User and customer interviews template

Know your customer — 76% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. You can use a user and customer interview template to get valuable information from your target audience in an organized and consistent way. Whether you’re a product manager, UX designer, or marketer, this template helps guide the conversation, ensuring you ask the right questions and capture the most relevant feedback.

The template is designed to provide clarity by organizing the interview into clear sections‌ — ‌such as understanding user needs, identifying pain points, and gathering feedback on specific features. With open-ended questions and space for detailed responses, it helps unlock in-depth insights that can inform product decisions, user experience improvements, and overall strategy.

What is a user and customer interview template?

A user and customer interview template is a structured document or guide used to conduct interviews with users or customers. It provides predefined questions, sections, and formats that help interviewers gather consistent, valuable feedback about a product, service, or experience. The template ensures that key areas are covered during the interview, making it easier to analyze and act on the insights collected.

Companies that focus on customer insights are 60% more likely to outperform their competitors in terms of revenue and profitability. What makes this template particularly powerful is its ability to streamline the interview process while maintaining flexibility. By having a well-organized format, it ensures that you don’t miss any key information, while also leaving room for spontaneous follow-up questions based on the conversation.

Features of an interview template

Here are the key features that make an interview template effective:

• Interview overview: Defines the interview’s purpose and sets the context.

• Participant information: Captures relevant details (like demographics, role, experience) to contextualize responses.

• Structured interview questions: Predefined, open-ended questions organized by topic (like, user experience, pain points, feature feedback).

• Notes section: Space to document participant responses, quotes, and observations.

• Key insights/findings: Summarizes the most important takeaways and actionable insights.

• Follow-up actions: Documents next steps or areas needing further investigation.

• Interview consent: Ensures permission for recording or using interview data, if applicable.

• Rating or scoring (optional): Includes rating scales for quantitative feedback (like satisfaction scores).

• Interview reflection: Section for the interviewer’s personal notes or observations on the interview.

• Actionable takeaways: Lists immediate actions or changes based on the interview feedback.

How to get started with the user and customer interviews template

Step 1: Define your goals 

Before you start using the template, clearly outline what you hope to achieve from the interviews. Are you trying to understand user pain points? Validate a new product feature? Collect feedback on customer satisfaction? Knowing your objective will help you tailor the questions in the template to your needs.

Step 2: Tailor the questions

While the template provides a general structure, you should customize the questions to align with your interview goals. Add or modify questions based on what you want to learn. For example, if you're testing a new feature, include specific questions about that feature's usability or appeal.

Step 3: Select a sample population

Choose participants who fit your target customer or user profile. If you're testing a feature for advanced users, make sure to interview people who use that feature regularly. If you're gathering general feedback, ensure that your sample reflects a diverse range of customers.

Step 4: Conduct the interview

Use the template as a guide to keep the conversation on track. Start with warm-up questions before diving into more specific areas related to your objectives. Ask open-ended questions that encourage participants to elaborate and provide detailed answers.

Step 5: Record responses accurately 

As you ask each question, document the participant's answers in the template's notes section. Capture direct quotes, key phrases, and any important observations. If you're conducting remote interviews, consider recording the session (with permission) for accuracy.

Step 6: Identify common themes 

After the interview, review your notes and identify key patterns, themes, or insights. Are there recurring pain points? Do users mention the same features or problems multiple times?

Step 7: Highlight actionable insights 

Use the template’s key insights section to summarize the most important takeaways from the interview. Organize findings by theme (like, usability issues, feature suggestions, user satisfaction) to make it easier to spot trends.

When to use the user and customer interviews template (with examples)

1. When developing or refining a product or service: Use the template during the product development process to gather feedback on initial concepts, prototypes, or released versions. This will help you understand how users interact with your product, what features they value, and where improvements are needed.

2. When conducting usability testing: If you’re testing the usability of a new feature or design, the template helps you ask the right questions to identify potential obstacles or confusing elements that users may face. It provides a consistent format to capture detailed feedback during user testing sessions.

3. When identifying pain points in the customer journey: If you’re working to optimize the customer experience, the template helps structure interviews that focus on key areas of the customer journey, identifying pain points, frustrations, and unmet needs that can inform improvements.

4. When gathering insights for market research: Companies that use customer insights are 1.5 times more likely to achieve higher growth rates. Use the template during market research to understand customer preferences, behaviors, and attitudes toward your product, brand, or industry. This information is useful for refining your product-market fit and developing more effective marketing strategies.

5. When seeking customer feedback on specific features: When you roll out new features or updates, use the template to gather targeted feedback from customers. This will help you understand their thoughts on the feature's usability, value, and any issues they encounter.

Tips for running a user and customer interviews template

• Ask open-ended questions: To get rich, detailed insights, focus on open-ended questions that encourage interviewees to elaborate on their experiences and thoughts. Instead of asking, "Do you like this feature?" Ask, "What do you like or dislike about this feature?" This helps generate deeper, more insightful responses.

• Be flexible during the interview: Use the template as a guide but stay flexible in your approach. If the conversation leads to a valuable tangent, feel free to explore it. Allowing the flow of the conversation to evolve naturally can uncover unexpected insights.

• Build rapport early: Start the interview with ice-breaker questions or casual conversation to make the participant feel comfortable. This helps them open up and share more candidly about their experiences.