Interviewing potential customers
What it means
Customer language reveals the pain, objections, desired outcomes, and words your marketing should use.
The useful version of this topic is not theoretical. It should change something visible: the customer you choose, the words on the page, the offer in the email, the onboarding step you remove, or the metric you watch every week.
A good test is whether a founder could use this page and do something before lunch. If the answer is no, the topic is still too abstract.
Actions
Start with the smallest action that creates contact with reality. For early distribution, reality usually means a buyer, a user, a search result, a conversation, or a payment.
- Collect exact phrases from interviews, reviews, and community posts.
- Group quotes by pain, desired outcome, and objection.
- Reuse clear customer language in landing pages and outreach.
Measure
Measure the signal closest to customer progress. Vanity numbers are allowed only if they predict something better later.
- Interview count
- Repeated pain themes
- Message conversion rate
Template
Customer: [specific person or company] Current workflow: [what they do today] Pain: [what costs time, money, status, or sleep] Trigger: [what makes them look for a solution now] Proof needed: [what they must believe before buying] Next step: [conversation, demo, waitlist, pilot, or purchase]