As more product teams have discovered the importance of continuous discovery, rich interviewing and customer storytelling are more important than ever to build products that truly resonate with users. There is a misconception that customer interviews and insights are expensive and a luxury many teams cannot afford, but the process should not be cumbersome, rather it should be based on lean and agile approaches, constantly reaffirming our product purpose and direction with customers.

By interviewing in a way that appreciates your customer’s story, you can better move from delivering outputs to delivering outcomes.  Drawing parallels to investigative journalism, we investigate the art of interviewing customers and understanding their story. This approach, rooted in research and thoughtful framing of questions, uncovers not only surface-level feedback but also the emotional drivers behind customer behavior. Through real life examples, we underscore the power of stories in connecting us all and the transformative potential they hold in product management if we can nail our interview.

Building the wrong thing is much riskier than spending a small amount of time and money on getting feature level insights. According to a study conducted by Pendo (2019), 80% of features built by product teams are either not used or rarely used by customers. By understanding your customer’s story and how your product intersects with it, you are far more likely to be part of the successful 20%.