Discovery Interview Guide

Discovery Interview Guide Skill

Design interviews that surface genuine insight — not validation of what you already believe. Every guide follows a story-based, past-behaviour-focused structure.

Core Principles

1. Never ask about the future. "Would you use X?" tells you nothing. "Tell me about the last time you did X" tells you everything.
2. Interview for behaviour, not opinion. Opinions are cheap. Behaviour is evidence.
3. The 5 Whys. Every surface answer is a door. Keep opening doors.
4. Confirm the problem before exploring the solution. Never show a prototype until you've confirmed the pain exists unprompted.

Interview Structure (60 minutes standard)

1. Warm-Up (5 min)

Build rapport. Get them talking. Don't discuss the topic yet.

• "Tell me a bit about your role and what a typical week looks like for you."
• "What tools do you rely on most day-to-day?"

2. Context Setting (10 min)

Understand their world before diving into the problem space.

• "Walk me through how you currently [handle the domain area]."
• "What does that process look like from start to finish?"
• "Who else is involved when you do this?"

3. Problem Exploration (25 min) — THE CORE

Surface pain without leading.

• "Tell me about the last time you had to [relevant task]. What happened?"
• "What was the hardest part of that?"
• "How did you handle it?"
• "What did you try before settling on that approach?"
• "What does it cost you when this goes wrong?" (time, money, stress, reputation)
• "If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about this process, what would it be?"

⚠️ Do not mention your product or feature during this phase.

4. Current Solutions (10 min)

Understand the competitive landscape from their perspective.

• "What tools or workarounds do you use today for this?"
• "What do you like about [current solution]? What frustrates you?"
• "Have you tried other approaches? What happened?"

5. Wrap-Up (10 min)

• "Is there anything about this topic we haven't covered that you think I should know?"
• "Is there anyone else you'd recommend I speak to?"
• "Would you be open to a follow-up if I have more questions?"

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Output Format

Discovery Interview Guide — [Topic] — [Date]

Research Goal: [One sentence: what decision will this research inform?] Target Participant Profile: [Role, company size, behaviour qualifier]

Screener Questions (for recruiting):

1. [Question] → Must answer: [Y/N or specific]
2. [Question] → Must answer: [Y/N or specific]
3. [Disqualifier question] → Disqualify if: [answer]

Interview Guide:

[Full structured guide using the format above, customised to the specific research topic]

Synthesis Template (fill after each interview):

• Key quote: "[verbatim]"
• Core pain: [1 sentence]
• Current workaround: [what they're doing today]
• Intensity (1–5): [how painful is this?]
• Surprise/unexpected finding: [anything that challenged your assumptions]

Pattern Detection (after 5+ interviews):

• Pain mentioned by [X/N] participants: [theme]
• Workaround used by [X/N] participants: [theme]
• Most emotionally charged moment in interviews: [observation]

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Required Inputs

Ask the user for these if not provided:

• Research topic or question (what decision will this inform?)
• Target participant profile (role, behaviour, company type)
• Session length (30 / 45 / 60 / 90 minutes)
• Number of interviews planned
• Known hypotheses to test or avoid confirming prematurely (optional)

Deeper Materials

This skill ships with support files — use them when they are available:

• references/question-craft.md — Question Craft: Getting Truth Instead of Politeness. Apply it while producing the output; it carries the calibration and judgment calls the method summary above compresses.
• templates/guide-skeleton.md — a fill-in version of the deliverable with the quality gates inline. Offer it when the user wants to work the document themselves rather than have it generated.