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Spoke · 30 questions · 7 min read

Customer interview questions — 30 that work

Organized by what you're trying to learn. Pick 7–10 most relevant to your hypothesis instead of trying to ask all 30 in one interview.

Short answer

What questions should I ask in a customer interview?

Thirty, grouped by what you are trying to learn: problem severity, past behaviour, willingness to pay, alternatives, workflow, commitment. Ask seven to ten in an hour and spend the rest of the time on follow-ups, which carry most of the signal.

Grade your own wording →Source: Steve Blank, Customer Development
The short version
  1. Six groups: problem severity, past behaviour, willingness to pay, alternatives, workflow, commitment
  2. Seven to ten questions in a 60-minute interview, maximum. Every “tell me more about that specific time” produces roughly five times the signal of the next prepared question
  3. B2B: lean on budget process, who decides, current tool spend, procurement cycles. B2C: emotional triggers, social context, time scarcity, money constraints
  4. These lean on the buying journey — what they spend now, who signs, what else they looked at. Mom Test questions lean on wording. Both rest on past behaviour over hypotheticals
  5. Treat the thirty as a bank to draw from, not a script to complete

The pattern across all 6 categories: ask about specific past events, not future hypotheticals. "What did you do?" beats "what would you do?" every single time.

Problem severity & frequency

  1. 01Tell me about the last time you ran into [problem]. Walk me through what happened.
  2. 02How often does that happen — once a week? Once a month? Once a year?
  3. 03On a scale of 1 to 10, how painful was it the last time?
  4. 04What's the impact when this isn't solved? Lost time? Lost revenue? Lost sleep?
  5. 05If you could wave a magic wand and make this go away, what would change?

Past behavior — what they actually did

  1. 01Walk me through the last time you tried to solve this. Take your time.
  2. 02What tools or methods did you try? In what order?
  3. 03Where did each of those fall short?
  4. 04How long did the whole process take?
  5. 05Who else was involved? Did you have to convince anyone?

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. 03If a solution existed that completely solved this, what would be a reasonable price?
  4. 04What would you have to give up to pay for it — other tools, headcount, other budget?
  5. 05Who would need to approve a purchase of $X?

Alternatives & competition

  1. 01What's your current go-to solution for this — even if it's a workaround?
  2. 02What do you like about it? What annoys you about it?
  3. 03If you had to switch tomorrow, what would you switch to?
  4. 04Have you ever tried [closest competitor]? Why did/didn't you stick with it?
  5. 05What would a competitor have to do to win you over?

Workflow & integration

  1. 01Show me how you'd normally do this. (Screen-share if remote.)
  2. 02What happens right before this step? What happens right after?
  3. 03Where do you switch between tools? What gets dropped or duplicated?
  4. 04If you could remove one step from this workflow, which would it be?
  5. 05What does the perfect version of this look like to you?

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 a letter of intent?
  5. 05How would I know if I built the right thing for you?

Practice 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 interview questions about your idea, transcript shows where you fell into traps.

Practice for free →

15 min · No credit card · Then go talk to humans

Frequently asked questions

How do these compare to Mom Test or Customer Discovery questions?+
Same underlying principles (past behavior over hypotheticals), different framing. Customer interview questions tend to focus on the buying journey — current spending, decision-makers, alternatives. Mom Test questions are more about pure problem severity. Customer Discovery questions test broader hypotheses across phases. Use whichever framing fits your context — the rules are the same.
How many to ask in a 60-minute interview?+
7–10 maximum. The interview's real value is in the follow-ups — every "tell me more about that specific time" produces 5x the signal of your next prepared question. Treat these 30 as a bank to draw from based on what each interviewee reveals, not a script to march through.
Can I use these for B2B and B2C?+
Yes, with adjustments. B2B: emphasize budget process, decision-makers, current tool spend, procurement cycles. B2C: emphasize emotional triggers, social context, time scarcity, financial constraints. The Past Behavior questions work identically — that's the universal core.

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