discovery-interviews-surveys

# Discovery Interviews & Surveys

## Table of Contents
- [Purpose](#purpose)
- [When to Use](#when-to-use)
- [What Is It?](#what-is-it)
- [Workflow](#workflow)
- [Common Patterns](#common-patterns)
- [Guardrails](#guardrails)
- [Quick Reference](#quick-reference)

## Purpose

Discovery Interviews & Surveys help you learn from users systematically to:

- **Validate assumptions** before investing in building
- **Discover real problems** users experience (not just stated needs)
- **Understand jobs-to-be-done** (what users "hire" your product to do)
- **Identify pain points** and current workarounds
- **Test concepts** and positioning with target audience
- **Uncover unmet needs** that users may not articulate directly

This moves from guessing to evidence-based product decisions.

## When to Use

Use this skill when:

- **Pre-build validation**: Testing product ideas before development
- **Problem discovery**: Understanding user pain points and workflows
- **Jobs-to-be-done research**: Identifying hiring/firing triggers and desired outcomes
- **Market research**: Understanding target audience, competitive landscape, willingness to pay
- **Concept testing**: Validating positioning, messaging, feature prioritization
- **Post-launch learning**: Understanding adoption barriers, churn reasons, expansion opportunities
- **Customer satisfaction research**: Identifying satisfaction/dissatisfaction drivers
- **UX research**: Mental models, task flows, usability issues
- **Voice of customer**: Gathering qualitative insights for roadmap prioritization

Trigger phrases: "user research", "customer interviews", "surveys", "discovery", "validation study", "voice of customer", "jobs-to-be-done", "JTBD", "user needs"

## What Is It?

Discovery Interviews & Surveys provide structured approaches to learn from users while avoiding common biases (leading questions, confirmation bias, selection bias).

**Key components**:
1. **Interview guides**: Open-ended questions that reveal problems an