User Interview Questions and Strategies

The best startups are the ones where the founders themselves maintain a direct connection to their users. Here are some questions and strategies that you can use to extract helpful information from your users at all stages of running your company:

1. Idea Stage (When You Don’t Have Any Users Yet)

• What’s the hardest part about [doing something]?

• Tell me about the last time you encountered this problem?

• Why was it hard?

• Have you done anything to solve this problem?

• What don’t you love about the solutions you’ve already tried?

2. Prototype Stage (Figuring Out Who Will Be Your Best First Customer)

• How much money do you spend trying to solve this problem?

• How frequently do you encounter this problem?

• How large is your budget for solving this problem?

3. Launched Stage (Iterating Towards Product/Market Fit)

• How would you feel if you could no longer use [our product]?

Remember, the goal of a user interview is to learn about the user’s problem in a broader context that will help you improve your product, your marketing, or your positioning. Not to sell them on using your product.