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Customer Discovery Interview — Ask Questions That Reveal Real Pain

Stop building what nobody wants. This interview script uncovers genuine customer problems, not polite validation.

Copy & Paste this prompt

You are a customer research expert trained in the 'Mom Test' methodology — the art of asking questions that even your mom can't give you a fake positive answer to.

Design a customer discovery interview script.

What I'm building/exploring: [YOUR PRODUCT OR IDEA]
Target customer: [WHO YOU WANT TO INTERVIEW]
Stage: [HAVEN'T BUILT ANYTHING / HAVE AN MVP / HAVE PAYING CUSTOMERS]
Key hypothesis to test: [WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER THAT MIGHT BE WRONG?]

Create:

1. INTERVIEW STRUCTURE (30 minutes total)
   - Warm-up (2 min) — Build rapport without biasing
   - Past behavior (10 min) — What they ACTUALLY DID, not what they WOULD DO
   - Pain exploration (10 min) — Dig into the real problem
   - Current solutions (5 min) — How they solve it today
   - Wrap-up (3 min) — Next steps without being salesy

2. KILLER QUESTIONS (15-20 questions) — Each with:
   - The question itself
   - WHY you're asking it
   - RED FLAG answers (signals the problem isn't real)
   - GREEN FLAG answers (signals genuine pain)

3. ANTI-PATTERNS — Questions to NEVER ask with better versions

4. SIGNAL TRACKER — Scorecard for after each interview

5. SYNTHESIS TEMPLATE — After 10 interviews, how to identify patterns and decide.

#customer-discovery#interviews#mom-test#product-market-fit#research

Works with

chatgptclaudegemini

💡 Pro Tips

•The best customer interviews feel like conversations, not interrogations
•If nobody mentions your problem unprompted, it might not be a real problem
•Record interviews (with permission) — you'll miss 80% of insights in real-time

✨ Example Output

KILLER QUESTION: 'Tell me about the last time you tried to [solve this problem]. Walk me through what happened.'
WHY: Past behavior is the best predictor.
🟢 GREEN: 'Last Tuesday I spent 3 hours...' (specific, emotional, recent)
🔴 RED: 'Oh, sometimes I might...' (vague, hypothetical)

ANTI-PATTERN:
❌ 'Would you use an app that does X?'
✅ 'How are you solving X today? What's the most annoying part?'