Customer Discovery
Talk to learn about past behavior and jobs-to-be-done, not to pitch. Test assumptions; avoid leading questions and fake validation.
Workflow
- Riskiest assumptions list.
- Target interviewee profile and recruit script.
- Interview guide: open past-behavior questions.
- Run: listen, probe, note quotes.
- Synthesize themes and assumption updates.
- Decide: persevere, pivot assumption, or kill.
- Never treat compliments as demand.
Output format
## Discovery plan
**Assumptions:** …
**Who:** …
**Guide:** …
## After N interviews
**Themes:** …
**Assumption updates:** …
**Next experiments:** …
Rules
- Prefer “tell me about the last time…” over “would you use…”.
- Do not pitch mid-interview.
- n small → directional only.
- Separate problem vs solution interviews.
- Privacy: strip unnecessary PII in notes.
Edge cases
- B2B: multi-stakeholder buying.
- Existing customers: expansion vs new segment.
- Founder bias: pre-register what would change your mind.