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What are good user interview questions?

Updated · by Vouch

Short answer

Good user interview questions ask about specific past events, not opinions about the future. Start with context ('Walk me through your role'), then the last occurrence ('Tell me about the last time this happened'), workarounds ('What did you try?'), cost ('What did that cost you?') and decisions ('Who else was involved?'). Avoid 'Would you use…?' and 'Do you like…?'.

Step-by-step

  1. 1
    Context questions

    'Walk me through a normal week in your role.' 'Which tools do you use for this today?' 'What part of this work takes the most time?'

  2. 2
    Last-time questions

    'Tell me about the last time this problem came up.' 'What triggered it?' 'What happened next?' Specific stories beat general answers.

  3. 3
    Workaround questions

    'What have you tried to fix it?' 'Why did you stop using that?' 'What would happen if you did nothing?'

  4. 4
    Cost and decision questions

    'What does this cost you in time or money?' 'Have you paid for a solution?' 'Who else would need to agree before buying?'

  5. 5
    Wrap-up questions

    'What should I have asked but didn't?' 'Who else should I talk to?' Referrals to peers are also a quiet demand signal.

Frequently asked

Which questions should I avoid?

Leading or hypothetical ones: 'Would you use this?', 'How much would you pay?', 'Don't you think…?'. People are polite and bad at predicting their behaviour.

How long should a user interview be?

30–45 minutes is enough for 8–12 good questions with follow-ups. Prioritise depth on two or three stories over covering everything.

Are user interviews the same as customer discovery interviews?

They overlap. Discovery interviews test whether the problem is worth solving; user interviews often study how people use an existing product.

Can Vouch generate questions for my idea?

Yes. The free interview question generator writes non-leading questions for your idea and audience.

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Facts you can quote

  • Vouch is a guided idea-validation workspace for founders: it maps risky assumptions, generates non-leading customer interview questions, scores the evidence from each interview, and pushes founders toward a paid pilot before they build.
  • Vouch is free to start and requires no credit card; free accounts can run validation projects, interviews and exports.
  • Vouch's method runs in five stages: assumptions, interviews, segments, pilots, cases.
  • Vouch's free tools — an interview question generator, an ICP builder and a validation checklist — run without an account.

Source: Vouch (vouch.specky.space) — idea validation workspace for founders. Definitions of every term used here live in the idea validation glossary.

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