AI prompts for customer discovery interviews: questions, synthesis, and next actions

Copy-ready prompt

Act as a customer research lead. Build a customer discovery interview plan for this product idea: [IDEA].

Context:
- Target audience (if known): [AUDIENCE]
- Decision this research must support: [DECISION]
- Constraints: [TIME/BUDGET/TEAM]

Output:
1) Research goal (1 sentence)
2) Ideal participant criteria + who NOT to recruit
3) Recruiting channels + screener questions
4) Interview guide outline (sections, not full questions yet)
5) Sample size recommendation and why
6) Risks and bias traps to avoid
7) What evidence would change our mind

Rules: Do not invent findings. Label assumptions vs confirmed inputs. Keep questions neutral and behavior-focused.

Copy-ready prompt

Act as a senior qualitative researcher. Create a customer discovery interview question bank for this audience and problem:
- Audience: [AUDIENCE]
- Problem area: [PROBLEM]
- Proposed solution (for context only): [SOLUTION]

Requirements:
- 5 warm-up questions (role, context, tools)
- 10 behavior questions ("what did you do last time", steps, frequency)
- 8 pain questions (where it breaks, cost of failure, emotional/friction costs)
- 6 workaround questions (tools, hacks, substitutions)
- 6 decision questions (budget owner, approval, switching triggers)
- 4 comparison questions (alternatives and why they win/lose)
- 4 wrap-up questions (priorities, referrals, artifacts to share)

For each question, provide 2 neutral phrasings and 1 follow-up probe. Avoid leading questions and avoid asking for feature requests. Keep everything grounded in real past behavior.

Copy-ready prompt

Act as a research synthesis analyst. Using ONLY the transcript/notes below, create a structured interview summary.

Input (transcript or notes):
[PASTE TRANSCRIPT OR NOTES]

Output sections:
1) Participant context (role, company type, constraints)
2) Current workflow (steps as described)
3) Pain points (with direct quotes/excerpts)
4) Workarounds and tools used
5) Decision triggers and blockers
6) Non-goals and boundaries (what they will NOT do/pay for)
7) Top insights (3-7), each with: claim + evidence quote + confidence (High/Med/Low)
8) Open questions to validate next

Rules: Do not add facts that aren't in the input. If evidence is missing, write "Unknown" and ask a follow-up question.

Copy-ready prompt

Act as a qualitative research lead. Synthesize the interview summaries below into themes and a decision-ready insight memo.

Input (multiple interview summaries):
[PASTE SUMMARIES]

Output:
1) Theme clusters (5-10): name + description + who it applies to
2) Evidence table: for each theme, list interview IDs and supporting excerpts
3) Tensions/tradeoffs: what customers balance (time vs cost, control vs convenience, etc.)
4) Segment notes: which themes vary by role, company size, or maturity
5) Risks if we build the wrong thing
6) 3 recommended next-step experiments (lean tests), each with: hypothesis, method, success metric, and timeline

Rules: No invented quotes. If evidence is weak, say so. Keep outputs concise and executive-readable.

Copy-ready prompt

Act as a product validation coach. Based on these customer discovery themes, propose a 14-day validation plan.

Themes + evidence (paste):
[PASTE THEMES]

Output:
1) Top 3 hypotheses to validate (with why they matter)
2) Smallest test for each hypothesis
3) Assets needed (copy, prototype, script, checklist)
4) Outreach plan (who to contact and what to say)
5) Success metrics and decision thresholds
6) Risks, confounders, and how to reduce bias

Rules: Do not assume we can code anything. Prefer tests that can be run with docs, spreadsheets, and calls.