Sublime

Product Questions

You ask insightful questions that show a solid understanding of the contact's work and a desire on your part to become more knowledgeable.

That’s why when we train people, we always have them conduct their first practice interviews with somebody else’s product. We just ask for a volunteer from the group who recently bought something big: a spin bike, a vintage typewriter, or three months of Lindy Hop dance lessons. Anything but the interviewer’s product. That way, they’re not attached

An interview guide is not a script. You do not need to read from it like an automaton. You should feel free to veer off of it if the conversation brings up something interesting and new. It will likely evolve as you learn from the market and unearth new questions. But always plan, prioritize and prep your questions before any session.

Divide up the interview transcripts among the team. Ideally, each person reads at least three interviews, and each interview is read by at least two people who didn’t conduct that interview.

The most brutal of all the meta questions is: “How do you think this interview is going?”