Guides for running better research calls
13 short, practical guides for product managers, designers, founders and researchers. Read one before your next call, or keep it open during it.
Planning a call
3 guides- Discovery call checklist: before, during and afterA printable discovery call checklist for product teams and researchers: what to do before, during, and after a customer call to get honest, useful answers.
- Customer discovery questions: 30 open-ended questions to ask30 open-ended customer discovery questions, grouped by what you want to learn, plus the questions to skip and a simple way to build your own list of five.
- Sales discovery questions: 25 that qualify without pitching25 sales discovery questions that uncover budget, pain and timeline without an interrogation or a pitch, plus what to stop asking and a call script.
Asking better questions
4 guides- What is a leading question? 15 examples and better rewritesA leading question hints at the answer you want. What it means, why it skews answers, and 15 examples with rewrites for customer interviews.
- 30+ open-ended question examples (and how they differ from closed questions)30+ open-ended question examples grouped by situation, how they differ from closed questions, and how to turn a closed question into an open one.
- Follow-up questions cheat sheet: 20 ways to say “tell me more”20 neutral follow-up questions for customer interviews, organized by situation, plus three techniques (echo, summary check, silence) for getting people to say more.
- Customer interview terms in plain EnglishA plain-English glossary of customer interview and user research terms: what leading questions, probing, think-aloud, unprimed reaction, and more actually mean.
Usability and concept tests
2 guides- Usability session checklist: how to moderate without leadingA step-by-step usability session checklist for product teams: how to write tasks, run a think-aloud session, avoid leading, and capture where and why people get stuck.
- How to test a concept without selling itA 5-step way to test a concept and get honest feedback: get an unprimed first reaction, check understanding, and separate likes from concerns, without selling.
After the call
3 guides- How to audit your own customer discovery callsHow to tell if a customer interview was any good: a 5-step audit of your recording or transcript, a scoring sheet, and how to pick one thing to fix.
- 9 common discovery call mistakes (and how to fix each one)The 9 most common customer discovery call mistakes, what each sounds like, why it hurts, and a simple fix for every one.
- How to review your interview transcripts: by hand vs with AIHow to review your interview transcripts by hand or with AI: prepare the text, see what AI misses, check its findings, and protect participants.