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Customer interview guide template

Discovery interview script with goals, screener, core questions, probes and a synthesis table

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Use it when

You are about to talk to customers to learn how they work today, and want every interviewer asking the same questions so the answers compare

Who it's for

Customer successProduct managerResearcherSales

Part of a kit

Customer success, step 1 of 6. Discovery interviews, onboarding plans, call notes, account plans, QBRs and the renewal risk review.

Filled example

The template filled in for a made-up company, so you can see what good looks like.

Discovery interviews: month-end close

Interviewer: Priya Shah · Date: 2026-09-14

Goals

  1. How do finance teams at 50 to 300 person companies run month-end close today?
  2. Where does the close lose the most days, and who feels it?
  3. Would they trust an automated reconciliation step, and what proof would they need?

Who we are talking to

Criterion Must have Disqualifies
Role Controller or senior accountant who runs the close Only consumes reports
Company size 50 to 300 employees Under 20 or public company
Uses today A general ledger plus spreadsheets Already on a full close-management suite

Logistics

  • Length: 40 minutes
  • Recording: consent given by all six participants
  • Note taker: Tomas Reyes
  • Incentive: $75 gift card

Warm-up (5 minutes)

  • Tell me about your role and what a typical week looks like.
  • How does your team fit into the wider company?

Core questions (25 minutes)

  1. Walk me through the last month-end close. What happened first?
  2. What was the hardest part of that? Why?
  3. What did you use to get it done? What did you try before that?
  4. How do you know when the close went well?
  5. If you could change one thing about it, what would it be?

Probes

  • "Can you give me an example?"
  • "What did that cost you, in time or money?"

Wrap-up (5 minutes)

  • Is there anything I should have asked but did not?
  • Who else should we talk to?

Synthesis

# Participant Segment Biggest pain Current workaround Verbatim quote
1 Controller, Northwind Logistics 180 staff Bank reconciliation takes 3 days Two people tick lines in Excel "We reconcile by hand because nobody trusts the import."
2 Senior accountant, Lumen Labs 90 staff Chasing receipts from managers Slack reminders, then escalation "Half my week is being a polite debt collector."
3 Finance lead, Fernhill Foods 240 staff Intercompany entries A shared workbook with macros "The macro guy left, so now we are scared of it."
4 Controller, Brightwater Health 300 staff Bank reconciliation, audit trail Exported CSVs plus a checklist "Auditors ask who matched what, and I cannot answer."
5 Accountant, Kestrel Studio 60 staff Late accruals Email to department heads "I find out about a contract after the close."
6 Controller, Oakline Retail 150 staff Bank reconciliation Outsourced to a bookkeeper "We pay someone just to match transactions."

Patterns

  • Bank reconciliation was the top pain in 4 of 6 interviews, and each one described it as the step that sets the close date.
  • Trust is the blocker, not effort: three participants said they would only use automation if they could see who matched what and undo it.
  • Surprising, seen once: Fernhill fears its own spreadsheet macros more than any new tool.

Next steps

The template

Show the blank template

Customer interview guide

Interviewer: [your name] · Date: [date]

Goals

Two or three things we need to learn, phrased as questions. If a question below does not serve a goal, cut it.

Who we are talking to

The screener: who qualifies, who does not. Recruiting the wrong people wastes every interview after it.

Criterion Must have Disqualifies
Role
Company size
Uses today

Logistics

  • Length: 30 to 45 minutes
  • Recording: ask for consent at the start, and note it here
  • Note taker:
  • Incentive:

Warm-up (5 minutes)

Easy questions that get them talking about themselves, not about us.

  • Tell me about your role and what a typical week looks like.
  • How does your team fit into the wider company?

Core questions (25 minutes)

Ask about specific past events ("the last time you..."), never hypotheticals ("would you..."). Hypotheticals produce polite fiction.

  1. Walk me through the last time you [did the job we care about]. What happened first?
  2. What was the hardest part of that? Why?
  3. What did you use to get it done? What did you try before that?
  4. How do you know when it went well?
  5. If you could wave a wand and change one thing about it, what would it be?

Probes

Keep these in your pocket. Use them whenever an answer is vague or general.

  • "Can you give me an example?"
  • "What happened next?"
  • "Why was that important?"
  • "How did you feel about that?"
  • "What did that cost you, in time or money?"

Wrap-up (5 minutes)

  • Is there anything I should have asked but did not?
  • Who else should we talk to?
  • May we follow up if we have a question?

Synthesis

Fill one row per interview within an hour of the call. Quotes are word for word; patterns go below the table.

# Participant Segment Biggest pain Current workaround Verbatim quote
1
2

Patterns

What showed up in three or more interviews. Note anything surprising even if it came up once.

Next steps

Questions

How many interviews do I need?
Five to eight per segment usually surfaces the main patterns; stop when answers repeat
Should I pitch the product during the interview?
No; ask about their past behaviour, and save demos for a separate call
How long should each interview be?
30 to 45 minutes, with 5 spare minutes so you never rush the wrap-up

Fill it with your agent

Connect Claude to reph over MCP, then paste this. The draft arrives as suggestions you accept or reject section by section. How to connect Claude.

Find my reph doc "Customer interview guide" with search_docs, then read it with read_doc. Draft goals and core questions from the open questions in the linked PRD or account plan, and the screener from our target CRM segment. Later, fill the synthesis table from the transcripts I link, quotes verbatim. File it with suggest_edit, one replace_section op per section (heading line kept) so each can be accepted alone. Ask each open question (goals no question covers, patterns seen once) with add_comment quoting that section's heading line, then call request_review with a one-line summary.

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