Customer Interview

The first 10 questions

This is where the conversation starts. Each answer shapes what gets asked next.

1. 01What is the product you're building, and what customer problem are you focused on right now?
2. 02Who are you interviewing — describe the specific type of person and why they're relevant at this stage?
3. 03What do you already know or believe about this customer, and what do you most want to test?
4. 04What's the biggest assumption you're carrying into this conversation that you most want to challenge?
5. 05What have previous customer conversations taught you, if you've done any? What are you building on or departing from?
6. 06What would a successful interview look like — what specific thing would you learn that would change something?
7. 07What are you most at risk of confirming rather than genuinely testing?
8. 08What are the 5-7 questions you actually want to ask — write them as open-ended prompts, not leading questions?
9. 09What context do you need to establish at the start so the interviewee understands what you're exploring?
10. 10What's the one signal — something they say or do — that would tell you the problem is real and urgent for them?

+ 4 more questions across discovery, validation, and the creative brief — each one adapting to what you've already said.

Related product design project types

• Product ValidationTest whether your product idea is worth building before you build it — with a clear validation plan and a landing-page wireframe to test demand with.
• MVP ScopeDefine what your minimum viable product actually is — the smallest thing you can ship to test your core hypothesis with real customers.
• MVP Scope MatrixTurn your MVP Scope work into a shareable visual — a prioritized matrix plotting each feature by value vs. effort, so the right cuts to make before you start building are obvious.