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Example Customer Discovery Interview Script

Purpose: Understand the customer’s needs, their problems and how they currently deal with them. This is they key work behind developing your
Customer Compass
⁠
​Tone: CURIOUS, conversational, and empathetic. ​Avoid pitching your idea! Focus on ACTIVE LISTENING and learning.

Prework.

If you want to enter into this process with credibility, do your research on your customer so you understand as much as you possibly can from the outside, looking in.

Interview

⁠

🔹 1. Warm-Up (2–3 min)

Start casual. Build rapport. Ideally even a personal relationship through any connection you may have or be able to establish. See if you can confirm what you’ve learned from your research, showing you’ve taken time to understand them and their business already. Then proceed to the interview:
“Thanks for taking the time. I’m trying to better understand how ªpeople like) you handle [domain/problem area].”
“Can you tell me a bit about your role/day-to-day?”
Get to understand their role well enough to be able to represent them internally in your startup as the proxy voice of the customer.
⁠

🔹 2. Explore the Problem Space (5–10 min)

“What are some of the biggest challenges you face with [relevant area]?”
“Walk me through the last time that happened.”
“What did you do? How did you try to solve it?”
“What was frustrating or hard about that?”
🔍 Follow-up with:
“Why was that a problem?” “Can you give me an example?” “How did that affect your work/life?”
⁠

🔹 3. Validate with the a framework like the 4Us (5–7 min)

Unworkable
“What happens if you don’t solve this?”
“How significant are the consequences for you / the business?”
“Have you ever built a workaround?”
Unavoidable
“Is this something you must deal with — or could you ignore it?”
Urgent
“When it came up last, how quickly did you need to act on it?”
Underserved
“What have you tried so far?”
“What’s still frustrating or missing?”
⁠

🔹 4. Wrap-Up (2–3 min)

A this stage, you want to build trust, not trigger defenses by starting to pitch in any way. So while you could ask questions like
“If something made this way easier, how valuable would that be to you?”
or
“Would you be open to seeing something later if we build a prototype?”
Don’t be tempted into that line of questioning too early. The goal is to leave the door open genuinely, while also leaving them intrigued.
“You’ve clearly thought about this a lot. As wex` end up digging deeper, would you be open to further conversation to validate how me plan on overcoming your challenges?”
Remember you first want to have such a clear definition of their problem that building a value proposition and solution for it is obvious.
If you’ve really built trust you could also go to things like:
“Anyone else you think I should talk to, that might help me understand this further?”

Active Listening

Active listening can help you get both what you need and build real trust in the process.
My definition of Active Listening is the powerful art of truly hearing and embracing another’s words with full presence and empathy, creating genuine connection and mutual understanding.
Try this simple grid when doing your customer interviews to check you’re actively listening:
What they said
What you heard and took away from them
Did they validate it when you repeated it back to them?
Get permission to record it
Active listening, repeated curious questioning should yield key takeaways
This is key to both validating them, leaving them feeling seen and heard and building mutual TRUST 🤝



There are no rows in this table
⁠
megaphone
Startup Secret: The first time you ask a question you’ll get an answer, but if you get really curious and ask the same question in enough different ways, you’ll often even surprise the interviewee and reveal the real answer

✨ Tips:

Stay neutral. Ask open questions. Avoid selling or leading questions.
Focus on understanding their actual situation and business, not hypotheticals.
Record (with permission) or take good notes.
Don’t worry about asking every question — flow with the conversation and leave the interviewee feeling excited to continue the dialog and learn more how you can help them.



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