customer-research

name	customer-research
description	Conduct, analyze, and synthesize customer research that actually changes downstream marketing. Use when asked to "interview customers", "synthesize customer research", "find the JTBD", "analyze NPS / churn responses", "build the ICP", "what are customers actually saying", "do voice-of-customer", or "what should we write next". Output feeds paid-ads-context, ad-creative, copywriting, and page-cro.
metadata	{"version":"1.0.0"}

Customer Research

The upstream input to everything downstream. If your marketing is generic, the answer is almost always "you haven't talked to enough customers." This skill runs the loop: pick the people, ask the right questions, synthesize the answers into language and patterns the rest of the agent stack can use.

When to use this skill

• "We're refreshing our ICP" — start here, not in a slide deck
• "Our ads aren't converting" — usually a research gap, not a creative gap
• "Help me write the new homepage" — needs voice-of-customer first
• "Why are people churning?" — interview them, don't speculate
• "What should our next product be?" — JTBD discovery
• "Build me the customer persona" — but specific, not the standard fluffy persona

The three modes

Mode 1: Outreach + recruit

When you don't have customer access yet, the skill helps you:

1. Identify who to interview (ICP-fit, recent purchasers / churners / non-converters)
2. Build the recruit message (high response rate without sounding like a survey)
3. Draft the offer (cash, gift card, or pure-curiosity-bait)
4. Set up the booking flow

Mode 2: Interview

When you've got someone on the call, the skill provides:

1. The right questions for the research goal (JTBD, ICP, churn, NPS-followup, etc.)
2. The probing follow-ups (most insight is in the second follow-up question, not the first)
3. The transcript template (so syntheses later are easier)

Mode 3: Synthesize

When you have transcripts, NPS responses, support tickets, or chat logs, the skill:

1. Extracts the actual language customers use (not your sales team's translation)
2. Identifies the patterns (multiple customers saying similar things)
3. Maps to JTBD, anti-JTBD, switching triggers
4. Outputs a 1-2 page synthesis that updates paid-ads-context.md section 1 (ICP)

Question banks by research goal

The skill picks from these depending on what you're trying to learn.

Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)

Start before, not at the purchase.

• "Walk me through the first time you realized you needed [solution]."
• "What had you been doing before? What was wrong with it?"
• "Who else did you consider? Why didn't you pick them?"
• "What almost made you not buy?"
• "If you had to recommend us to someone in your shoes, what would you say?"
• "Has there been a moment since buying where you almost stopped using us?"

ICP refinement

• "When you imagine the perfect customer for your business, what do they look like?" (turn this on your customer: what does THEIR perfect customer look like?)
• "Why does your work matter to you? Beyond money."
• "Walk me through a typical day. When does [our product] enter your workflow?"
• "What's the moment you decide to spend money on [category]?"
• "What's a place [other than our category] where you spend more than you should?"

Churn / NPS-followup

• "What were you hoping [product] would do that it didn't?"
• "Was there a moment where you knew you were going to leave?"
• "What would have made you stay?"
• "Did you switch to something? What?"
• "If we built [hypothetical fix], would you come back?"

Pricing / packaging

• "What would [product] need to be priced at for you to consider it free?"
• "What's the highest you'd have paid and still felt good?"
• "What's the price where you'd have walked?"
• "What got you over the line to actually pay?"
• "Did you ever consider the cheaper version? Why or why not?"

(These four questions are the Van Westendorp model — gives you usable pricing data from 25 customers, not 250.)

Aborted purchase / lost deal

• "Talk me through what happened. From your side."
• "What were you hoping for that we didn't deliver?"
• "Was there a moment where you knew you weren't going to buy?"
• "What did you end up doing instead?"
• "If we changed [specific thing], would you reconsider?"

Interview craft

The questions matter. The follow-ups matter more.

The 5-second rule

After you ask a question, count to 5 in your head before saying anything else. Most insights surface in the silence after the first answer.

The "tell me more" rule

The first answer is the cleaned-up version. The second answer is the real one.

Whenever you get a generic answer ("I needed something better"), ask "Tell me more about that." Then again. Then once more. The third "tell me more" is where the gold is.

The "specific moment" rule

Generic answers ("I was frustrated") become specific when you ask "Can you take me to a specific moment when that happened?" Then they remember a Tuesday at 4pm with a specific email and a specific feeling.

That Tuesday is your ad creative. The generic version is not.

Synthesis

The synthesis is the artifact. Without it, the interviews are just nice conversations.

Format

A 1-2 page markdown synthesis with:

1. Top patterns — 3-5 things multiple customers said
2. Customer language — direct quotes (with permission), tagged by context
3. JTBD statement — single sentence describing the job the product is being hired for
4. Anti-JTBD — what they're hiring you to NOT do
5. Switching triggers — what made them buy NOW (not someday)
6. Pricing signal — Van Westendorp distribution if you collected it
7. Quotes to use in marketing — 5-10 sentences in customer's own words, ready to drop into hero copy or ad headlines
8. Updates to paid-ads-context.md — specific edits proposed to section 1 (ICP) and section 5 (voice)

Quote curation

Not every quote is usable. The skill picks quotes that:

• Are short enough to fit in an ad (under 25 words)
• Have a specific noun or number ("the dashboard saved me 4 hours a week" beats "it's really helpful")
• Sound like a person, not a survey response
• Have a clear emotion (relief, frustration, surprise)

Anti-patterns

Anti-pattern	Why	Fix
Lead with "What features do you want?"	Customers can't tell you what they need. They tell you what they think they need.	Lead with "Tell me about the last time you struggled with [problem]."
Don't transcribe	You'll synthesize from memory, which loses 60% of the signal	Always record, always transcribe (Otter, Fireflies, etc.)
Sample of 1	One customer is anecdote, not pattern	Minimum 5-7 per segment, ideally 10-15
Only talk to fans	NPS 9-10 promoters are confirmation bias	Mix: 3 promoters, 3 passives, 2 churners, 2 non-buyers
Synthesize without quoting	Your interpretation will smooth the rough edges that make it usable	Always quote verbatim in the synthesis
Skip the anti-JTBD	You'll build features for jobs you weren't hired to do	Always ask "what should this NOT do?"

Where the output goes

1. paid-ads-context.md — section 1 (ICP) gets updated; section 5 (voice) gets fresh customer-language anchors
2. ad-creative skill — uses the customer quotes as hook anchors
3. copywriting skill (if you have one) — uses the JTBD + switching trigger for hero copy
4. Your CRM / call notes — paste the synthesis where the rest of the team can reference it

Related skills

Skill	Relationship
paid-ads-context	Writes section 1 (ICP) and section 5 (voice anchors) from synthesis
ad-creative	Consumes customer language as hook anchors
voice-profile-kit	Complementary — voice-profile is YOUR voice, customer-research is YOUR CUSTOMERS' voice
paid-channel-recap	Geographic and audience patterns from the recap inform who to interview next
google-ads-manager	Search-term reports feed back into what customers are searching for — interview triggers

References

• references/question-banks.md — full question banks by research goal
• references/interview-craft.md — how to run a 45-minute customer interview
• references/synthesis-method.md — turning transcripts into the 1-2 page artifact
• references/van-westendorp-pricing.md — the four-question pricing model
• templates/synthesis.md — the structured synthesis output
• templates/recruit-message.md — the outreach template that gets responses