Free Script · 15 Questions

Customer Interview
/ Script.

A 15-question discovery script for B2B SaaS PMs. Use it before you write a single feature spec.

Date: _____
Interviewer: _____
Customer: _____

Most PM interviews fail before the call starts. Either you ask leading questions ("would you use a feature that…?"), or you pitch instead of listen. This script is written in the Mom Test tradition: ask about the past, not the future. Ask about behavior, not opinion. Tell me about the last time… beats would you ever… every time.

Before the Call (5-Minute Prep)

Research the company — size, stage, industry, recent news. Know their pricing tier in your product.
Write 3 hypotheses you want to falsify — not confirm. Example: "I believe Ops leaders trigger this workflow weekly. Falsified if it's monthly or ad-hoc."
Set recording consent — ask before the call, note who said yes. Otterai/Fathom transcript link in calendar invite.
State the goal in one sentence — e.g. "Understand whether duplicate-detection is a top-3 pain or a nice-to-have."
Have a co-pilot — second PM or designer takes notes so you can listen.

Opening (3 minutes)

Framing line — say this verbatim. It sets the right expectation and disarms the "what are you selling?" reflex.

Frame

"Thanks for the time. This is a research call, not a demo — I'm not going to pitch anything. I just want to understand how you work today and what's frustrating. There are no right answers. Brutally honest is most useful."

Q1 · Rapport

"How long have you been at [company], and how did you end up in this role?"

Listen for: career path, who their last team was, whether they were hired to fix a specific problem.

Q2 · Rapport

"What's the part of the job you actually enjoy?"

Listen for: intrinsic motivation. Where they spend energy when they choose to. This anchors what your product should amplify.

Section 1: Their World

"Walk me through what you did yesterday — from when you opened your laptop until lunch."

Listen for: tools they actually use, time spent in meetings vs. doing, where the friction lands. Don't accept "a normal day" — push for specifics.

"Who else on your team touches this work? Who do you hand things off to, and who hands things to you?"

Listen for: upstream and downstream stakeholders. Most "individual" pains are actually handoff pains.

"What does your manager judge you on at the end of the quarter?"

Listen for: the metric of record. If your product doesn't move that metric, you'll lose to budget cuts.

Section 2: The Job-To-Be-Done

"When you sit down to [task], what are you actually trying to accomplish? What does 'done' look like?"

Listen for: the JTBD in their language, not yours. The definition of "done" reveals success criteria you can build to.

"Tell me about the last time you did this. What did you actually do, step by step?"

Listen for: behavior, not aspiration. Past-tense + specific = real. Generic + future-tense = made up. Push for the timestamp ("last Tuesday").

"What's the trigger that makes you start this work? What happens right before?"

Listen for: the event, not the schedule. Triggers are how you'll get the user back into your product later.

Section 3: Pain Validation

"In that last example — what was the most frustrating part?"

Listen for: emotional language. "It drove me crazy" > "it could be better." Frustration is a buying signal.

Q10

"Have you ever tried to fix this? What did you try? Why did it stop working?"

Listen for: homemade solutions — spreadsheets, Zapier hacks, "I just ask Bob." Existing duct-tape proves real demand. No attempt = no real pain.

Q11

"If I waved a wand and this problem disappeared tomorrow, what would change for you?"

Listen for: outcome in their words. Map this to a metric ("I'd save 4 hours a week" / "we'd close 3 more deals"). This is the ROI line.

Section 4: Workflow & Tools

Q12

"What tools are open in your browser tabs right now to do this work?"

Listen for: the actual stack. The tools they don't mention by name are the tools they don't trust. Note who pays for each.

Q13

"If you had to switch off [their main tool] tomorrow, what would be hardest to leave behind?"

Listen for: the lock-in — data, integrations, team training, custom workflows. This is what your competition has, that you have to match.

Section 5: Willingness to Pay

Q14

"Who would sign off on a tool like this? What's the path from 'I want it' to 'we bought it'?"

Listen for: economic buyer, procurement, legal, security review. If they can't name the steps, this is not a viable champion.

Q15

"What do you spend today — in tools, contractor time, or your own hours — on this problem?"

Listen for: the existing budget. People rarely create new budget. They redirect it. Your price ceiling is what's already being spent on a worse solution.

Closing (1 minute)

"Who else should I talk to?" — ask for two names. Best follow-up question ever invented.
"Can I send you what I learn from these interviews?" — opens the door to a follow-up call without "demo" baggage.
"Would you be open to looking at a prototype in 4 weeks?" — books the next conversation at the right time.

Post-Call Notes (within 30 minutes)

Fill these in while it's fresh. Then tag this signal in MindBacklog with the JTBD label so it shows up next to the feature it informs.

Top quote (verbatim)
JTBD confirmed?
Surprise insight
Follow-up question
Hypothesis update

The trap: writing up an interview as "great call — lots of validation." If the interview didn't change at least one of your three hypotheses, you either asked leading questions or you weren't listening. Run it again.