Building discussion guide (or DG) for business, research or assessing the market is not always an easy job. You might wonder if you have written down all the necessary questions, do those questions cover all the aspects of your objectives, or what would consumers think about the questions, etc.
So, we shortlisted the top 10 questions that are important for any customer interviews in order to assessing new business opportunities. The 10 questions guideline is suitable for exploratory survey using face-to-face interview method with customers. The objectives are to understand customers usage and purchase behaviors, jobs they hire your products or solutions to do and other details information that are relevant to your products throughout their work process.
Here are 10 questions or steps for you to follow when it comes to ask customers for assessing a market opportunity. [If you don't want to read the list of question, you can jump to our slideshare version below]
Why do you need to use PRODUCT X? [Elicit for benefits gain, problem solved or a job accomplished by PRODUCT X] This question aims to understand the reason that customers hire a product / service to do or to solve problem they are concerned
Who does use PRODUCT X? Are users also decision makers? [Ask to gain understanding on customer purchasing process and identifying all relevant stakeholders who would take part into buying products]
How do you use PRODUCT X? Are you satisfied with the job done by PRODUCT X? What's else could be improved? [Ask to gain understanding on customer usage behavior and gain their point of view whether they are happy with the current solutions. In addition, ask for suggestion for future improvement]
How much do you pay to get the job done (by using PRODUCT X)? [Ask your customers to describe all relevant costs on hiring PRODUCT X or SERVICE X to get the job done]
Where do you purchase PRODUCT X and other relevant solutions? Is it convenient for you? [Also ask customers about related expenses they have to pay to get PRODUCT X deliver to their office?]
When would you buy / store / use / repair & maintenance / dispose PRODUCT X? [Ask your customers also about purchase and usage frequency as well as how often they have to do the repair and maintenance]
To get the jobs done, How important of these following outcome to your business? to get the job done FASTER to get MORE job done to get the job done BETTER to get the job done at LOWER COST to get the job done….. [Focus on the outcome. Ask customers the level of importance on different factors that are relevant to PRODUCT X or the jobs]
What if you can get the job done______ (FASTER, MORE JOB, BETTER, LOWER COST or …. ) how would it benefit an overall work process? [Ask your customers what would have changed if the outcome change e.g. faster, better, at lower costs, use the factors you define in the previous question]
What are solutions you are using to achieve the better outcome you think it’s important (ref. Question 7)? [Check with customers if there is any process or other products they use together with PRODUCT X in order to gain better performance or better outcome of a work process]
What would be better off for you… a. to get better outcome at higher costs b. to pay at lower cost with less satisfying outcome c. to use the current solution I am using [Ask customers to choose one of the above choices and explain why the option is the best for them]
These 10 questions would give you a good insights if you are developing a new product or service solution. However, remember that you should not rely on a single source of information, always check if your targeted customer industry is growing. PEST Analysis should always be a fundamental macro analysis for assessing a market opportunity.
If you have any question on building your own version of customer interview discussion guide, our team is happy to help!.
Check out the slideshare version