| name | customer-research |
| description | Plans, runs, and synthesizes customer research — interviews, surveys, win-loss analysis, and message testing — into findings that change decisions. Use this when the customer is being guessed at, before positioning or a major launch, when churn or conversion has an unexplained cause, or when a team is arguing from anecdotes. Also use to turn raw interview notes into usable findings. |
Customer research
Research earns its cost only if a decision hangs on it. Name that decision before recruiting anyone.
Choose the method by question
- Why did this happen / what do they actually do — interviews. Small n, deep.
- How common is this — survey. Only after interviews have told you what to ask; a survey written
from assumptions returns your assumptions.
- Why did we win or lose — win-loss, with losses weighted higher. Losses are where the truth is
and are systematically under-sampled.
- Which framing works — message testing against a real choice, not a preference rating.
Interviewing
Ask about the past, not the future. "What did you do last time" is evidence; "would you use this"
is politeness.
- Open broad, follow the energy, and go quiet after their first answer — the second one is where the
substance is.
- Chase specifics: when, what happened next, what did that cost you, who else was involved.
- Never describe your solution before you have their problem in their words. Once they know what you
want to hear, the interview is over.
- Watch for the workaround. Anything someone has built a spreadsheet to survive is a validated
problem.
Synthesizing
Code the transcripts before forming a view — findings assembled to support an existing belief will
be. For each finding record: the claim, how many independently said it, a verbatim quote, and what
would change if it is true. A finding that changes nothing is trivia.
Separate what people said, what they did, and what you inferred. Conflating the three is
the most common way research misleads.
Never
- Recruit only happy customers. The sample that answers your email is not your market.
- Lead: "How much would this feature help?" has one answer.
- Present a single interview as a finding.
