| name | discovery-interviews-surveys |
| description | Designs structured interview guides, survey instruments, and JTBD probes to learn from users while avoiding common research biases (leading questions, confirmation bias, selection bias). Use when validating product assumptions before building, discovering unmet user needs, understanding customer problems and workflows, testing concepts or positioning, researching target markets, identifying jobs-to-be-done and hiring triggers, or uncovering pain points and workarounds. |
Discovery Interviews & Surveys
Table of Contents
Workflow
Copy this checklist and track your progress:
Discovery Research Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Define research objectives and hypotheses
- [ ] Step 2: Identify target participants
- [ ] Step 3: Choose research method (interviews, surveys, or both)
- [ ] Step 4: Design research instruments
- [ ] Step 5: Conduct research and collect data
- [ ] Step 6: Analyze findings and extract insights
Step 1: Define research objectives
Specify what you're trying to learn, key hypotheses to test, success criteria for research, and decision to be informed. See Common Patterns for typical objectives.
Step 2: Identify target participants
Define participant criteria (demographics, behaviors, firmographics), sample size needed, recruitment strategy, and screening questions. For sampling strategies, see resources/methodology.md.
Step 3: Choose research method
Based on objective and constraints:
- For deep problem discovery (5-15 participants) → Use resources/template.md for in-depth interviews
- For concept testing at scale (50-200+ participants) → Use resources/template.md for quantitative validation
- For JTBD research → Use resources/methodology.md for switch interviews
- For mixed methods → Interviews for discovery, surveys for validation
Step 4: Design research instruments
Create interview guide or survey with bias-avoidance techniques. Use resources/template.md for structure. Avoid leading questions, focus on past behavior, use "show me" requests. For advanced question design, see resources/methodology.md.
Step 5: Conduct research
Execute interviews (record with permission, take notes) or distribute surveys (pilot test first). Use proper techniques (active listening, follow-up probes, silence for thinking). See Guardrails for critical requirements.
Step 6: Analyze findings
For interviews: thematic coding, affinity mapping, quote extraction. For surveys: statistical analysis, cross-tabs, open-end coding. Create insights document with evidence. Self-assess using resources/evaluators/rubric_discovery_interviews_surveys.json. Minimum standard: Average score ≥ 3.5.
Common Patterns
Pattern 1: Problem Discovery Interviews
- Objective: Understand user pain points and current workflows
- Approach: 8-12 in-depth interviews, open-ended questions, focus on past behavior and actual solutions
- Key questions: "Tell me about the last time...", "Walk me through...", "What have you tried?", "How's that working?"
- Output: Problem themes, frequency estimates, current workarounds, willingness to change
- Example: B2B SaaS discovery—interview potential customers about current tools and pain points
Pattern 2: Jobs-to-be-Done Research
- Objective: Identify why users "hire" products and what triggers switching
- Approach: Switch interviews with recent adopters or switchers, focus on timeline and context
- Key questions: "What prompted you to look?", "What alternatives did you consider?", "What almost stopped you?", "What's different now?"
- Output: Hiring triggers, firing triggers, desired outcomes, anxieties, habits
- Example: SaaS churn research—interview recent churners about switch to competitor
Pattern 3: Concept Testing (Qualitative)
- Objective: Test product concepts, positioning, or messaging before launch
- Approach: 10-15 interviews showing concept (mockup, landing page, description), gather reactions
- Key questions: "In your own words, what is this?", "Who is this for?", "What would you use it for?", "How much would you expect to pay?"
- Output: Comprehension score, perceived value, target audience clarity, pricing anchors
- Example: Pre-launch validation—test landing page messaging with target audience
Pattern 4: Survey for Quantitative Validation
- Objective: Validate findings from interviews at scale or prioritize features
- Approach: 100-500 participants, mix of scaled questions (Likert, ranking) and open-ends
- Key questions: Satisfaction scores (CSAT, NPS), feature importance/satisfaction (Kano), usage frequency, demographics
- Output: Statistical significance, segmentation, prioritization (importance vs satisfaction matrix)
- Example: Product roadmap prioritization—survey 500 users on feature importance
Pattern 5: Continuous Discovery
- Objective: Ongoing learning, not one-time project
- Approach: Weekly customer conversations (15-30 min), rotating team members, shared notes
- Key questions: Varies by current focus (new features, onboarding, expansion, retention)
- Output: Continuous insight feed, early problem detection, relationship building
- Example: Product team does 3-5 customer calls weekly, logs insights in shared doc
Guardrails
Key requirements:
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Avoid leading questions: Phrase questions neutrally rather than telegraphing the "right" answer. Instead of: "Don't you think our UI is confusing?" use: "Walk me through using this feature. What happened?"
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Focus on past behavior, not hypotheticals: What people did reveals truth; what they say they'd do is often wrong. Instead of: "Would you use this feature?" use: "Tell me about the last time you needed to do X."
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Use "show me" over "tell me": Actual behavior is more reliable than described behavior. Ask to screen-share, demonstrate current workflow, show artifacts (spreadsheets, tools).
-
Recruit right participants: Screen carefully. Wrong participants waste time. Define inclusion/exclusion criteria and use screening surveys.
-
Sample size appropriate for method: Interviews: 5-15 for themes to emerge. Surveys: 100+ for statistical significance, 30+ per segment if comparing.
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Seek disconfirming evidence: Actively look for evidence against your hypothesis. If 9/10 interviews support the hypothesis, focus heavily on the 1 that does not.
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Record and transcribe (with permission): Memory is unreliable. Record interviews, transcribe for analysis. Take notes as backup.
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Analyze systematically: Use thematic coding, count themes, and present contradictory evidence rather than cherry-picking supportive quotes.
Common pitfalls:
- ❌ Asking "would you" questions: Hypotheticals are unreliable. Focus on "have you", "tell me about when", "show me"
- ❌ Small sample statistical claims: "80% of users want feature X" from 5 interviews is not valid. Interviews = themes, surveys = statistics
- ❌ Selection bias: Interviewing only enthusiasts or only detractors skews results. Recruit diverse sample
- ❌ Ignoring non-verbal cues: Hesitation, confusion, workarounds during "show me" reveal truth beyond words
- ❌ Stopping at surface answers: First answer is often rationalization. Follow up: "Tell me more", "Why did that matter?", "What else?"
Quick Reference
Key resources:
Typical workflow time:
- Interview guide design: 1-2 hours
- Conducting 10 interviews: 10-15 hours (including scheduling)
- Analysis and synthesis: 4-8 hours
- Survey design: 2-4 hours
- Survey distribution and collection: 1-2 weeks
- Survey analysis: 2-4 hours
When to escalate:
- Large-scale quantitative studies (1000+ participants)
- Statistical modeling or advanced segmentation
- Longitudinal studies (tracking over time)
- Ethnographic research (observing in natural setting)
→ Use resources/methodology.md or consider specialist researcher
Inputs required:
- Research objective: What you're trying to learn
- Hypotheses (optional): Specific beliefs to test
- Target persona: Who to interview/survey
- Job-to-be-done (optional): Specific JTBD focus
Outputs produced:
discovery-interviews-surveys.md: Complete research plan with interview guide or survey, recruitment criteria, analysis plan, and insights template
