discovery-interview-guide

Skill: discovery-interview-guide

Trigger

Use this skill when the user wants to prepare for user research interviews during a discovery — e.g. "prépare le guide d'entretien", "génère un interview guide", "j'ai des interviews clients à faire", "prepare my user interview guide".

Context

At Mayday, the Observe phase (step 2 of FOCUSED) involves conducting qualitative research through client and internal interviews. The goal is to deeply understand the problem space and identify the main pain point (First Use Case / FUC). A good interview guide:

• Is structured but leaves room for natural conversation
• Focuses on understanding current behaviors and workarounds, NOT on validating a solution
• Always ends with a prioritization exercise ("what's the most important problem for you?")
• Has a clear time allocation per section

What to do

Step 1 — Gather context

Ask the user for the following if not already provided:

• What is the discovery topic / problem area?
• Who is being interviewed? (client / internal: Success, Sales, etc.)
• What are the key learning goals from the Kick Off? (paste them or summarize)
• Approximate interview duration (default: 45–60 min)

Step 2 — Generate the Interview Guide

Produce a complete interview guide. Adapt the language to match the user's (French if they write in French).

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[Interview type] Guide — [Discovery topic] Duration: [X] min | Persona: [persona]

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📋 Before the interview (interviewer prep)

• Reminder: do NOT present solutions or lead the witness
• Goal: understand current reality, not validate our ideas
• Take notes on: exact words used, emotional cues, workarounds described

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🙏 Introduction (3–5 min) Script:

"Merci de prendre le temps de nous parler aujourd'hui. On est en train d'explorer [topic] et on voudrait vraiment comprendre comment vous travaillez aujourd'hui — pas vous vendre quoi que ce soit. Je vais vous poser des questions ouvertes, il n'y a pas de bonne ou mauvaise réponse."

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Section 1 — Context & Role (5 min) Questions to understand who they are and their day-to-day context:

• [3–4 questions tailored to the persona and topic]

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Section 2 — Current Behavior & Pain Points (15–20 min) The heart of the interview. Questions to understand how they currently handle the problem:

• [5–7 questions following the "current behavior → pain → workaround → business impact" arc]
• Include at least one question about workarounds: "What do you do today when X happens?"
• Include at least one question linking the pain to business: "What's the impact when this doesn't work well?"

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Section 3 — Priorities & Hierarchy (10 min) Force the interviewee to prioritize:

• "Among everything we've discussed, what's the most critical problem for you today?"
• "If you could fix only one thing, what would it be?"
• "Why that one over the others?"

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Section 4 — Tools & Ecosystem (5 min)

• "What tools do you use today to handle this?"
• "What do you like / dislike about them?"
• "Have you looked at alternatives?"

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🎯 Closing (3–5 min)

• "Is there anything important we haven't discussed that you think we should know?"
• "Would you be open to testing a prototype when we have one?"
• Thank them

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📝 Post-interview: things to capture immediately

• Top 3 pain points mentioned
• Exact quotes worth saving
• Workarounds described
• Surprise/unexpected insights

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Output format

• Produce the full guide, ready to use
• Include time allocations per section
• Write in the user's language
• Bold the key questions
• Add brief interviewer notes in italics where useful
• Adapt sections to the persona (client interview vs. internal interview have different tones)