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Spoke · 25 questions · 6 min read

Customer Discovery questions — 25 that work

25 questions organized by the 5 phases of a Customer Discovery interview. Pick 7–10 most relevant to your hypothesis instead of trying to get through all 25.

Short answer

What questions should I ask in customer discovery?

Twenty-five, grouped by what each one tests: hypothesis, problem severity, current solutions, willingness to pay, commitment. Ask seven to ten per conversation rather than all of them — the list exists to give coverage across the phase, not a script for one hour.

Grade your own wording →Source: Steve Blank, Customer Development
The short version
  1. Five categories: hypothesis testing, problem severity, current solutions, willingness to pay, commitment
  2. Seven to ten questions per interview. All twenty-five in an hour turns the conversation into a survey and loses the depth that made it worth doing
  3. Keep roughly the same core five across everyone so the answers are comparable; adapt the rest to what each person reveals
  4. This list governs COVERAGE across 25 to 30 conversations. The Mom Test governs WORDING — past behaviour instead of hypotheticals. The two stack rather than compete
  5. The value is in following their tangent with “tell me more”, not in getting through the list

The pattern across all 5 phases: ask about specific past events, not future hypotheticals. "What did you do?" beats "what would you do?" every single time.

Phase 1: Context & rapport

  1. 01Tell me about your role and what your week typically looks like.
  2. 02How long have you been doing this work? What brought you here?
  3. 03What's the biggest challenge you're dealing with right now?
  4. 04Walk me through how your team is structured.
  5. 05What does success look like in your role this quarter?

Phase 2: Problem severity

  1. 01Tell me about the last time [problem] happened. Walk me through the day.
  2. 02How often does this come up — once a week, once a month, once a year?
  3. 03On a 1–10 scale, how painful was it the last time?
  4. 04What's the cost when this isn't solved? Time, money, sleep, relationships?
  5. 05If you could wave a magic wand and make this go away, what would change?

Phase 3: Current solutions

  1. 01How do you currently solve this — even if it's a workaround?
  2. 02What tools or methods have you tried? What worked, what didn't?
  3. 03What do you like about your current solution? What annoys you?
  4. 04How long did it take to set up the workaround you have today?
  5. 05If you had to switch tomorrow, what would you switch to?

Phase 4: Willingness to pay

  1. 01How do you currently spend money or time on this — tools, contractors, your hours?
  2. 02What's the budget process at your company for tools like this?
  3. 03Have you paid to solve this before? How much, and was it worth it?
  4. 04Who would need to approve a purchase of $X?
  5. 05What would you be willing to give up to solve this completely?

Phase 5: Commitment & advancement

  1. 01Anything I should have asked but didn't?
  2. 02Who else faces this problem that I should talk to?
  3. 03Would you be willing to try an early version when we have one?
  4. 04Would you put down a deposit / book a follow-up / sign an LOI to be first in line?
  5. 05How would I know if I built the right thing for you?

Drill these questions before real interviews

The questions look easy on paper. Real-time, you'll catch yourself slipping into hypotheticals or pitch mode. We built GoNoGo as a 15-min drill — AI strategist asks Customer Discovery questions about your idea, transcript shows where you fell into traps.

Practice for free →

15 min · No credit card

Frequently asked questions

How are these different from Mom Test questions?+
Mom Test questions focus on the wording rules — past behavior over hypotheticals. Customer Discovery questions are about coverage — making sure you test the full hypothesis (problem real / market exists / will pay) across 25–30 conversations. The two complement each other: use Mom Test rules to phrase the question, use Customer Discovery structure to know what to ask about.
How many of these should I ask in one interview?+
7–10 from the categories most relevant to your hypothesis. Trying to get through all 25 in 60 minutes turns the conversation into a survey — and you lose the depth that makes interviews valuable. The questions are a bank to draw from, not a script.
Should I ask the same questions to every interviewee?+
Roughly the same core 5 questions for comparability — that's how patterns emerge. The other 5 should adapt based on what each interviewee reveals. The interview's real value comes from following their tangents with "tell me more" rather than rigidly going through a list.

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