How to conduct effective user interviews for digital products

Customer interviews are essential for product development, yet many founders and product managers mistakenly believe that simply asking, "Would you use this tool?" will lead to success. 

However, that approach often results in misleading feedback and products that fail to find a market. I saw this firsthand at a promising startup that raised £6M pre-seed, but just six months later had laid off engineers after burning thousands of pounds, with still no paying customers in sight. They had built the product on personal assumptions, a problem that is more common than you might think. 

This article will explore a different path, one centered on empathy and humility, that prioritises understanding genuine user behaviours over collecting flattering opinions. 

I'll share some of the lessons learned from personal experience building products, including how to identify the right participants, ask questions that reveal real user needs, and transform insights into successful product decisions through systematic investigation of workflows, emotions, and real-world constraints.

Why customer interviews may be misleading 

Human psychology complicates the quest for honest feedback. When you ask someone, “Would you use this tool?”, they shift into a helpful mindset, answering with what they think you want to hear. 

Digital products exacerbate this issue. Unlike physical products, they often address problems that are not immediately visible, emotional, or habitual. A user might not even know they’ve been struggling with something until it is pointed out, before realising they have always wanted a solution. 

Then there’s the ego trap. Founders and product managers can fall in love with their solution and seek out people who will validate it. This “solution‑first” mentality can lead them to ignore signs that the problem isn’t significant enough or that different challenges need addressing. 

The mindset Shift

A better strategy is "customer-first" thinking. This means starting with a significant pain point that a particular demographic is experiencing, and then organically arriving at a valuable solution that people would willingly pay for. 

Instead of asking what people want, focus on uncovering their actual behaviours and emotional responses. Systematically investigate the workflows, habits, and decision-making patterns that reveal genuine needs. 

For example, imagine you're exploring team productivity problems:

• Solution-first approach: ask "What features would improve your project management?" Teams respond with requests for "visual dashboards," "automated reports”, and "better notifications”. You build these features, but adoption remains low.
• Customer-first approach: observe how teams actually work. You discover that when someone experiences a technical issue, they ask colleagues for help via Slack or a quick desk chat. The team figures out the solution together, but no one writes it down. Later, when a different teammate encounters a similar issue, they don't know a solution already exists. They either struggle alone or interrupt the same colleagues again - leading to frustration and the impression that they need a project management solution.

This reveals a crucial gap: teams say they want dashboards - what they believe will help - but what they actually need is a simple way to capture and share informal problem-solving chats, as shown by their real habits and workflows with related frustrations.

This customer-first approach changes everything: from what you build (e.g., knowledge capture vs complex PM dashboards) to how you price it (e.g., essential workflow features vs nice-to-haves). Most importantly, it ensures you're solving a problem people actually repetitively experience, not just whatever comes to mind during the interview with you.

Finding the right people to interview 

Many founders start with an entirely inappropriate audience, interviewing friends or anyone who responds to their LinkedIn messages. However, these convenient participants rarely reflect the real end users. 

A more strategic approach would be to research your competition’s most engaged users. These individuals are already investing money to address the issue you are tackling;  you can easily identify them by finding reviews or comments on your competitors' websites and social media platforms. 

Before scheduling interviews, research their context. Use social media to gain insights into their roles, job changes, and the tools other people in their network use. Look for recent posts that express frustrations with or evaluations of new tools. 

Understanding someone's context before you interview them enables you to come up with better questions and a personalised outreach that relates to their specific circumstances. For example: “I noticed your comment about struggling with workflows in that Reddit discussion. I am exploring this exact issue and would love to learn more about your experiences.”

Conducting interviews: preparation, questions and techniques 

Setting the scene 

Limit each interview to around 30 minutes; shorter sessions encourage focus on the most critical questions while minimising fatigue for both parties. 

Start each conversation by putting the participant at ease. Explain who you are, why you're doing the research, and how long it will take. Crucially, don't talk about your idea until the end to avoid bias.

Avoid offering to pay participants, as this can skew responses; individuals who are genuinely invested in a topic provide more honest feedback without compensation. Plus, a personalised thank-you note often means more than a gift card. 

Do not rely solely on your memory. Use AI transcription tools to keep a record of your conversations (with the participants’ permission, of course). 

Asking the right questions 

Instead of a strict script, write down a few broad topics to guide your interview. Before drafting a question, determine what you want to learn by asking it. Are you investigating potential pain points, workflow nuances, or a user’s willingness to pay for a solution? 

For initial interviews, consider open-ended questions that transition from talking about general frustrations to a more specific context, workflows, and existing alternatives. Pay close attention to emotional signals because frustration, anxiety, relief, or pride often reveal how strongly a problem affects someone and whether it’s worth solving in the first place. 

For example: 

• Workflow and habits: “Walk me through the process related to this problem.”
• Pain identification: “What is the most challenging aspect of this problem? Why?” 
• Past experiences: “Can you recount the last times you faced this frustration?” 
• Emotional response: “How did that make you feel? How did you respond?” 
• Constraints: “What would prevent you from  solving this issue, even with unlimited resources?” 
• Alternative solutions: “What have you tried so far to address this? What do you dislike about those options?” 

A founder I mentored used this framework to discover that universities weren't looking for the cheapest or most advanced AI co-pilot for their students. Instead,  they wanted the simplest solution that would painlessly pass through procurement compliance, and someone who could guide them through the process and handle time-consuming paperwork for them. Addressing those needs led to a much lighter product built in just five months (because it wasn’t the complex features that mattered), with the first clients closed in year one.

More techniques for information-rich interviews

Consider incorporating the following methods into your interviews: 

• Pauses: Clarify vague statements (“Can you elaborate on XYZ?”) and allow for silence after responses. Many people will feel compelled to fill the silence and add more detail to their answers if you simply wait a few seconds. 
• Negative case questions: “Can you share an instance when you chose not to address this problem?” This can uncover barriers that yes/no questions may overlook. 
• Third-person perspective: “If you were advising a colleague with the same problem, what would you tell them?” People often offer more genuine advice when discussing someone else. 

Ending interviews with micro‑commitments 

Avoid closing with “Would you buy this?”. Hypothetical commitments are often insincere, as most people will want to be polite and say yes. The only way to measure intent is through action. 

Instead, try a micro-commitment ladder: 

• Requesting feedback: “Would you be willing to provide feedback on early designs for 15 minutes?”  
• Pilot request: “Would you run a pilot with your team?” Only those with a genuine need will agree.  
• Budget probing: “Would you allocate budget for this if it  solved your problem?” Expect only a few real buyers. 

Each step filters out polite interest and surfaces authentic intent. 

Also, always finish by asking, “Who else should I speak with?”.  This can expand your network and uncover new user segments you may not have considered. 

When is it enough? 

A practical rule of thumb is to stop when you can predict 80% of new responses and have identified at least one segment willing to pay. You should be able to craft a compelling value proposition using exact customer language, describing the minimum viable segment, and mapping a typical buying process. Once you reach this point, build an MVP and allow real usage to inform your next interviews. 

Transforming insights into product decisions 

Gathering insights is only part of the challenge; the other difficulty lies in turning them into actionable strategies. 

Start by creating a problem intensity matrix. Score each pain point based on frequency (how often it occurs),  impact (the cost of not addressing it), the intensity (how strong they feel about it), and the cost of current workarounds (time and money spent on alternatives). Multiply the scores to determine which problems should be solved first. 

To avoid becoming overwhelmed by data, create three documents for each interview: 

•  Raw transcript: Complete word-for-word record of the conversation. 
•  Summary: Key details, pain points, emotional notes, and quotes. 
•  Quotes library: Organised by emotion and problem type. This will be an invaluable resource for marketing copy later on, and it helps you track how themes evolve. 

Look for gaps between expressed preferences and actual behaviours. For instance, someone may claim to prefer analytics dashboards but only logs in once a week. Designing a product that satisfies both their perceived self-image and actual habits often leads to more effective solutions. 

Intentionally seek out contradictions. When two interviewees describe the same workflow differently,  probe further to understand why. Such discrepancies may provide new insights, like discovering an underserved niche. 

Final thoughts 

Humility is the foundation of effective product discovery. The goal of an interview is not to hear “yes, I would use this,” but to uncover the workflows, emotions, and constraints that reveal whether a problem is significant enough to solve.

By approaching interviews with curiosity and empathy, asking about real experiences, probing for bottlenecks, and noticing emotional intensity, you gain insights that surveys or analytics alone cannot provide.

Ultimately, the difference between a product that succeeds and one that fades quietly isn’t merely luck or timing; it is the ability to listen before you build.