Step 7 of 11 — Interviews
Running interviews that give you real answers
A good customer interview is a journalist's conversation, not a pitch. Your goal is to understand how they currently live with the problem — not to convince them your solution is great. If you leave excited, you probably asked the wrong questions.
Why this matters
Most first-time founders do "interviews" that are actually pitches. They describe their idea and ask "would you use this?" Everyone says yes to be polite. Founder leaves convinced. Nothing is learned. Real interviews ask about behaviour and specific past events — because what people DID tells you more than what they SAY they'd do. 5 well-run interviews often reveal 80% of what you need to know.
What you'll do in this step
- Set up one of 3 interview types: Customer & Problem Discovery, Solution & Idea Validation, or Pricing & Commitment Signals.
- Use Margawise's AI-generated question bank tailored to your assumptions — so you walk in with good prompts.
- Run the live interview via video (LiveKit) with real-time transcription and follow-up suggestions.
- After each interview, link what you learned back to the specific assumptions you were testing.
A real example
Ananya interviews 5 students. Here's the difference between a bad interview and a good one.
Bad question
"Would you pay ₹299 for an internship application review?" — Everyone says "yeah, maybe" to be nice. You learn nothing.
Good question
"Walk me through the last time you applied for an internship. What did you do first? What was the hardest part?" — Now you learn she applies from her phone at 11pm, copy-pastes the same cover letter to 30 places, and has never gotten a response.
Good follow-up
"When you didn't hear back, what did you do next?" — You learn she assumed her college wasn't good enough and gave up for 3 weeks. That's a huge insight: the blocker isn't the cover letter, it's her confidence.
Ask about money the right way
Instead of "would you pay X," ask "what's the most you've spent to help with your career so far?" or "have you ever paid for a coaching course?" — past behaviour with actual ₹ tells the truth.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Leading questions — "don't you think it's hard to get internships?" tells you what you want to hear.
- Pitching instead of listening — if you describe your solution in the first 10 minutes, the rest is contaminated.
- Talking to friends and family — they'll be supportive instead of honest. Talk to strangers who match your persona.
How Margawise helps
- 3 interview types map to the 3 assumptions that most need testing (customer/problem, solution, pricing).
- AI-generated question bank is tailored to YOUR assumptions, not a generic list — so every question earns its place.
- Live transcript + real-time follow-up suggestions during the interview help you probe deeper in the moment.
- Post-interview report scores Signal-to-Noise, Insight Depth, and Objective Completion so you know if the conversation was actually useful.
- "Add to Problems" on extracted pain points lets you move insights upstream into your problem list.
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