How to Interview 20 Potential Customers
Scripts, questions, and red flags to watch for in discovery calls.
“The discovery call is not a sales call. It's a permission-to-build call — and most founders botch it in the first 90 seconds.”
The Insight
The goal of a customer interview is not to validate you. It's to discover the customer. If you walk out of the call feeling great, you probably talked too much. If you walk out with three new questions and one uncomfortable pattern, the call worked.
01
Open with Story, Not Pitch
Your first question is always the same: 'Walk me through the last time you ran into [the problem].' Not 'would you use it if...' — that invites polite lies. The story question forces them into memory, and memory reveals truth. Friction they remember is friction that matters. Friction they had to think hard to recall is probably noise.
02
Listen for What They Already Pay For
Watch for any behaviour that already costs them something — money, time, dignity. A Google Sheet maintained weekly, an assistant manually stitching reports, a £300/month SaaS they don't love. Where people already bleed money, there's a market. Where they only 'would love to have' something, there isn't.
03
The Three Red Flags to Name Out Loud
One: they give a feature request but no story. Two: they love the idea but can't name who'd champion it. Three: they volunteer to 'help you test it' but not buy it. Each is a polite way of saying no. Name them to yourself in the notes — 'no story', 'no champion', 'no budget' — and don't let charm override the pattern.
The Takeaway
Twenty interviews done right teach you more than a year of building. Do the twenty. Take notes you'd be embarrassed to show your investors. That's how the business actually forms.
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