Before you build, ask about the last time.
A practical interview guide for finding a real problem without pitching your solution.
3C editorial · · 5 min read
Start with a person, not a market size
‘Small businesses in the Philippines’ is too broad to interview. Pick a person in a specific situation: a café owner reconciling delivery payments, or an independent broker following up after a viewing. Write down the task, when it happens, and what makes it difficult.
Your first conversations are for learning, not proving that your idea is good. Speak to people who actually do the task. A friend’s enthusiasm is not the same as a customer’s evidence.
Ask for a recent example
Open with: ‘Tell me about the last time you had to do this.’ Follow the sequence. What triggered the work? What did they try? Where did it stall? Who else had to help? Ask what the problem cost in time, money, or missed opportunities.
With permission, ask to see the spreadsheet, message thread, or process they use today. You are looking for how the work actually happens, including the workarounds people have stopped noticing.
Leave the pitch until later
‘Would you use an app that fixes this?’ invites a polite answer about an imaginary future. ‘What have you tried to fix this?’ gives you a concrete story. Ask who pays for the current solution and who would approve a change.
Keep your notes in three columns: what the person said, what you observed, and what you inferred. Do not turn an interpretation into a quotation. Collect only the personal information you need, and ask before recording.
Decide what to test next
Compare conversations for repeated situations, costly workarounds, and attempts to find a better option. Five conversations can reveal useful patterns, but they do not establish market demand. Keep speaking to people whose experience challenges your theory.
End with one testable statement: ‘We believe this buyer will commit to this small pilot because this task costs them this much today.’ Capture the evidence and the missing answers in your idea playbook before deciding what to build.