3 · Designing interview questions that get the truth
The fastest way to fool yourself is to ask questions that beg for a yes. People are polite — especially to a friendly founder — so a leading question harvests flattery, not facts. Good customer research is mostly the discipline of not asking for the answer you want.
The cardinal rule: ask about the past and present, not the hypothetical future. "Would you use an app that does X?" gets a cheap, meaningless "sure!" People are terrible at predicting their own future behavior. "Tell me about the last time you dealt with X — what did you do?" gets a true story you can learn from.
Bad question → better question:
| Leading / hypothetical (avoid) | Open / behavioral (use) |
|---|---|
| "Don't you hate how slow X is?" | "Walk me through how you handle X today." |
| "Would you pay for a tool that fixes this?" | "What have you tried to fix this? What did it cost you?" |
| "Do you like my idea?" | "What's the most frustrating part of X for you?" |
| "Would you use this?" | "When did you last run into this problem?" |
Principles for honest interviews:
- Ask open, not yes/no. Open questions surface what you didn't think to ask.
- Dig into real stories, not opinions. "What did you actually do?" beats "what do you think?"
- Don't pitch. The second you sell your idea, the conversation is about being nice to you, not about the truth. Listen first.
- Stay neutral. Don't telegraph the answer you're hoping for in your tone or wording.
Where AI helps: paste your draft questions and ask it to flag which ones are leading, hypothetical, or double-barreled, and to rewrite them as open and neutral. AI is good at spotting bias in wording. Just remember the SBA frames interviews and surveys as direct research with real people — AI tightens the questions; the answers must come from outside the building (SBA, n.d.).
Check yourself. Why is "would you use this?" a weak question, and what kind of question gets you a more honest answer?
Sources
- U.S. Small Business Administration. (n.d.). Market research and competitive analysis — direct research methods (interviews, surveys, focus groups, questionnaires) with your real customers. https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/market-research-competitive-analysis
- Blank, S. (2013). Customer Development Manifesto — get outside the building and let customers, not your pitch, drive the conversation. https://steveblank.com/category/customer-development-manifesto/