| name | switch-interview |
| description | Run a Bob Moesta JTBD switch interview — reconstruct the timeline of a real purchase and code the four forces (push, pull, anxiety, habit). Produces a force-coded timeline of why a specific customer actually switched. Use to understand real buying decisions for B2B or high-consideration purchases. |
| argument-hint | [a recent customer who switched to or from the product] |
| user-invocable | true |
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep |
Run a switch interview for $ARGUMENTS.
A switch interview answers one specific question: why did this person buy this product at that moment? It
is post-purchase and retrospective — distinct from generative discovery interviews
(/product-manager:write-interview-guide), which are prospective and exploratory. This skill follows
Bob Moesta's switch interview method (Demand-Side Sales 101): a purchase
only happens when four forces align, and you reconstruct the real timeline like a documentary maker rather
than asking evaluative questions.
Follow every step. The output is a force-coded timeline of an actual purchase, not a hypothetical.
Step 1: Pick a real, recent switch
Choose someone who made an actual purchase or behavioural switch — to your product, away from it, or to a
competitor — recently enough to remember the detail. The switch must be real and specific; "people who
might buy" is not a switch interview subject. This step is complete when you have one named person and the
switch they made.
Step 2: Reconstruct the timeline (the documentary frame)
Rather than asking evaluative questions, reconstruct what actually happened, with the level of detail
you'd use to make a film of that day. Walk the four moments of the timeline:
| Moment | What you're reconstructing | Sample prompt |
|---|
| First thought | When they first noticed the problem | "Take me back to when you first realised the old way wasn't working. Where were you?" |
| Passive looking | Idle awareness, no active search yet | "After that, were you keeping half an eye out? What did you notice?" |
| Active looking | What triggered real research | "What happened that made you actually start looking? What did you do that day?" |
| The event / decision | What tipped them into buying | "Walk me through the day you decided. What happened right before?" |
Use specifics — days, places, who else was in the room, what was said. Vague summaries ("I just needed
something better") are a signal to dig: "What specifically happened?" This step is complete when you have a
dated, detailed timeline from first thought to decision.
Step 3: Code the four forces
Map what you heard onto the Forces of Progress. Push and pull drive the
switch; anxiety and habit resist it. If push and pull outweigh anxiety and habit, people switch — if not,
they don't, regardless of product quality:
| Force | Direction | Definition | What you heard |
|---|
| Push | Drives switch | Dissatisfaction with the current situation | [quote] |
| Pull | Drives switch | Attraction of the new approach | [quote] |
| Anxiety | Resists switch | Uncertainty about whether the new thing will work or fit | [quote] |
| Habit | Resists switch | Inertia toward what they already do | [quote] |
Code with real quotes from the timeline, not your interpretation. This step is complete when each force has
at least one quote, or is explicitly marked absent.
Step 4: Extract the demand-side insight
Synthesise what the forces reveal:
- What job were they hiring the product to do? Often non-obvious and different from your feature framing
- What anxiety nearly stopped the switch? This is where onboarding, guarantees, and trial design earn
their keep
- What habit had to be overcome? And what made it possible
- What was the real competition? Often not who you think — sometimes "do nothing" or a spreadsheet
This step is complete when the analysis names the job, the decisive anxiety, the overcome habit, and the
real competition.
Rules
- Reconstruct, don't evaluate. "How did you feel about feature X?" is the wrong question. "Walk me
through the day you decided" is the right one. Evaluative questions get rationalisations; timeline
reconstruction gets what happened.
- Demand specifics. Days, places, people, exact words. Vague summaries hide the real forces. When you
hear a summary, dig for the moment.
- Code with quotes, not interpretation. A force coded from your inference is your assumption. A force
coded from their words is evidence.
- Switch interviews are retrospective. This is not the tool for exploring a problem space before a
product exists — use generative interviews for that.
- The real competition is often "nothing". Habit and the status quo are the most common things you're
actually competing against. Code them seriously.
Output Format
Write to docs/product/switch-interview-[participant-slug].md:
# Switch interview: [participant] — [the switch]
| Field | Value |
|-------|-------|
| Switched | [from → to] |
| When | [date of purchase] |
| Interview date | [date] |
## Timeline
| Moment | What happened (specific) |
|--------|--------------------------|
| First thought | ... |
| Passive looking | ... |
| Active looking | ... |
| The event / decision | ... |
## Force coding
| Force | Quote |
|-------|-------|
| Push | "..." |
| Pull | "..." |
| Anxiety | "..." |
| Habit | "..." |
## Demand-side insight
- **Job hired for:** ...
- **Decisive anxiety:** ...
- **Habit overcome:** ...
- **Real competition:** ...
Related Skills
/product-manager:write-jtbd — the four forces also appear in the JTBD hiring criteria; this skill
grounds them in a real purchase rather than assumption./product-manager:write-interview-guide — the prospective, exploratory counterpart for problem discovery./product-manager:synthesise-interviews — fold force patterns across several switch interviews into the OST.
