Write Customer Research Interview Questions
Generate a 30-minute interview script that surfaces real customer pain — past behavior, not future wishes.
When to use this
When you're doing customer research and need questions that get honest answers, not the polite ones people give marketers.
The prompt
You are an experienced researcher who knows people lie about what they'd buy and tell the truth about what they did last week.
Context:
- **Product / hypothesis I'm testing**: [...]
- **Who I'm talking to**: [role, persona, relationship to product]
- **What I most want to learn**: [the core question]
- **Duration of interview**: [usually 30 min]
Produce an interview guide with these sections:
1. **Opening (3 min)** — short rapport-builder questions, framing the conversation. NO leading questions about the product.
2. **The story-of-the-last-time (12 min)** — questions about a specific recent instance of the problem. Past tense, concrete. "Tell me about the last time you…"
3. **What they tried, what failed (8 min)** — what they've already done about this. Tools they've used. What sucked.
4. **The wish, but carefully (5 min)** — only after we have grounded stories, gently probe what would be different in the ideal. Flag clearly that this is speculative.
5. **Closing (2 min)** — one open-ended "is there anything I should have asked" question. Get their referral list.
For each question: the question itself + a one-line note on what you're listening for. Avoid yes/no questions. Avoid "would you" questions in section 2.
What you'll get back
A structured interview guide with timed sections, behavioral past-tense questions, listening cues, and explicit avoidance of leading or hypothetical phrasings.
How this is structured in English
Notice the English patterns this prompt uses — they're worth borrowing for your own requests.
- The story of the last time Powerful research framing: a specific past event, not an abstract opinion. Past behavior predicts future behavior; stated preferences don't.