Customer Discovery Interviews: How to Learn What Customers Actually Need

I’ve been thinking a lot about customer discovery lately.

As I’m building EverRaise, I’m talking with prospective customers, learning about their challenges, and figuring out what it will take to build something nonprofits genuinely need.

But I’m also wrestling with a bigger question: How do you turn what you learn from customers into a business that can grow?

It’s one thing to build a product people find interesting. It’s another to build something they’ll pay for, use regularly, and recommend to others.

I’ve faced similar questions working in nonprofit marketing and fundraising.

When you’re developing a new program, exploring different giving levels, or looking for ways to improve donor engagement, it’s easy to brainstorm internally and assume you know what supporters want.

But have you actually asked them?

More importantly, have you compared what they tell you with what they actually do?

These experiences have reinforced something I believe is essential to building a successful business or organization:

Customer discovery isn’t just about listening to people. It’s about combining what they tell you, what they do, and what the data reveals to make better decisions.

You need curiosity to understand the problem, humility to challenge your assumptions, and discipline to act on what you learn.

In this article, I’ll show you how to conduct customer discovery interviews, ask better questions, recognize meaningful signals, and turn conversations into decisions that help your organization grow.

What Are Customer Discovery Interviews?

Customer discovery interviews are conversations that help you understand your customers’ problems, needs, behaviors, and goals before you build or improve a product or service.

Instead of asking whether people like your idea, ask about their actual experiences.

You want to understand three things:

1. The problem: What is the customer trying to accomplish, and what’s getting in the way?
2. Their current approach: How are they handling the problem today?
3. The opportunity: Is the problem important enough for them to invest time, money, or effort in solving it?

For example, imagine you’re developing software to help nonprofits communicate with donors. You could ask someone, “Would you find automated donor follow-up helpful?” They’ll probably say yes. After all, who wouldn’t want to save time?

But you haven’t learned much.

A better question would be: “Tell me about the last time your organization followed up with someone who made a donation.” Now you can learn how the process works, who’s responsible, what tools they use, and where things break down.

That’s customer discovery.

You’re learning about the problem before deciding how to solve it.

How are customer discovery interviews different from sales calls?

The two conversations have different goals.

In a sales call, you’re trying to determine whether your product can help someone and whether they’re ready to buy.

In a customer discovery interview, you’re trying to understand their situation before deciding what to offer.

A usability test is different, too. It helps you determine whether people can use a product or feature successfully.

All three methods are valuable, but they answer different questions.

If you’re exploring how to turn interested prospects into paying customers, I’ve written more about that in my guide to B2B inbound sales.

Why Most Customer Discovery Interviews Fail

There’s a dangerous moment when you’re building something.

You’ve developed an idea, identified a problem, and convinced yourself that your solution could make a difference.

Then you start talking to potential customers.

They tell you the idea sounds great. They say it would be helpful. Some even tell you they’d consider buying it.

You leave encouraged.

There’s just one problem.

People telling you an idea is good doesn’t mean they’ll ever use it.

If you’ve already fallen in love with your solution, it’s easy to ask questions that confirm what you want to believe.

Rob Fitzpatrick addresses this problem in his book The Mom Test. His argument is straightforward: People often give encouraging but misleading feedback, especially when you ask them to evaluate your ideas. Instead of asking whether someone likes what you’re building, investigate their actual experiences and past behavior.

Think about your own life.

How many books have you intended to read? How many habits have you planned to develop? How many products have you considered purchasing?

Interest doesn’t always lead to action.

The same is true of your customers.

That doesn’t mean customers are deliberately misleading you. They may genuinely like your idea. They may even believe they’ll use it someday.

But intentions aren’t commitments.

Your job isn’t to get people to agree with you. It’s to learn whether the problem is real, important, and worth solving.

How to Conduct Customer Discovery Interviews in 5 Steps

You don’t need a complicated research process to get started.

You need to talk with the right people, ask useful questions, and develop a system for learning from what they tell you.

Here’s the approach I’d recommend.

Step 1: Identify the Right Customers

Start by defining who you’re trying to serve.

Not everyone who might potentially use your product. Focus on people who regularly experience the problem you’re investigating.

For example, EverRaise serves nonprofits, but not all nonprofits are alike.

A small organization with one fundraising employee faces different challenges from a larger organization with a dedicated development team.

Their budgets, staff capacity, existing technology, and communication needs can differ widely.

You need to understand those differences before assuming one solution will work for everyone.

The person experiencing the problem also may not control the budget.

A development employee might spend hours updating donor records. Their manager might want to improve efficiency, while an executive director makes the final purchasing decision.

You may need to speak with all three.

The goal is to understand the people who experience the problem, influence the decision, and approve the purchase.

Step 2: Identify What You Need to Learn

Before an interview, write down your assumptions.

Let’s say you’re exploring ways to improve donor follow-up. You might assume that organizations struggle to contact donors consistently, spend too much time on manual outreach, lack the right technology, and would pay for a better solution.

Any of those assumptions could be wrong.

Some organizations may already have effective processes. Others may struggle with donor information rather than communication tools.

A few might value the solution but lack the budget or staff to implement it.

Writing down your assumptions helps you recognize when customers challenge your thinking.

Don’t try to prove your idea is correct.

Try to discover what you’re missing.

Step 3: Ask About Real Experiences

Your best questions encourage people to describe something that actually happened.

Here are seven customer discovery interview questions you can use.

1. Tell me about the last time you experienced this problem.

Ask for a specific example rather than a general opinion.

2. What were you trying to accomplish?

Learn what success looked like from the customer’s perspective.

3. Walk me through what happened.

Understand the steps, people, tools, and delays involved.

4. What was the most frustrating part?

Find out which part of the problem matters most.

5. What have you already tried?

Look for workarounds, existing software, and time or money already invested.

6. Why didn’t that approach work?

Understand why current solutions fall short.

7. What happens if you don’t solve this problem?

Learn whether the problem has meaningful consequences.

These questions aren’t a script you must follow word for word.

Use them to start a conversation. When someone mentions something interesting, ask a follow-up question.

“Can you tell me more about that?” is often one of the most useful questions you can ask.

Step 4: Listen More Than You Talk

One of the easiest ways to ruin an interview is to turn it into a product demonstration.

A prospect mentions a challenge. You recognize an opportunity. Then you spend the next ten minutes explaining how your solution could help.

Now you’re selling instead of learning.

There’s a time for presenting your product, but early interviews should focus on the customer.

Let them explain their experience. Ask follow-up questions, give them time to think, and resist the urge to defend your idea.

If someone says your favorite feature isn’t useful, pay attention.

You might be learning something that prevents months of wasted work.

Product discovery expert Teresa Torres emphasizes this approach in Continuous Discovery Habits.

She encourages teams to speak with customers regularly and study real experiences rather than treat research as a one-time project.

That’s important because customers change. Their challenges, expectations, and available solutions change, too.

Your understanding needs to keep up.

Step 5: Look for Evidence That the Problem Matters

After several conversations, you’ll begin noticing patterns.

But don’t confuse repeated complaints with proof of demand.

Five people might describe the same frustration, but none of them are willing to spend money to fix it.

You need to understand how frequently the problem occurs, how serious it is, and what people are already doing about it.

This is where customer discovery becomes more than asking questions.

You need to distinguish between polite interest and meaningful evidence.

How to Recognize Real Customer Demand

Not every comment deserves the same attention.

Some customer feedback reveals an urgent problem. Other comments reflect a preference, a passing frustration, or an idea someone hasn’t thought through.

Use the following table to evaluate what you hear.

Interview signal	What it may mean	Data to examine	What to do next
Recurring problem	The issue happens often	Support requests, CRM activity, workflow records	Measure how frequently it occurs
Existing workaround	Customers already invest effort in solving it	Staff time, spreadsheets, software expenses	Learn why current solutions fall short
Financial consequences	The problem may be worth paying to solve	Labor costs, missed revenue, customer losses	Estimate its potential value
Clear urgency	The customer may be ready to act	Deadlines, budgets, approval process	Agree on a specific next step
Feature request	A need may exist beneath the request	Usage data, similar requests, current processes	Investigate the underlying problem
Enthusiasm without action	Interest may not reflect demand	Demo-to-pilot conversion, follow-through	Test willingness to commit
Ongoing engagement	A solution may provide lasting value	Repeat usage, retention, renewals	Look for patterns across similar customers

These are signals, not guarantees.

An existing workaround can indicate a meaningful problem, but it doesn’t automatically prove someone will purchase your solution.

Likewise, a customer without an immediate budget may still provide valuable information about an underserved market.

The key is to look at the evidence together.

A customer asking for something doesn’t mean they need it. Needing something doesn’t mean they’ll pay for it. And paying for something once doesn’t mean they’ll continue using it.

Those are three different questions, and you need to answer all three before assuming you’ve found a strong business opportunity.

Don’t Choose Between Customer Interviews and Data. Use Both.

This is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from working in marketing and growth.

You need both qualitative and quantitative information.

Those terms sound complicated, but the distinction is simple.

• Qualitative information helps you understand why people do something. It includes interviews, personal experiences, and feedback.
• Quantitative information helps you measure what people do. It includes numbers such as purchases, usage, conversion rates, and retention.

Research from the Nielsen Norman Group explains how different research methods help answer different questions. The organization also recommends combining methods to strengthen research findings.

I think this matters because neither interviews nor data tells the complete story.

A dashboard can tell you that customer engagement is declining. It may not explain why.

An interview can reveal someone’s frustration. It may not tell you how widespread that problem is.

When you combine both, you can make more informed decisions.

Example: Understanding donor engagement at EverRaise

Imagine you’re talking with nonprofits that struggle to reconnect with donors who haven’t given recently.

Several prospects mention the same problem.

That’s useful information, but it’s only the beginning.

You could then examine how many contacts have become inactive, how often organizations communicate with them, and what happens after different outreach efforts.

You might also test whether a focused campaign improves responses or leads to meaningful engagement.

Notice the progression.

The interviews help you understand the problem. The data helps you measure it. A small experiment helps you evaluate a possible solution.

That process is much more useful than immediately building another feature because a prospect requested it.

Example: Exploring different nonprofit giving levels

I’ve also been thinking through these questions while working in nonprofit fundraising.

Suppose an organization is considering new monthly giving levels or different benefits for supporters.

It’s easy to develop those ideas internally.

You examine financial goals, consider program costs, create possible giving levels, and decide which resources to include.

But that doesn’t necessarily tell you what donors value.

What motivates someone to begin giving? Why do they continue supporting the organization? Which resources do they actually use? What might make participation easier or more meaningful?

Those are questions worth asking directly.

Then compare the conversations with your donor data.

Look at recurring giving, donor retention, engagement with resources, and differences among supporter groups.

You might discover that donors value resources you assumed were less important. You might learn that some supporters want more opportunities to participate, while others prefer fewer communications.

You may also find that certain giving levels appeal to one group but not another.

The goal isn’t simply to increase gifts.

It’s to understand how you can serve supporters well while advancing your organization’s mission.

That’s especially important in fundraising, where trust matters.

The 2026 Give.org Donor Trust Report found that 67.7% of surveyed U.S. adults considered trust essential before donating, while only 18.3% reported high trust in charities.

Those figures don’t prove which giving program works best. They reinforce why nonprofit leaders should take trust seriously.

Donor interviews give people a voice in decisions that affect their experience.

And when you combine those conversations with reliable data, you can develop programs based on evidence rather than internal assumptions.

How Customer Discovery Helps You Build a Business That Can Scale

This is particularly important to me as I build EverRaise.

Getting someone interested in your product is one challenge. Building a business that can consistently acquire and serve customers is another.

You can win a customer by promising extensive customization, unusual features, or time-consuming support.

But can you serve twenty similar customers the same way? What about one hundred?

If every customer requires a different product or process, growth may become increasingly difficult.

This is why I think customer discovery needs to help you answer two questions:

Are we solving a problem people care about? And are we solving it for the right customers?

Kyle Poyar explores the importance of early customer selection in his June 2026 article, Startups Become What They Hunt. Using data from 1,043 SaaS and AI companies, he examines how the customer segments startups pursue relate to their future growth and business models. The findings show important relationships between early deal sizes and later outcomes. They don’t prove that selecting a particular customer group guarantees success.

Still, the lesson is worth considering.

The customers you pursue influence how you build, sell, price, and support your product.

For EverRaise, that means looking beyond whether an organization likes the technology. I need to understand whether it has a meaningful problem, can successfully implement a solution, and represents a customer type we can serve repeatedly.

That doesn’t mean ignoring smaller organizations or unusual needs. It means making deliberate choices about where to focus.

Poyar also addresses the value of discussing pricing with customers in How to Have the Pricing Talk With Your Customers. His recommendation is to explore willingness to pay without relying on a simple question like, “How much would you pay?”

That’s helpful because pricing isn’t just about finding a number. You need to understand what customers value, what alternatives they already pay for, and how they decide to buy.

For a nonprofit evaluating giving levels, the application is different. A donation isn’t a software purchase, and donor motivations often extend beyond personal financial value.

But both settings benefit from understanding the people you’re trying to serve before finalizing your approach.

What to Do After a Customer Discovery Interview

The interview isn’t the finish line.

If you speak with ten customers but never organize what you’ve learned, you’ll probably remember the most enthusiastic comments instead of the strongest evidence.

That’s why you need a simple process for reviewing the conversations.

Teresa Torres recommends creating an interview snapshot after each discussion. The approach helps teams capture important experiences and opportunities while the conversation is still fresh.

I’d adapt that into five steps.

1. Capture what you learned

Immediately after the conversation, record the customer’s situation, problem, current approach, and desired outcome.

Include specific examples, but distinguish what the customer actually said from your interpretation.

For example, a customer might explain that they manually export donor records every Friday.

That’s an observation.

Concluding that they would pay for an automated integration is an assumption you still need to test.

2. Compare what you heard with other interviews

Look for patterns across customers with similar needs.

Are several people experiencing the same issue? Are they using similar workarounds? Do they describe the problem as important?

Also pay attention to differences.

A challenge that matters to a large nonprofit might not matter to a small one.

Don’t combine every response into one average customer.

3. Check the data

Look for evidence that supports or challenges what you’re hearing.

Depending on your business, this might include CRM activity, support requests, purchase history, product usage, or customer retention.

For more on this process, see my guide to understanding marketing data.

Remember that the absence of a pattern in your data doesn’t automatically mean the customer is wrong. You may have incomplete information or be looking at the wrong group.

Use disagreements between interviews and data as opportunities to investigate further.

4. Prioritize the most important problems

Not every request deserves immediate attention.

Consider how often the problem occurs, how serious its consequences are, how well existing solutions work, and whether solving it supports your business goals.

Also consider the cost of building and maintaining the solution.

A feature that benefits one customer but creates substantial complexity for everyone else may not be worth pursuing.

This requires judgment, not simply counting requests.

5. Test a solution before making a large investment

Once you identify a promising problem, run a small test.

You might create a basic prototype, offer a limited pilot, test different messages, or ask a prospect to commit to a paid trial.

Measure what happens.

Did people use the solution? Did it improve the intended outcome? Would they continue using it? What did it cost your organization to deliver?

Use those results to decide whether to continue, improve, or change direction.

This mirrors the disciplined testing process I describe in my article on campaign management.

You develop a plan, set measurable goals, execute, review the results, and improve.

Five Customer Discovery Mistakes to Avoid

Even experienced leaders can make mistakes when interviewing customers.

Here are five worth watching.

1. Interviewing Only People Who Already Like You

Friends, colleagues, and existing supporters may provide encouraging feedback, but they may also share your assumptions.

Talk with people who don’t know you. Include customers who chose competitors, prospects who never purchased, and people who stopped using your product.

For nonprofits, consider speaking with inactive donors as well as highly engaged supporters.

You may learn more from someone who walked away than from someone who already loves what you do.

2. Asking Questions That Suggest the Answer

Don’t ask, “Wouldn’t this feature save you time?”

Ask, “How much time does your current process require?”

The first question encourages agreement. The second helps you understand reality.

3. Treating Every Feature Request as a Priority

Customers often describe the solution they imagine rather than the problem they’re experiencing.

If someone requests an integration, ask what they’re trying to accomplish and how they’re handling it today.

You may discover a simpler or more important problem beneath the request.

4. Trusting Interviews Without Checking Behavior

A customer may say a feature is important but never use it. Another may express little enthusiasm yet repeatedly rely on a product.

Neither behavior tells the complete story.

Compare interview feedback with actual usage, purchasing decisions, and follow-through.

5. Collecting Feedback Without Making Decisions

Customer interviews shouldn’t become another administrative task.

After each round of conversations, identify what you’ve learned, what remains uncertain, and what you’ll test next.

Give someone responsibility for the follow-up.

Otherwise, you’ll have a collection of interesting notes without meaningful progress.

How Many Customer Discovery Interviews Should You Conduct?

No universal number guarantees you’ve learned enough.

A handful of interviews can help you identify early problems and improve your questions. But a small group cannot reliably represent an entire market.

Start by speaking with several people in a clearly defined customer segment. Compare their experiences, look for recurring patterns, and identify where their answers differ.

Then keep interviewing as you test new assumptions.

If you’re researching several different customer groups, speak with people from each group rather than assuming they all share the same needs.

You should also continue interviewing after your product launches.

Customer discovery isn’t something you complete once and forget. It should become part of how you learn and improve.

The Best Customer Discovery Question

If I had to reduce this entire process to one question, it would be:

Tell me about the last time you dealt with that problem.

Then listen.

Ask what happened, why it mattered, what the person did next, and what it cost them.

Resist the temptation to explain your product.

As I’ve built EverRaise and worked through questions about nonprofit fundraising, I’ve become increasingly convinced that good decisions require more than creativity, confidence, and experience.

You also need humility.

You have to accept that you don’t know everything. You need to listen to people whose experiences differ from yours, examine the evidence, and acknowledge when your assumptions are wrong.

Whether you’re building a startup, improving an established business, or leading a nonprofit, the principle is the same.

You don’t need someone telling you your idea is brilliant.

You need to understand whether the problem is real, important, and worth solving.

Then you need the discipline to act on what you’ve learned.

Listen to understand the problem. Use data to test your assumptions. Then build, improve, or change direction based on what you discover.

That’s how customer discovery helps you build something people actually need.

Frequently Asked Questions About Customer Discovery Interviews

What is the main purpose of a customer discovery interview?

The main purpose is to understand customers’ real problems, needs, and behaviors before you develop or improve a solution.

Good interviews help you challenge assumptions, identify important problems, and decide what to test next.

What are the best customer discovery interview questions?

Start with questions about past experiences.

Ask what the customer was trying to accomplish, what happened, how they handled the problem, what they’ve tried, and what happens if the problem remains unresolved.

Avoid asking people to predict whether they’ll purchase an idea that doesn’t exist yet.

How long should a customer discovery interview last?

About 30 minutes is a practical starting point. Some interviews may take less time, while complex problems may require longer discussions.

The quality of the conversation matters more than its length.

What is the difference between customer discovery and customer validation?

Customer discovery helps you identify and understand a problem.

Customer validation tests whether your proposed solution creates enough value for people to adopt or purchase it.

For example, interviewing nonprofit leaders about donor communication problems is discovery. Testing whether they’ll pay for a solution is part of validation.

Can nonprofits use customer discovery interviews?

Yes. Nonprofits can use donor and supporter interviews to understand giving motivations, engagement preferences, barriers to participation, and experiences with fundraising programs.

These conversations work best when organizations combine them with relevant data and respect donors’ privacy and choices.

How do you turn customer interviews into product decisions?

Record what you learned, compare interviews, review relevant data, and prioritize meaningful problems.

Then test possible solutions through prototypes, pilots, or other small experiments before making major investments.