How to Use Client Interviews to Drive Project Success

If you really want to know what people think of your product or service, ask them these questions. Most people are casual in how they go about getting feedback from customers. We ask people what they think, or send out simple surveys. All of these have some merit, but they only paint part of the picture. Why? Because we ask the wrong questions. I've been part of dozens of research projects and wanted to share some simple tips from the experts that you can start using right away. When meeting with customers, try one or two of these: 1. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 • Let them walk you through their typical day • Their workflow reveals hidden pain points • You'll spot opportunities they haven't even noticed 2. 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 • Ask your question, then wait...and wait • The gold comes after that first answer • Most people jump in too quickly and miss the real insights 3. 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿 • "How did you solve this last week?" (This works) • "Would you use a solution like this?" (This misleads) • Real behavior tells you more than future promises 4. 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 • Write down their exact phrases • Note emotional responses • Pay attention to what they don't say 5. 𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 "What should I have asked you that I didn't?" This simple question has revealed some of our most valuable product insights. The goal isn't to validate your ideas. It's to understand their world so deeply that the right solution becomes obvious. Research professionals do everything they can to remove bias from their interviews. It's difficult to do this if you helped design the product or service you're selling, or you own the company. If you need help and want an unbiased person to run things, feel free to reach out to me. What surprising insights have your customer conversations revealed?

Let's face it: most user interviews are a waste of time and resources. Teams conduct hours of interviews yet still build features nobody uses. Stakeholders sit through research readouts but continue to make decisions based on their gut instincts. Researchers themselves often struggle to extract actionable insights from their conversation transcripts. Here's why traditional user interviews so often fail to deliver value: 1. They're built on a faulty premise The conventional interview assumes users can accurately report their own behaviors, preferences, and needs. People are notoriously bad at understanding their own decision-making processes and predicting their future actions. 2. They collect opinions, not evidence "What do you think about this feature?" "Would you use this?" "How important is this to you?" These standard interview questions generate opinions, not evidence. Opinions (even from your target users) are not reliable predictors of actual behavior. 3. They're plagued by cognitive biases From social desirability bias to overweighting recent experiences to confirmation bias, interviews are a minefield of cognitive distortions. 4. They're often conducted too late Many teams turn to user interviews after the core product decisions have already been made. They become performative exercises to validate existing plans rather than tools for genuine discovery. 5. They're frequently disconnected from business metrics Even when interviews yield interesting insights, they often fail to connect directly to the metrics that drive business decisions, making it easy for stakeholders to dismiss the findings. 👉 Here's how to transform them from opinion-collection exercises into powerful insight generators: 1. Focus on behaviors, not preferences Instead of asking what users want, focus on what they actually do. Have users demonstrate their current workflows, complete tasks while thinking aloud, and walk through their existing solutions. 2. Use concrete artifacts and scenarios Abstract questions yield abstract answers. Ground your interviews in specific artifacts. Have users react to tangible options rather than imagining hypothetical features. 3. Triangulate across methods Pair qualitative insights with behavioral data, & other sources of evidence. When you find contradictions, dig deeper to understand why users' stated preferences don't match their actual behaviors. 4. Apply framework-based synthesis Move beyond simply highlighting interesting quotes. Apply structured frameworks to your analysis. 5. Directly connect findings to decisions For each research insight, explicitly identify what product decisions it should influence and how success will be measured. This makes it much harder for stakeholders to ignore your recommendations. What's your experience with user interviews? Have you found ways to make them more effective? Or have you discovered other methods that deliver deeper user insights?

About 20 years ago, I started doing something simple yet incredibly powerful: I picked up the phone and asked my clients’ customers a few honest questions. No fancy research firms. No complicated surveys. Just real conversations. Fast forward to today—I’ve done over 1,000 of these interviews. And I can confidently say this: Talking to your customers is the single most important thing you can do to shape your marketing. But here’s the catch: you have to keep probing. If you ask, “Why did you choose this company?” most people will say things like: ~ They had great service. ~ They were professional. ~ Their pricing was fair. That’s surface-level. It’s not the real reason. So, I always ask, as a follow-up, something like, “Tell me a story about a time when they provided great service.” That’s when the gold comes out. 👉 “I was in total panic because my system went down before a big presentation, and they picked up the phone on the first ring. I didn’t feel like just another customer—I felt like they actually cared.” 👉 “We were struggling to figure this out, and they didn’t just fix the problem—they walked us through it step by step, so we felt in control again.” This is what they are not getting anywhere else in their life. When you listen for emotional words and themes, you uncover what really matters. It’s rarely about product, price, or features—it’s about trust, confidence, relief, and peace of mind. And when you use the exact words your customers use to describe their problems (instead of industry jargon), your messaging becomes clearer. Your website resonates more. Your ads perform better. So here’s my challenge to you: Go talk to your customers. But don’t stop at the first answer. Keep asking. Dig deeper. Make them tell you a story. "Tell me more about that" is your best tool; keep asking it over and over. You might be surprised at what you hear. And it just might change the way you do marketing forever.