Text guides

Customer research

Prepare research around a question you need to answer. Keep observations separate from guesses and use real customer evidence.

12 practical tasks. Each guide includes a sample request and a way to check the answer.

Write a customer interview guide around one questionChoose one thing you need to understand before drafting interview questions. If customers abandon a booking form, ask about the last time they tried to book. Their account of what happened gives you something concrete to examine.
List assumptions before researching a product ideaWrite down every belief the idea depends on and mark which ones you have seen for yourself and which you hope are true. Rank each by what it would cost if wrong, and attach a test that could prove it mistaken before you commit design or build time.
Group customer feedback without losing the original wordingGroup comments by the problem described, not by keywords, and keep an anonymized quote under every theme. Count customers, not messages, and record the comments that contradict each pattern. A theme without its exceptions overstates what you know.
Map a customer journey from interview notesMap one task from the first trigger to the finished result, using only steps that interviewees described. Record friction next to the note that supports it, mark where people did things differently, and list unknowns instead of filling gaps with plausible stages.
Compare competitors using verifiable informationFill each cell only with what a competitor's own documentation or terms say, quoted closely, with the page and the date you saw it. Mark a cell unknown when you can only infer the answer. A shorter table you can defend beats a full one built on guesses.
Draft research screening questions for a real audienceChoose screening criteria tied to the people and behavior the study needs to understand. Ask neutral questions that let participants describe their experience without signaling a preferred answer. Give accurate information about the research and collect only the details needed to decide whether someone is a suitable participant.
Write usability test tasks without giving away the answerDescribe what the participant wants to accomplish in everyday terms, not the button or menu that does it. Build the scenario around a realistic goal, decide ahead of time what completion looks like, and leave space for observer notes.
Separate observations from interpretations in research notesWrite each note in two layers. The first records what the participant did and the words they used. The second holds your interpretation, labeled as yours, plus a question that could confirm or contradict it. A guess then stays visibly a guess when someone summarizes the notes.
Check a customer survey for confusing questionsRead every question as a respondent who has never seen your product. Look for questions that ask two things, wording that suggests an answer, and choices that overlap or leave gaps. Record the problem and a rewrite for each, then test the revised survey with a few people.
Write a research readout with visible limitsGive every finding its evidence and its boundaries. For each claim, state what you saw, who it applies to, what cut against it and what remains unresolved. Then name the decision the finding informs, so readers know what to do with it.
Learn from lost-sale notes without inventing motivesGo through each lost-sale note and separate what the prospect said from what the salesperson concluded. Record the stated reason, the quote if one exists and the stage where the deal ended. Then list what nobody asked, so unknowns stay visible and a guess does not pass for a motive.
Choose questions for the next research roundList the decisions still open, then the questions whose answers could change them. For each question, note what guessing would risk, what you already know and which method could help. Give priority to the questions needed for the next decision; keep broader learning questions in a separate list.

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