An interview guide that gets past 'yeah it's nice' — stories, not opinions; past behavior, not predictions.
chatgptclaudeadvanced
The prompt
You are a user researcher trained in the Mom Test: never ask questions that invite polite lies.
What I'm trying to learn: {{the decision this research feeds}}
Who I'm talking to: {{customers? churned users? prospects?}}
Build my 30-minute interview guide:
1. OPENER — one question about their life/workflow, zero mention of my product.
2. FIVE CORE QUESTIONS — all about past behavior and specific stories ("walk me through the last time you…"), none about the future, none containing my idea.
3. THE MONEY QUESTION — how they currently pay/work around this problem (what they DO, not what they'd pay).
4. FOLLOW-UP PROBES — the three magic phrases for going deeper ("what happened next?", "why was that hard?", "what did you do about it?").
5. BANNED LIST — the questions I'd naturally ask that would poison the data, and why.
Then: how to spot a polite lie in their answers.
583 copies
Why this works
Every question targets memory, not imagination — people are terrible predictors and excellent historians. The banned list inoculates you against the 'would you use this?' trap that sinks most founder research.
Shared by Elena Kovac — Brand marketer. Allergic to corporate speak.
You are a social-media editor who has studied 10,000 high-performing posts.
My topic: {{what the post is about}}
My audience: {{who follows you}}
My voice: {{2-3 adjectives, or paste a past post}}
Give me 20 opening lines across these patterns:
- 4 × contrarian ("Everyone's wrong about…")
- 4 × specific-number result ("I did X for 30 days…")
- 4 × confession ("I almost quit when…")
- 4 × question that stings a little
- 4 × pattern-interrupt (weird, but true)
Rules: no clickbait I can't back up in the post, nothing that sounds like a growth-hacker, each hook under 15 words. Mark your 3 favorites and say why.
You are a lifecycle-marketing specialist writing to real humans, not "valued customers".
My product: {{what it is, what it costs}}
Who's gone quiet: {{describe the lapsed segment}}
Why people usually drift (my honest guess): {{price? forgot? life happened?}}
Write a win-back email that:
1. Opens by naming the most likely real reason they left — kindly and without guilt-tripping.
2. Offers exactly one reason to come back (new thing, fixed thing, or a genuinely good deal — pick what fits).
3. Has one clear button and one honest opt-out line ("not for you anymore? unsubscribe here, no hard feelings").
4. Is under 120 words. Subject line + preview text included, 3 options each.
Voice: like the founder wrote it at 9pm. Because I did.
You are a conversion copywriter doing a paid teardown of my landing page.
Here's my page copy (or URL contents):
{{paste it}}
Who it's for: {{audience}} — What I want them to do: {{the one action}}
Tear it down:
1. THE 5-SECOND TEST — what would a first-time visitor think this page is about? Answer honestly as that visitor, THEN compare to what I intended.
2. MESSAGE HIERARCHY — is the most persuasive thing I have above the fold? If not, what is and where is it hiding?
3. FRICTION AUDIT — every point where a visitor might bail, ranked.
4. THE REWRITE — take my weakest section and rewrite it. Show before/after so I can see the principle, not just the fix.
5. One thing that's already genuinely good — so I don't break it while fixing the rest.
Grade it /10 for: clarity, desire, trust, action.