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User Interview Techniques for Indie Dev: 5 Questions to Find PMF

#ai #automation #indiedev #buildinpublic

User Interview Techniques for Indie Dev: 5 Questions to Find PMF

Talk before you code. That one habit dramatically cuts the risk of building
something nobody uses.

Why Interviews Beat Surveys 

Surveys     → "sounds useful" lies
Interviews  → actual behavior and emotions
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People can't accurately predict their own future behavior. They say "yes,
I'd use that" and then don't. Past behavior is the only reliable signal.

The 5 Core Questions

Q1: When was the last time you faced [problem]? 

"When was the last time you struggled with task management?"
→ Forces a recent, concrete story. Distant memories are too vague to act on.
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Q2: What did you do? 

"Walk me through exactly what you did."
→ Reveals real behavior — including workarounds and existing tools.
   The real competitor might be "I just send a Slack message to myself."
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Q3: Why did you do that? 

"Why Notepad instead of Notion?"
→ Uncovers motivation and priorities behind surface-level behavior.
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Q4: What was the hardest part? 

"What frustrated you most in that moment?"
→ Surfaces emotional pain — where the business opportunity lives.
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Q5: What are you doing about it now? 

"How are you handling it today?"
→ Identifies competitors and willingness to pay.
   If they're already paying for a solution, the problem is real.
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Running the Interview 

Sample: 5–10 people is enough (patterns repeat fast)
Length: 30 minutes each
Format: Zoom / remote works fine
Record: always get permission — playback is essential
Incentive: $5–10 gift card (doubles response rate)
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Finding participants:

- Search Twitter/X for people complaining about the problem area
- Ask in comments on your dev.to / Qiita posts
- Friends-of-friends (direct friends say "great idea" regardless of truth)
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Post-Interview Analysis 

1. Pull out "problem language" verbatim from recordings
2. Lay 5 interviews side by side — find repeating patterns
3. Focus on the highest-emotion moments (anger, resignation, embarrassment)
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PMF signals:

✅ "Can you build this?" said unprompted during the interview
✅ A specific dollar amount when you ask "what would you pay?"
✅ "Can I give you my friend's contact?" offered voluntarily
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Summary 

Q1: when     → force a recent, concrete episode
Q2: what     → actual behavior including existing solutions
Q3: why      → motivation and values underneath the action
Q4: hardest  → emotional pain = business opportunity
Q5: now      → willingness to pay + competitor landscape
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"Build while learning" is slower than "listen while building."
Interviews are the fastest path to PMF.

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