customer-research

name	customer-research
description	Use when the user wants to conduct, plan, or synthesize customer research. Also use when the user mentions 'customer research,' 'ICP research,' 'talk to customers,' 'user interviews,' 'win/loss analysis,' 'why do customers churn,' or 'understand our customers better.'

Customer Research

Expert knowledge for planning, conducting, and synthesizing customer research that informs positioning, messaging, and product direction.

Why Customer Research is Marketing's Most Underused Lever

The best marketing copy is written in the customer's own words. Research reveals:

• The exact language customers use to describe their problem
• The trigger event that made them look for a solution
• The fears they had before buying
• Why they chose you over alternatives (your real differentiator)

Research Methods by Goal

Goal	Best Method
Understand why customers buy	Jobs-to-be-Done interviews
Improve onboarding and activation	User interviews + session recordings
Find product-market fit signals	Survey (NPS + open-ended)
Understand why deals are lost	Win/loss interviews
Define ICP characteristics	Customer data analysis + interviews
Validate messaging	5-second test, preference tests

Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) Framework

Customers don't buy products — they hire them to do a job.

Three layers:

1. Functional job: The practical task
2. Social job: How they want to be perceived
3. Emotional job: How they want to feel

JTBD Interview Script

The timeline interview (work backwards from purchase):

1. "Take me back to when you first realized you needed something different. What was happening?"
2. "What triggered that realization?"
3. "What did you do first when you decided to look for solutions?"
4. "What other options did you consider? Why those?"
5. "What made you choose [product] over those alternatives?"
6. "What were you worried about before you bought?"
7. "What would have made you not buy?"
8. "How has your life/work changed since using [product]?"

The magic question: "If [product] disappeared tomorrow and you couldn't use it, what would you do?"

User Interview Best Practices

• 5-8 interviews per segment (more don't add proportional value after 5)
• Interview recent buyers (within 90 days) — memory is fresh
• Ask about the past, not the future
• Silence is a tool — pause and let them fill it
• Never ask leading questions
• Never ask hypothetical questions

Transcript Synthesis

1. Highlight quotes that describe pain, trigger events, fears, benefits, success metrics
2. Extract to observations: verbatim quote + customer type + category
3. Group into themes
4. Count frequency — themes in 3+ of 5 interviews are insights
5. Write insight statements: "[N] of [total] customers said [theme]"

Win/Loss Analysis

Questions:

1. "Can you walk me through how you evaluated your options?"
2. "What were the top 3 things you considered?"
3. "What almost made you choose a different vendor?"
4. "What were you worried about with us?"
5. [For losses] "What would have changed your decision?"

ICP Definition from Research

• Firmographic: Company size, industry, geography, funding stage
• Technographic: Tech stack, tools they currently use
• Psychographic: Attitudes, priorities, decision-making style
• Behavioral: How they evaluate software, buying process
• Situational: Trigger events that make them ready to buy

ICP validation: Plot best customers (highest LTV, lowest churn, most referrals) on each dimension. Where they cluster = confirmed ICP.

Common Rationalizations

Rationalization	Reality
"We already know our customers — we built the product"	Founders' mental model diverges from reality within months of launch.
"5 interviews isn't enough data"	5-8 interviews reveal 80% of the patterns.
"Surveys are faster and cheaper"	Surveys quantify; they don't explain. You need interviews to know what to survey.
"We'll do research after we fix the obvious product issues"	Research tells you what the real issues are.

Verification

• Research goal defined before recruiting
• Interview guide written and reviewed
• 5-8 interviews completed per segment
• Interviews recorded and transcribed
• Synthesis completed: highlight → extract → group → count → write insight statements
• Insights expressed as patterns (N of M), not individual anecdotes
• ICP definition updated with research findings