The conversation can sound encouraging without teaching the team very much. A founder describes an idea, the other person agrees that it seems useful, and both leave feeling the meeting went well. What remains unknown is whether the problem matters enough for anyone to change what they already do.

Customer discovery investigates that uncertainty. Associated with Steve Blank’s customer development work, it brings assumptions about customers, problems and the business into contact with evidence. The point is to understand the conditions in which a product might succeed before enthusiasm for the solution hardens into a plan.

Follow an actual decision

A useful interview might begin with the last time someone encountered the problem. What prompted it, who became involved, and how did they resolve it? Ask to see the spreadsheet, message thread or other artefact where appropriate and with permission. These details help distinguish an inconvenience someone tolerates from a problem they already spend time or money addressing.

Suppose a team wants to build software for approving freelance invoices. An illustrative interview could reveal that the administrative work is manageable, while uncertainty about who can authorise payment causes the delays. A faster data-entry screen would address the most visible activity without resolving the underlying difficulty. Exploring the job people need to accomplish helps the team reconsider the proposition.

The person doing the work may also differ from the buyer, budget holder or security reviewer. Discovery needs to reach those perspectives where they affect adoption. A willing end user cannot promise that a company will buy.

Make assumptions open to challenge

Before recruiting, write down what would need to be true for the idea to work. That might include the frequency of the problem, dissatisfaction with alternatives, or willingness to change an established process. Decide what evidence would weaken each assumption as well as support it. Otherwise, almost any conversation can be interpreted as encouragement.

Use an interview guide to maintain focus while allowing unexpected explanations. Avoid turning every session into a demonstration: once participants have seen the proposed solution, their answers may revolve around it. Showing a concept later can be useful, provided the team distinguishes feedback on the concept from evidence about existing behaviour.

Discovery continues beyond interviews. A trial, purchasing conversation or observed workflow may expose constraints that a discussion missed. None provides certainty on its own, but together they can justify a more specific decision: pursue this customer group, change the proposition, test a purchasing assumption, or stop investing in an idea whose problem has not materialised. The learning becomes valuable when it changes what the team does next.