Form questions

Customer interview questions for discovery calls

Use 10 to 15 in a 30 minute call, chosen from each stage. Never skip the last time they had the problem, what they did about it, and what they use today. Those three show whether the problem is real, how painful it is and what a new product must beat.

Customer interview questions for discovery should ask about what people did recently, not what they would do in the future, because past behaviour is the best evidence of a real problem. These twenty three questions run in five stages and are captured by the interviewer in a form, so every call produces notes in the same shape.

The questions

Context

  1. Interviewee role and company sizeShort textRequired

    Filled in by the interviewer before the call from the booking details.

  2. Tell me about your role and what a normal week looks like.Long text

    A warm up that also shows where the problem sits in their week.

  3. How did you come to be the person who handles this?Long text

Workflow

  1. Walk me through the last time you did this, step by step.Long textRequired

    Ask about a specific recent time, not the usual way.

  2. Who else was involved?Short text

  3. How long did it take?Single choice

    Under an hour, a few hours, a day, more than a day.

  4. What happened just before and just after?Long text

Pain

  1. What was the hardest part?Long textRequired

  2. What did it cost you, in time, money or stress?Long text

  3. How often does that happen?Single choice

  4. Have you tried to solve it? What happened?Long text

    A problem nobody has tried to solve is rarely painful enough to pay for.

  5. What would happen if you never solved it?Long text

Current tools

  1. What do you use for this today?Multiple choiceRequired

    Spreadsheets, email, a named tool category, paper, nothing.

  2. What do you like about it?Long text

  3. What made you choose it?Long text

  4. What would make you switch?Long text

Willingness and wrap up

  1. How much do you spend on this today, in tools or time?Short text

  2. If something solved it, how valuable would that be?Single choice

    A five point scale; record it after asking the open questions, never before.

  3. Who decides on buying a tool like this?Short text

  4. Interviewer: strength of the problemSingle choice

    Weak, moderate, strong, judged after the call.

  5. Interviewer: key quoteLong text

  6. Can the team follow up later?Single choice

  7. Anyone else you think the team should talk to?Short text

Which questions to make required

Four are required, all filled in by the interviewer: the interviewee role and company size, the walkthrough of the last time, the hardest part, and what they use today. Those are the fields every interview must produce to be compared with the others. Everything else is optional, because a good interview follows the conversation and not every question will come up.

The form built from these questions

A static copy of the finished form, from its own example page.

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Three ways to change this bank

For an existing product, replace the willingness stage with questions about the last time they used the product, what they expected and what happened. For consumers rather than businesses, drop company size and who decides, and ask about the household instead. For a quick five minute intercept at an event, keep only the last time, the hardest part and what they use today. Whichever version you use, resist the urge to ask whether they would buy your product: answers to hypothetical questions are optimistic, and the walkthrough of the last time is far better evidence of what people will actually do.

Questions people ask

What makes a good customer interview question?

It asks about something specific that happened, such as the last time, rather than opinions or predictions. It is open, so the person tells a story. It avoids describing the solution, which invites polite agreement. Follow up with why and what happened next.

Should you pitch the product in a discovery interview?

No. Pitching turns the call into a sales conversation, and people say nice things to be polite. Learn about the problem first. If a demo helps, do it at the very end, after all the problem questions are recorded, and note any reaction separately from the problem evidence.

How many customer interviews are enough?

Keep going until new interviews stop telling you new things about the problem, which for a focused segment often happens within a dozen or two. Talk to more if the segment is broad. Patterns matter more than any single quote.

Why capture interview notes in a form?

A form gives every interview the same fields, so the answers can be compared and counted later. Free notes in documents are hard to search. The interviewer fills it in during or straight after the call, while the details are fresh.

Should interviews be recorded?

Recording helps with exact quotes, but ask permission first and explain how the recording will be stored and used. Some people speak less freely when recorded. The key quote field in this bank captures the most important words either way.

How do you avoid leading questions in an interview?

Ask what happened rather than whether something is a problem, and avoid naming the solution or the answer you hope for. Questions starting with walk me through or tell me about the last time invite stories. If you catch yourself asking would you use, rephrase it as what did you do last time this happened.

Who should run customer interviews?

Ideally the people building the product, with one person asking and one taking notes. Rotating interviewers spreads the learning across the team. Agree the stages and questions beforehand so every interview covers the same ground, and review the notes together each week to spot patterns.

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On writing the questions themselves, read How to write survey questions. For everything the builder can do, see the form maker. Step by step: Create a conversational form with AI, then View, export and manage your responses.

Sources

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