Why most customer interviews only scratch the surface
'The edge of language' and six tips on getting there
Interviewing is the best research tool for (early-stage) startups.
Yet most people don’t get the most out of conversations with customers
Why: they don’t go deep
Why: they accept vague and superficial answers
In this article: 6 ways to get to the core of your interviewee
I failed as a trainer in interviewing
I’ve trained hundreds of founders to ask good questions in customer interviews, but was only partially satisfied.
Why is it so hard to train on asking good questions?
I’ve tried talking a lot about problems, how to recognise them, jobs to be done, how to recognise those. But often whenever I met them after they spoke to a bunch of customers, they failed to figure out some critical things.
Key idea: the edge of language
Why is that? I was inspired by a conversation by Lenny’s Newsletter Lenny with one of Jobs to be Done co-creators, Bob Moesta.
Bob mentioned the idea of ‘Edge of Language’.
In my words, the edge of language is the limits of someone's vocabulary to describe things. If you are doing interviews, you often ask about things people might never articulated before in their lifetime.
Get your interviewee to the edge of language
Meaning, this person has never articulated something this deep about a problem or product before. You should help your customer to find the right words.
If you do that, you will get super-rich answers.
6 tips to get your interviewee to the edge of language
😢 Highlight emotions
Often in interviews, people will say: “That made me annoyed” or something like that. But what does annoyed mean to this person?
“What is feeling annoyed, for you?”
“Why is that making you feel annoyed?”
“How do you know you are annoyed?”
Can your team benefit from supercharging their interviews? I offer a full-day training on asking the right questions. Let’s discuss it!
🌫️ Break open abstract or ambiguous words
People tend to summarise experiences in one or two words. Interviewing a runner might say: “That day I had a really good run”. What is that, precisely?
“What is a good run for you?”
“What do you do to make a good run?”
“What’s the last good run you had?”
“What is the last time you had a bad run?”
🪞 Mirror non-verbal communication
We all know that statistic that says X% of communication is non-verbal. Yet, most people are not aware of their non-verbal communication. And that can be a gold mine for things people care deeply about. You should, with a sincere smile, ask about the things you see.
“You just rolled your eyes when I said SCRUM, why is that?”
“Why did you just laugh when I finished my question?”
Interviewee lets out a deep sigh before answering the question: “What’s up with that deep sigh?”
Can your team benefit from supercharging their interviews? I offer a full-day training on asking the right questions. Let’s discuss it!
🔁 Ask for another phrasing
If you are on to something important, sometimes it can just be as simple as asking for another wording. People are not very consistent when speaking. Therefore, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to let someone re-explain what they just said.
“To be sure I understand correctly, can you explain it in other words?”
“Could you rephrase that?”
📊 Gaging normality
This question is about the bigger picture. If someone tells you a story, you better have an idea if this is normal or an edge case. You want to know something about problem frequency and severity.
“Does this occur every time?”
“How often does this occur, like 1 in 10, or 8 in 10?”
💬 Fill in the blanks
Most people I train think they can’t do closed or leading questions because that would cause bias in the answers. However, if you have an honest conversation, you can fill in the blanks. People will speak up against you in my experience.
Example 1:
Interviewee: “Last time I was not satisfied with that brand”
Me: “Were you annoyed with it?”
Interviewee: “Well, not really annoyed, more frustrated, because […]”
Example 2:
Interviewee: “I was so frustrated with that product”
Me: “Did that make you abandon that brand in full or are you still using it?”
Interviewee: “Abandon? No, not really, there’s not a good alternative, but it drives me crazy from time to time”
Can your team benefit from supercharging their interviews? I offer a full-day training on asking the right questions. Let’s discuss it!
Clarifying emotions is such a good one. It’s so hard. The number of times a customer has told me they ‘hate’ how something works in our product, then when I probe further it turns out they use this specific thing like once a month and it’s not that big a deal.
I wonder if that has evolved with time. Words like ‘epic’ or ‘amazing’ or ‘awesome’ for example are used a lot to describe basic, low-level interest stuff (‘this coffee is awesome’ — is it really? It inspires awe?).
Indeed! Also a good one: ask 5x why. This is a known user research interview method to get to the heart of things, to the root cause.
Also, when testing a product or prototype, and they say "hmmmm" you ask "is this what you expected" or "urrhm" can indicate a complexity in your product they had to think about (too long).