50 Customer Interview Questions Every Founder Should Ask

Rob Fitzpatrick was building a startup when he made a discovery that changed how he thought about customer research.

He'd been talking to potential customers for months. They loved his idea. They said they'd definitely use it. Then he launched. Nobody bought.

The problem wasn't that customers lied. He'd been asking the wrong questions—pitching his solution instead of understanding their problems. He'd been asking "Would you use this?" instead of "What have you tried?"

Fitzpatrick wrote about this in "The Mom Test"—a book that's become essential reading for founders doing customer discovery. The core insight: your mom will always tell you your idea is great. So you need to ask questions she can't lie about.

This guide gives you 50 questions designed to get truth instead of flattery—focused on past behavior, current struggles, and real decisions.

The Mom Test Rules

Rule 1: Talk about their life, not your idea. You're researching problems, not pitching solutions.

Rule 2: Ask about specifics in the past, not opinions about the future. "Would you pay for X?" is worthless. "How much did you spend on X last month?" is gold.

Rule 3: Talk less, listen more. If you're talking more than 20% of the time, you're doing it wrong.

Rule 4: Bad news is good news. If someone tells you your idea won't work, you just saved months of wasted effort.

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Problem Discovery Questions (1-12)

1. "What's the hardest part about [doing the thing you're exploring]?"

The single best opening question. Open-ended, focused on their experience. Listen for emotion.

2. "Can you walk me through the last time that happened?"

Specifics matter. You learn what triggered the problem, how they responded, and the consequences.

3. "How often does this problem occur?"

Daily problems justify subscriptions. Annual problems need to be extremely painful.

4. "What have you done to try to solve this?"

If they've tried nothing, the problem might not be painful enough. If they've built internal workarounds, you have a highly motivated buyer.

5. "Why didn't that solution work for you?"

Understanding why existing solutions fail tells you exactly what your product needs to do better.

6. "What happens if you don't solve this problem?"

If consequences are minor, you'll struggle to get people to pay. If they're serious ("we lose clients"), you have a real opportunity.

7. "How much time do you spend dealing with this issue each week?"

Time is a proxy for pain. If they spend 10 hours/week on something you can reduce to 1 hour, that's compelling.

8. "How much money does this problem cost you?"

If the problem costs $10,000/year, a $1,000/year solution is easy to justify.

9. "Who else in your organization deals with this problem?"

Identifies other potential buyers and influencers in the purchase decision.

10. "When did you first notice this was a problem?"

Reveals whether this is a growing problem or a declining one.

11. "What would a perfect solution look like?"

Let them dream. Their ideal state reveals priorities.

12. "If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing about [domain], what would it be?"

Surfaces what matters most.

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Current Solution Questions (13-22)

13. "What tools or products do you currently use for this?"

Maps the competitive landscape from the user's perspective—including spreadsheets and manual workarounds.

14. "How did you find your current solution?"

Reveals discovery channels for your go-to-market strategy.

15. "How much do you pay for your current solution?"

Establishes price anchoring.

16. "What do you like most about your current approach?"

Reveals what "table stakes" your solution must include.

17. "What's the most frustrating thing about your current solution?"

Direct route to differentiation opportunities.

18. "If you could change one thing about [current solution], what would it be?"

Forces prioritization of complaints.

19. "Have you considered switching to something else? Why or why not?"

Explores switching costs and barriers.

20. "What would make you switch to a different solution?"

Listen for specific thresholds ("if it cost half as much," "if it integrated with Slack").

21. "How long have you been using your current solution?"

Long usage suggests the solution is good enough. Recent adoption suggests they're still evaluating.

22. "What did you use before your current solution?"

The migration path tells you about evolution of solutions in the space.

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Willingness to Pay Questions (23-32)

23. "How much does this problem cost you in a typical month?"

When you know the problem cost, you can frame your solution's ROI.

24. "Have you ever paid for a tool or service to solve this problem?"

Past payment behavior is the best predictor of future payment behavior.

25. "What's your budget for tools in this category?"

For B2B especially, this reveals spending capacity.

26. "Who would need to approve a purchase like this?"

Identifies decision-makers and buying complexity.

27. "If you found a solution that solved [problem], what would that be worth to you?"

Frame this around value received, not price paid.

28. "At what price would you definitely not buy this type of solution?"

The Van Westendorp method. Establishes a ceiling.

29. "At what price would you consider this a bargain?"

Establishes a floor. The gap defines your pricing range.

30. "Have you ever built an internal solution for this problem?"

Companies that build internal tools have validated the problem's importance and are often excellent early customers.

31. "What would you cut from your budget to pay for something that solved this?"

Tests whether they're serious about paying.

32. "If I could solve this problem for you, would you pay me $[X] right now?"

The ultimate test. A "yes" is powerful validation.

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Feature Prioritization Questions (33-42)

33. "If you could only have one feature, what would it be?"

Defines your MVP core.

34. "What features would you expect to see in a solution like this?"

Identifies table stakes—missing these causes immediate rejection.

35. "What features would be nice to have but aren't essential?"

Essential for roadmap prioritization.

36. "What features would actually make you less likely to use a product?"

Complexity, required integrations, mandatory logins—understand what turns people off.

37. "How would this tool need to fit into your existing workflow?"

Integration requirements can make or break adoption.

38. "Would you need to use this with other team members? How many?"

Reveals collaboration requirements and expansion revenue potential.

39. "How would you prefer to access this—web app, mobile app, desktop software?"

Platform decisions affect development cost significantly.

40. "What would make you recommend this to a colleague?"

Word-of-mouth triggers become your marketing focus.

41. "What would make you stop using a product like this?"

Understanding churn triggers before building helps you avoid them.

42. "How quickly would you need to see results to know the product is working?"

Time-to-value expectations affect onboarding design.

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Demographics and Context Questions (43-50)

43. "What's your role, and what are you responsible for?"

Helps segment interview findings.

44. "How big is your company/team?"

Company size affects decision-making speed, budget, and complexity of needs.

45. "What industry are you in?"

A "scheduling problem" looks different in healthcare versus construction.

46. "How long have you been in this role?"

Newer employees might not yet feel problems that veterans have learned to tolerate.

47. "How do you typically learn about new tools or products?"

Direct input on go-to-market channels.

48. "What other tools are essential to your daily work?"

Identifies integration requirements and ecosystem context.

49. "Do you make purchasing decisions, or recommend them?"

Separates users from buyers.

50. "Is there anyone else I should talk to about this problem?"

The golden question for recruitment. Good interviewees lead you to more good interviewees.

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How to Conduct Effective Customer Interviews

Finding Interviewees

For B2B:

• Search LinkedIn for job titles experiencing your target problem
• Join industry Slack communities and Discord servers
• Attend virtual or in-person industry events
• Ask for introductions from existing contacts

For B2C:

• Reddit communities where your target demographic gathers
• Facebook groups for specific interests
• Friends of friends (but not close friends—too biased)

Offer something in return: share your findings, provide advice, or buy them coffee.

Setting Up the Interview

Keep it short—aim for 20-30 minutes. People are more likely to say yes.

Be clear about what you're asking: "I'm doing research on [problem area] and would love to hear about your experience."

Record if they consent. Recordings let you revisit exact language, which matters for marketing copy.

During the Interview

Start with context-setting: "There are no wrong answers—I just want to understand your experience."

Practice "tell me more." When someone says something interesting, probe deeper before moving on.

Embrace silence. After they answer, wait a beat. People often fill silence with additional details.

After the Interview

Transcribe or summarize within 24 hours. Memory fades fast.

Look for patterns across interviews. Single data points are anecdotes. Repeated patterns across 10+ interviews are insights.

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Common Interview Mistakes to Avoid

Pitching Instead of Learning

Every moment you spend explaining your idea is a moment you're not learning. Hold back your solution until after you've explored their problem.

Leading Questions

"Don't you think it would be great if..." is not a research question. Keep questions neutral.

Bad: "Would you pay $50/month for a tool that saves you 5 hours per week?" Good: "How much would you be willing to pay for a solution to this problem?"

Confirmation Bias

You'll naturally remember feedback that supports your idea. Combat this by recording interviews and reviewing them honestly.

Asking About Future Behavior

"Would you use this?" is nearly useless. People are terrible at predicting their future behavior. Focus on past behavior.

Interviewing Friends and Family

Your mom will tell you your idea is brilliant. Interview strangers who have no reason to protect your feelings.

Too Small a Sample Size

Three interviews is not validation. You need 15-30 conversations before patterns become reliable.

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Turning Interviews into Action

Synthesize patterns. After 15+ interviews, identify the 3-5 patterns that appeared repeatedly.

Quantify where possible. "People spend 2-4 hours per week on this" is more useful than "People find this frustrating."

Create user personas. Develop 2-3 representative user types based on interview patterns.

Define your value proposition. Using their language (not yours), articulate what problem you solve.

Prioritize features. Map interview insights to feature priorities.

Complementing Interviews with Market Research

Customer interviews tell you about individual experiences. You also need broader market context: market size, competitors, trends.

Bedrock Reports helps here. Before interviews, run a validation report to understand the competitive landscape. This context makes your questions sharper. After interviews, use market research to validate that your patterns represent a real opportunity, not just a vocal minority.

The combination of qualitative interviews and quantitative research gives you confidence that you're building something people actually want—and that enough of them exist to build a business.

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Keep Reading

• How to Validate a Business Idea — The complete validation framework beyond interviews
• The Startup Validation Checklist — 15 questions to assess any idea before building
• Pain Point Mining Tutorial — Find problems worth solving before you start interviewing
• B2B vs B2C Validation — Different interview approaches for different markets

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Ready to complement your customer interviews with market intelligence? Try Bedrock Reports free and get evidence-backed validation data for your startup idea.