User interview

Analytics shows what happened: a third of visitors left at a certain step. It cannot say why. An interview might reveal that the pricing page implies a contract nobody can sign without a manager's approval. That is one fact you can act on. Skipping interviews is how companies build features nobody asked for, because an assumed need was never checked with a real person.

For people who build with AI, the risk is sharper. Building has become so quick that it is easy to produce something polished before asking whether anyone needs it.

• Recruit eight to twelve people who really match the target customer. Friends and family do not count.
• Prepare open questions, but stay loose enough to follow an interesting thread.
• Ask about past behaviour, not opinions about a future product. "What did you do last time?" beats "Would you use this?"
• Record with permission and keep direct quotes, not a paraphrase written from memory.
• After five to eight conversations, write up the themes that repeat and share them with whoever builds next.
• Use the customer's own words in your copy and your product.

You sit down, in person or on a call, with someone who matches your target customer and ask about their real experience. The aim is to understand their situation, not to pitch or to collect compliments. The strongest questions ask about specific, recent events: "Walk me through the last time you had to do this." People are poor at predicting their own behaviour, but fairly good at describing what already happened.

• Steering the answer with a question such as "Wouldn't it be great if...?"
• Talking more than listening.
• Treating a compliment as evidence of demand. Only a commitment, such as a payment or a booked follow-up, counts.