Collection
Questions the greats ask
The canon — the exact questions practitioners who defined the craft reach for first.
“How would you feel if you could no longer use this product?”
Best in a survey
From Sean Ellis · Founder, GrowthHackers · originator of the product-market-fit survey
“Tell me about the last time you tried to solve this problem. Walk me through what actually happened.”
Best in an interview
From Teresa Torres · Product discovery coach · author of Continuous Discovery Habits
“When was the last time this problem actually cost you something, and what did you do about it?”
Best in an interview
From Rob Fitzpatrick · Author of The Mom Test
“What were you trying to get done when you ran into this?”
Best in a support chat
From Jared Spool · Founder, UIE · usability researcher
“If our product didn't exist, what would you use instead?”
Best in an interview
From April Dunford · Author of Obviously Awesome
“What job were you hiring this product to do?”
Best in an interview
From Clayton Christensen · Author of Competing Against Luck
“When did you first start looking for something like this?”
Best in an interview
From Bob Moesta · Author of Demand-Side Sales 101
“Walk me through how you do this today, step by step.”
Best in an interview
From Steve Blank · Author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany
“What are you trying to get better at?”
Best in an interview
From Kathy Sierra · Author of Badass: Making Users Awesome
“Exactly what problem will this solve?”
Best in an interview
From Marty Cagan · Author of Inspired; Founder, Silicon Valley Product Group
“Tell me about how you do this today.”
Best in an interview
From Cindy Alvarez · Author of Lean Customer Development
“What outcome are you ultimately trying to achieve?”
Best in a long survey
From Tony Ulwick · Author of What Customers Want; creator of Outcome-Driven Innovation
“Who else should I talk to about this?”
Best in an interview
From Rob Fitzpatrick · Author of The Mom Test
“How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”
Best in a survey
From Fred Reichheld · Author of The Ultimate Question; creator of the Net Promoter Score
“How long until you saw real value?”
Best in a survey
From Casey Winters · Chief Product Officer at Eventbrite; Partner at Reforge; ex-Pinterest, Grubhub
“Why did you cancel?”
Best in a survey
From Patrick Campbell · Founder of ProfitWell (acquired by Paddle); subscription pricing and retention
“What does success look like for you?”
Best in an interview
From Lincoln Murphy · Customer success consultant; co-author of Customer Success (Wiley, 2016)
“Have you tried to solve this yourself?”
Best in an interview
From Steve Blank · Author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany; originator of Customer Development
“What is the main benefit you receive from this product?”
Best in a survey
From Sean Ellis · Founder, GrowthHackers · originator of the product-market-fit survey
“Where do you normally do this?”
Best in an interview
From Erika Hall · Co-founder of Mule Design; author of Just Enough Research
“Tell me what you'd do here.”
Best in an interview
From Steve Krug · Author of Don't Make Me Think and Rocket Surgery Made Easy
“At what price would this be so expensive that you wouldn't consider buying it?”
Best in a survey
From Peter van Westendorp · Dutch economist; originator of the Price Sensitivity Meter (ESOMAR, 1976)
“What would you expect to pay for something like this?”
Best in a survey
From Madhavan Ramanujam · Partner at Simon-Kucher; author of Monetizing Innovation
“Is this a must-have, a nice-to-have, or something you don't really care about?”
Best in a survey
From Madhavan Ramanujam · Partner at Simon-Kucher; author of Monetizing Innovation
“What is this actually worth to you — in concrete terms?”
Best in an interview
From Hermann Simon · Founder of Simon-Kucher; author of Confessions of the Pricing Man
“If we charged based on just one thing, what should it be?”
Best in an interview
From Kyle Poyar · Operating Partner at OpenView; product-led growth and SaaS pricing
“If this doesn't get solved, what does it lead to?”
Best in a sales call
From Neil Rackham · Author of SPIN Selling; founder of Huthwaite
“If you could fix this, what would that make possible?”
Best in a sales call
From Neil Rackham · Author of SPIN Selling; founder of Huthwaite
“What's the biggest challenge you're facing right now?”
Best in a sales call
From Chris Voss · Former FBI lead hostage negotiator; author of Never Split the Difference; founder of The Black Swan Group
“What if the real bottleneck is upstream of where you're looking?”
Best in a sales call
From Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson · Authors of The Challenger Sale
“Besides you, who else needs to be on board for this to move forward?”
Best in a sales call
From MEDDIC sales methodology · B2B sales qualification framework originated by the PTC internal training team (incl. Dick Dunkel & Jack Napoli) in the 1990s; documented by MEDDIC Academy
“How much effort did you personally have to put forth to get this done?”
Best in a survey
From Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman & Nick Toman · CEB (later Gartner) researchers; originators of the Customer Effort Score
“Overall, how easy or difficult was that to complete?”
Best in a survey
From Jeff Sauro · Founding principal of MeasuringU; popularized the Single Ease Question (SEQ)
“How well did this meet the expectations you had?”
Best in a survey
From Claes Fornell et al. · University of Michigan; architects of the American Customer Satisfaction Index
“How does this compare to the ideal version of a product like it?”
Best in a survey
From Claes Fornell et al. · University of Michigan; architects of the American Customer Satisfaction Index
“How confident would you feel using this without anyone's help?”
Best in a survey
From John Brooke · Usability researcher at Digital Equipment Corporation; creator of the System Usability Scale
“What finally pushed you to change how you were doing this?”
Best in an interview
From Bob Moesta · Author of Demand-Side Sales 101; co-developer of the Forces of Progress
“What worried you most about switching to us?”
Best in an interview
From Bob Moesta · Author of Demand-Side Sales 101; co-developer of the Forces of Progress
“When you compared the options, what made you choose this one?”
Best in an interview
From April Dunford · Author of Sales Pitch and Obviously Awesome
“What almost made you go with someone else?”
Best in a sales call
From Win-loss analysis methodology · Competitive win-loss interview practice; documented by Clozd (Andrew Peterson), a win-loss analysis firm