Expert and User Interviews SKILL.md

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---
name: expert-user-interviews
description: "Plan and run customer, user, buyer, churn and expert interviews: learning goals, recruiting by behaviour, discussion guides with past-behaviour questions, good versus leading questions, consent and recording, note-taking, debriefs, expert interview tips and handover to synthesis. Use whenever someone needs to interview customers, users, prospects or experts, write an interview guide, run win-loss or churn interviews, recruit participants or avoid leading questions in research."
license: CC-BY-4.0
metadata:
  author: Afeez Adebayo
  author_url: https://afeezadebayo.com
  author_linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afeez-adebayo/
  author_x: https://x.com/za_icon
  source: https://afeezadebayo.com/skills-md/productivity/research-learning/expert-user-interviews/
  category: productivity
  subcategory: research-learning
  version: "1.0.0"
  created: "2026-10-10"
  updated: "2026-10-14"
---

# Expert and User Interviews

Some answers only exist in people's heads: why customers switched, how a buyer really decides, what an industry expert expects next year, where a process breaks. Interviews uncover them, but poorly run interviews mislead. Leading questions invite agreement, hypothetical questions ("would you use this?") produce polite guesses, and talking to the wrong people produces confident but irrelevant answers. Rob Fitzpatrick's The Mom Test summarises a practical rule: ask about people's past behaviour and specific experiences, not their opinions about your idea. [Reference, Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test]

This skill plans and runs interviews with customers, users, prospects and experts: defining learning goals, recruiting the right people, writing discussion guides with open, behaviour-based questions, running and recording interviews ethically, taking useful notes, avoiding bias and turning conversations into evidence.

## Operating principles
1. **Learning goals first.** Know what decisions the interviews inform.
2. **Talk to the right people.** Recruit by behaviour and role, not convenience.
3. **Ask about the past, not the hypothetical.** "Tell me about the last time..." beats "Would you...?"
4. **Listen more than you talk.** Aim for the interviewee speaking most of the time.
5. **Follow the story.** Ask why, how and what happened next; dig into specifics.
6. **Respect consent and privacy.** Explain the purpose, recording and use of data.

## Interview types
| Type | Purpose | Typical number |
|---|---|---|
| Customer discovery | Understand problems and current behaviour | 8 to 15 per segment |
| Win and loss interviews | Why buyers chose or rejected you | 10 to 20 per quarter |
| Churn interviews | Why customers left | 8 to 12 |
| Usability or task interviews | How people use a product | 5 to 8 per round |
| Expert interviews | Industry knowledge, forecasts, context | 3 to 10 |
| Stakeholder interviews | Internal needs and constraints | All key stakeholders |
Patterns often start repeating after about 8 to 12 interviews in a well-defined segment; keep going if new themes still appear.

## Good and bad questions
| Avoid | Ask instead |
|---|---|
| Would you use a tool that does X? | Tell me about the last time you had to do X. |
| Do you like our product? | Walk me through how you used it last week. |
| How much would you pay? | What do you currently spend on solving this? |
| Isn't onboarding confusing? | What happened when you first set it up? |
| Why didn't you buy? (asked bluntly) | How did you make the decision? Who else was involved? |

## When to use, and when not to
Use it for customer research, product discovery, win and loss analysis, churn reasons, buyer journeys, expert input for market research and internal stakeholder research.

Don't use interviews to measure how common something is (use surveys or data) or to sell disguised as research.

## Inputs
- Learning goals and the decision they inform.
- Target interviewees by segment, role and behaviour.
- Access: customer lists, networks, recruiting panels, expert networks.
- Incentives, consent forms and recording tools.
- Timeline.

## Workflow

### Step 1. Define learning goals
Three to five things you need to learn, tied to decisions.

### Step 2. Define and recruit participants
Screening criteria by behaviour (for example "switched accounting software in the last 6 months"); recruit across the segments that matter; offer appropriate incentives.

### Step 3. Write the discussion guide
Warm-up, context, the main story questions, probes, wrap-up. Keep it to 8 to 12 core questions for 30 to 45 minutes.

### Step 4. Prepare logistics
Consent, recording permission, note-taker or transcription, quiet setting.

### Step 5. Run the interview
Explain purpose, start broad, follow specifics, avoid pitching, use silence and "tell me more".

### Step 6. Capture notes immediately
Key quotes, behaviours, problems, workarounds, triggers, surprises; tag by learning goal.

### Step 7. Debrief
After each interview, write a five-line summary; after every few, look for patterns and adjust the guide.

### Step 8. Synthesise
Across interviews, group findings into themes with evidence (see `research-synthesis`).

## Discussion guide template
```
Intro (2 min): purpose, consent, recording, no right or wrong answers
Context (5 min): role, team, responsibilities, tools used
Story (20 min):
- Tell me about the last time you <did the task / faced the problem>.
- What triggered it? What did you do first? Then what?
- What was hardest? Why?
- What did you try instead? How did that go?
- Who else was involved? How was the decision made?
Current solution (5 min): what you use now, cost, what you would change
Wrap-up (3 min): anything we did not ask? Who else should we talk to?
```

## Expert interview tips
- Prepare with desk research so you ask what only they can answer.
- Ask for reasoning, not only predictions: "What makes you think that?"
- Ask about uncertainties and what would change their view.
- Respect confidentiality and compliance rules, especially through expert networks.

## Probing techniques
| Technique | Example |
|---|---|
| Ask for specifics | "Can you remember the exact moment that happened?" |
| Ask why, gently | "What made that important?" |
| Mirror | Repeat their last words as a question to invite more |
| Silence | Wait three seconds after an answer; people often add the real reason |
| Ask for evidence | "Could you show me how you do that?" |

## Note-taking template
```
Interviewee: <role, segment, company size> | Date | Interviewer
Context: <...>
Key story: <trigger, steps, outcome>
Problems and workarounds: <...>
Quotes: "<verbatim>" (time stamp)
Surprises: <...>
Tags: <learning goals>
```

## Recruiting messages
Keep invitations short: why you are reaching out, what the conversation is about (not a sales call), how long it takes, the incentive and how to book. Recruiting from churned customers, lost deals and non-customers gives a truer picture than talking only to fans.

## Using AI with interviews
Transcription and AI summaries save time, but check summaries against transcripts for key quotes and decisions, remove personal data before sharing widely and store recordings according to consent and retention rules.

Thank every participant and share what changed.

## Edge cases and judgement calls
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Interviewee keeps giving opinions | Redirect to a specific past example |
| Interviewee is a big customer | Separate research from sales; involve the account owner |
| Hard-to-reach roles | Use referrals, LinkedIn outreach, incentives and short slots |
| Sensitive topics | Extra care with consent, anonymity and data storage |
| Different languages | Native-speaking interviewers or interpreters; translate notes carefully |
| Team members want to pitch | Agree roles beforehand: research only |

## Handoffs to related skills
- Planning: `research-planning`
- Surveys to quantify findings: `survey-design`
- Synthesis: `research-synthesis`
- Meeting notes: the Meetings and Calendar `meeting-notes-actions` skill
- Persuasion of stakeholders afterwards: the Communication and Presentations `persuasion-influence` skill

## Worked example
A SaaS team believed customers churned because of price. Twelve churn interviews asked about the last weeks before cancelling: what happened, who decided and what they moved to. Most stories described failed onboarding and a champion leaving, with price mentioned only as the final reason given to finance. The team changed its retention focus to onboarding and champion handovers, and churn fell over the next two quarters.

## Common mistakes
- Asking hypothetical questions about the future.
- Pitching instead of listening.
- Interviewing whoever is easiest to reach.
- Taking poor notes and relying on memory.
- Treating one strong opinion as a pattern.

## Output format
```
1. Learning goals
2. Participant criteria and recruitment plan
3. Discussion guide
4. Consent and logistics checklist
5. Interview summaries
6. Emerging themes for synthesis
```

## Self-check before you answer
- Are learning goals tied to decisions?
- Are participants recruited by behaviour and role?
- Do questions focus on past behaviour, not hypotheticals?
- Are consent, notes and summaries handled properly?

---
Created by Afeez Adebayo, Marketing, SEO & Growth Expert
Website: https://afeezadebayo.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afeez-adebayo/
X: https://x.com/za_icon
Source: https://afeezadebayo.com/skills-md/productivity/research-learning/expert-user-interviews/

Licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). You may copy, share and adapt this skill, including for commercial use, as long as you credit Afeez Adebayo and link to the source URL above. Keep this notice in any copy or adapted version.