 45 questions for customer discovery interviews, grouped by stage: context, the last time the problem happened, current solutions, pains and costs, buying, early-adopter signals and referrals. Each comes with why to ask it.
Print the customer interview sheet (PDF) to take along. The method behind these questions is in How to Interview Customers: a Field Guide, and the guide Customer interviews gathers all my notes on the subject.
How to use this list
These are questions for customer discovery: talking to the people who have a problem before you build the solution. Nothing here is about job interviews.
Three rules sit behind every question below. They come from the problem interview guide we used at Lean Startup Experience in 2014, and they still hold:
- Do not talk about your business idea or product.
- Ask about past events and behaviours.
- No leading questions. Learn from the customer.
Rob Fitzpatrick built a whole book on the same idea, The Mom Test: people lie to be nice when you ask about the future or about your idea, and they rarely lie about what they did last Tuesday.
Do not read this list out loud. A script breaks the natural flow of the conversation. Pick ten or fifteen questions that match what you need to learn, keep them in mind, and look at them between interviews. When an answer gets interesting, drop the list and ask “why?” or “what happened next?”.
In the questions, replace the problem and the task with your own words.
Warm-up and context
1. What does a typical week look like for you?
Why ask it: it anchors the conversation in their reality, and it tells you quickly whether this person matches the customer you set out to meet. If they don’t, thank them and move on.
2. What are you responsible for, and how is your work judged?
Why ask it: people solve the problems they are rewarded for solving. This tells you which problems can win attention and budget.
3. What are your top three priorities right now?
Why ask it: Tomasz Tunguz suggests this question for every customer call. If your problem is not in their top three, nobody will champion the budget to fix it.
Instead of: “Is improving the task a priority for you?” Everyone says yes.
4. Who else is involved when the task comes up?
Why ask it: it maps the users, the buyer and the people who can block a decision. In a company they are rarely the same person.
5. Which tools do you use every day for this part of your work?
Why ask it: it shows their habits and their current stack before you ask about the problem itself, so the answer is not biased by it.
6. What has changed in the way you handle the task over the last year?
Why ask it: change creates openings. A new rule, a new tool or a new boss can make an old problem urgent.
Instead of: “Do you think the way you work needs to change?”
Stories: the last time it happened
Stories are the core of the interview. They force people to recall precise actions instead of giving opinions, and they reveal problems bigger than the one you came for.
7. When was the last time you had the problem?
Why ask it: a specific date pulls the conversation out of generalities. If they can’t remember the last time, the problem is probably not that painful.
Instead of: “Do you often have trouble with the task?”
8. Can you walk me through what happened, step by step?
Why ask it: the detail is where the learning is. Each step is a place where they lost time, money or patience.
Instead of: “How do you usually handle it?” “Usually” invites the ideal version, not what happened.
9. What triggered it?
Why ask it: the trigger tells you when your future customer needs you, and so when and where to reach them.
10. What did you try first?
Why ask it: the first reflex shows how they think about the problem, before any solution you have in mind.
Instead of: “What would you do if it happened again?” Nobody knows what they would do.
11. What was the hardest part?
Why ask it: let them name the pain in their own words. Their words are worth more than yours, in the interview and later on your landing page.
Instead of: “Wasn’t that frustrating?” You just gave them the answer.
12. How long did it take, from start to finish?
Why ask it: time is a cost they can measure. It gives you a first figure for the value of solving the problem.
13. How did it end?
Why ask it: sometimes the problem was solved, sometimes it was abandoned, sometimes it is still open. Each ending tells a different story about how much it matters.
14. Is that how it usually goes?
Why ask it: it checks whether you heard a typical case or an exception, and it opens the door to the other times it happened.
Instead of: “Would you say this happens a lot?”
15. What would have happened if you had done nothing?
Why ask it: it measures the stakes. If doing nothing costs nothing, they will keep doing nothing.
Current solutions and workarounds
16. How do you solve this problem today?
Why ask it: this tells you who you are competing against, and you will be surprised. If they use no solution at all, the problem may not matter much to them.
Instead of: “Would you use an app that solves this?” They will say yes to be nice, and never download it.
17. Why did you choose that solution?
Why ask it: their selection criteria are the criteria your solution will be judged on.
Instead of: “Are you happy with it?” Most people say yes and stop there.
18. What else did you try before?
Why ask it: a list of abandoned solutions is a strong sign of a real problem, and a map of what does not work.
19. How did you find out about it?
Why ask it: how they look for solutions tells you about their journey, and about the marketing channels that will reach them.
20. What do you do around it to make it work?
Why ask it: the spreadsheet next to the software, the email reminder, the manual check. Workarounds show exactly where the current solution falls short.
21. How is that solution working out for you?
Why ask it: ask for the story, and listen for what seems complicated, frustrating or unpleasant. Then judge whether they are trying to fix it or happy to live with it.
Instead of: “Don’t you find it clunky?”
22. What would you lose if that solution disappeared tomorrow?
Why ask it: it separates the tools they rely on from the ones they put up with. The second kind is easier to replace.
Pains and costs
23. What is the most frustrating part of the task?
Why ask it: an open question lets them rank the pains themselves. You learn which one comes to mind first.
Instead of: “Would it help if it were faster?” Faster always sounds good.
24. How much time does it take you, in a week or a month?
Why ask it: a number you can multiply. It turns a complaint into a cost.
Instead of: “Does it take a lot of time?”
25. What does it cost you today, in money or in people?
Why ask it: subscriptions, extra staff, outside help. Money already spent on a problem is the best evidence that it is worth solving.
Instead of: “Is this costing you a lot?”
26. What happens when it goes wrong?
Why ask it: the consequences of a failure show how serious the problem is, beyond the daily irritation.
Instead of: “Would it be a disaster if it failed?”
27. Who notices when it goes wrong?
Why ask it: a problem their boss or their customers see gets fixed. A problem nobody sees stays at the bottom of the list.
28. Why hasn’t it been solved yet?
Why ask it: the answer names the real blocker: no budget, no time, no one in charge, or no good solution on the market. Only the last one is good news for you.
29. If you could fix one thing about how you handle this, what would it be?
Why ask it: it gives them a magic wand without showing them yours. Listen for the need behind the request: a feature they ask for is often a symptom of something else.
Instead of: “Would you like a feature that does X?”
30. What have you learned to live with?
Why ask it: some pains are real but tolerated. People rarely pay to fix what they have accepted.
Willingness to pay and buying process
Do not ask what people would pay. Ask what they pay already and how they bought it.
31. Are you paying for anything to deal with this today?
Why ask it: current spending is your price reference and your proof of pain.
Instead of: “How much would you pay for a solution?” Any answer to a hypothetical price is a guess.
32. How was the decision made to buy what you use now?
Why ask it: it reveals the real buying process, with its steps, its delays and its surprises.
Instead of: “How would your company buy something like this?”
33. Who signs off on a purchase like that?
Why ask it: the person in front of you may love the problem and have no say in the budget. Find out who does.
Instead of: “Are you the decision maker?” Few people answer no.
34. Is there a budget line for this, and whose is it?
Why ask it: an existing budget means you take money from a competitor. No budget means you must create one, which is much slower.
35. The last time you changed tools for this, what made you switch?
Why ask it: a past switch tells you what it takes to move them, and what it cost them in effort.
Instead of: “Would you switch to a better tool?”
36. What almost stopped you from buying it?
Why ask it: the objections they overcame last time are the ones you will meet.
Early-adopter signals
My problem interview template uses Justin Wilcox’s definition: an early adopter is someone who is actively trying to solve the problem. These questions check it.
37. Have you looked for a solution in the last few months?
Why ask it: active search is the clearest early-adopter signal. Ask what they typed, where they looked, who they asked.
Instead of: “Would you be interested in a solution?” Interest costs nothing.
38. What did you find, and why didn’t it work for you?
Why ask it: it gives you the gap between the market and their need, in their own words.
39. Have you built something yourself to deal with it?
Why ask it: a homemade solution means the pain is high enough to spend their own time on it. These people are your first customers.
Instead of: “Would you try a tool built for this?”
40. When does the problem hit hardest?
Why ask it: a time of the month, a season, a project stage. It tells you when they will be most open to a new solution.
Instead of: “Is this a big problem for you?”
41. Can I show you what we build, once we have something to show?
Why ask it: this is the only question about your project, and it comes at the very end. A meeting in their calendar is a commitment. A polite “sure, keep me posted” is not.
Wrap-up and referrals
42. Is there anything I should have asked and didn’t?
Why ask it: they know their world better than you. This question often brings the most useful answer of the interview.
43. Who else should I talk to about this?
Why ask it: referrals are the easiest way to find your next interviews, and the names they give you map their network.
Instead of: “Do you know anyone who might need this?” That is a sales question.
44. Would you introduce me?
Why ask it: a name without an introduction rarely becomes a meeting. Willingness to introduce you is also a sign of how much the problem matters to them.
45. Can I come back to you if I have more questions?
Why ask it: it keeps the door open for the follow-up you will need after the next ten interviews, when your questions get sharper.
After the interview
Write your notes the same day. On the sheet, the after part asks four things: the most important things you learned, how important the problem is for this person, how often it happens, and whether they are an early adopter. Answer them from the stories you heard, never from the compliments.
FAQ
How many customer interviews do you need?
There is no magic number. Keep going until you stop hearing new stories and the same problems come back in the same words. One team ran 167 interviews before launching. Watch the pattern more than the count.
How long should a customer interview last?
Long enough to get two or three complete stories. Plan for a conversation, not a questionnaire, and stop when you have what you came for. A short interview with one good story beats a long one full of opinions.
How do you find people to interview?
Start with the habits and daily journey of your target customer, then go where they are. Mike Fishbein lists 14 ways to find customers to interview, from LinkedIn groups and referrals to paper flyers. Question 43 above gives you the next names.
How do you avoid leading questions?
Never mention your idea, ask about the past, and let them describe the pain in their own words. If a question can be answered with yes, rephrase it as “tell me about the last time…”. Sometimes a plain statement works better than a question: restate what they said and they keep talking.