Introduction
Most founders run user interviews wrong — asking "would you use this?" and treating a polite "yes" as validation. Effective interviews are structured to get honest signal, not to confirm what the founder already wants to hear.
Ask About Behavior, Not Opinions
"Would you use a tool like this?" is a weak question because people are bad at predicting their own future behavior. "Walk me through the last time you dealt with this problem" gets real, specific information about current behavior — which is a far better predictor of future adoption.
Avoid Leading Questions
"Don't you think it would be great if..." plants the answer in the question. Neutral framing ("How do you currently handle X?") gets more honest responses, even when the honest response isn't what the founder hoped to hear.
Recruit the Right People
Interviewing friends and existing fans produces biased, overly positive feedback. Recruit people who actually match your target customer profile and, ideally, have never heard of your product before the interview.
Turning Interviews Into Decisions
After 8-10 interviews, look for patterns rather than individual quotes. A single enthusiastic response doesn't validate a feature; the same pain point showing up unprompted across multiple interviews does. Use these patterns to inform your MVP scope, not individual anecdotes.
Conclusion
The goal of a user interview isn't to get someone to say your idea sounds good — it's to understand their real current behavior well enough to know if your product actually fits into it. That distinction is what separates useful research from expensive flattery.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's wrong with asking 'would you use this'?+
People are bad at predicting their own future behavior, so hypothetical questions produce unreliable, overly polite answers. Asking about past behavior instead gets much more honest signal.
How many user interviews are enough to spot a pattern?+
Around 8–10 is often enough to see whether the same pain point shows up unprompted across multiple independent people, which is a stronger signal than any single enthusiastic response.
Should I interview my existing fans or friends?+
No — this produces biased, overly positive feedback. Recruit people who match your target customer profile and ideally haven't heard of your product before the interview.