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No amount of desk research replaces talking to real people. Customer and prospect interviews are the single most valuable research activity you can do as a founder - they surface insights, language and objections that no AI or industry report can give you. If you decide to do customer interviews, this template guides you through the full interview process: designing your hypotheses, preparing your questions, capturing your notes and synthesising your insights.

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PART A — Interview Preparation

Before You Start

• Research objective: [What specific questions are you trying to answer with these interviews?]
• Target interviewees: [Who do you want to speak to? How many interviews are you aiming for? Minimum recommended: 5]
• Recruitment approach: [How will you find and approach interviewees? e.g. LinkedIn, existing network, customer list]
• Interview format: [Video call / phone / in person]
• Estimated interview length: [30 minutes recommended]

Hypotheses to validate

Interview question guide

Opening (2 minutes)

• "Tell me a bit about your role and what you're responsible for."
• "Can you give me some context on [the problem area your product addresses]?"

Discovery (15 minutes)

• "Walk me through how you currently handle [the problem your product solves]."
• "What's the most frustrating part of that process?"
• "What have you tried before to solve this? What worked and what didn't?"
• "What does good look like for you - what would the ideal solution do?"