Field Notes
Interview prompts that surface false certainty
A short set of discovery interview prompts that expose assumptions founders treat as facts.
Founders often enter discovery certain about who the user is. Interviews are useful when they poke that certainty without turning into surveys.
Prompts we reuse
- “Walk me through the last time you tried to solve this without our product.”
- “What would make you stick with the awkward spreadsheet a bit longer?”
- “Who else has to approve a change like this at your organisation?”
- “If the first version only did one job well, which job keeps your role safe?”
What we listen for
Hesitation around approval chains, workarounds that already “good enough,” and jobs that sound important in strategy decks but never appear in weekly routines.
After the call
We tag each note as observed behaviour, stated preference, or inferred need. Only observed behaviour gets to argue hard for MVP inclusion.
These prompts appear in week one of our Discovery Path. Enquire if you want them run with your stakeholders.