How to run customer interviews that reveal real pain, not polite validation. The questions to ask, the ones to avoid, and how many you need.
Customer interviews are the highest-signal, lowest-cost research method in startup building. Done well, they change the roadmap. Done badly, they confirm whatever the founder already believes.
"How did you solve this last time?" produces signal. "Would you use a product that does X?" produces polite lies. Every question about hypothetical future behavior should be replaced with a question about specific past behavior.
1) Walk me through the last time this happened. 2) What did you try? 3) What did you spend on it? 4) What broke? 5) Who else was involved? Everything else is optional.
5 reveal a pattern. 10 confirm it. 20+ show variation across segments. Beyond 30 without new insight, you're procrastinating on building.
Specific dollar amounts mentioned unprompted. Names of specific tools they cobbled together. Emotional language about the pain. Willingness to introduce you to peers with the same problem. Vague enthusiasm is not signal.
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