# Customer Research > Use when shaping a discovery slice — JTBD-framed interview guide, switch-event focus, verbatim quotes not summaries. Triggers on 'talk to users', 'why did they cancel', 'before we build X'. - Skill: `event4u-app/customer-research` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add event4u-app/customer-research` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/event4u-app/customer-research/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Product & Planning - Author: event4u-app (https://skillmd.com/u/event4u-app) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/event4u-app/customer-research --- # customer-research ## When to use - A backlog item is fuzzy because no one has talked to a current user about the underlying job in the last quarter. - A churn or refund spike needs a switch-event explanation, not a feature gap list. - A product owner is about to write AC for a feature that has not been validated against a real user job. Do NOT use for quantitative funnel diagnosis (see `funnel-analysis`), RICE-style ranking (see `rice-prioritization`), or surveying at scale — this skill is about depth-5-to-10 interviews, not statistics. ## Cognition cluster - **Mental model 2 — Jobs-to-be-Done.** Frames every question against the **switch event**: what caused the user to fire the previous solution? See [`docs/contracts/mental-models.md`](../../../docs/contracts/mental-models.md) § 2. - **Mental model 3 — Pareto principle.** A research week that produces 12 distinct insights is usually re-discovering the same three. See `mental-models.md` § 3. ## Procedure ### Step 0: Frame the job 1. Write one sentence: *"Users hire \ to make progress in \, when motivated by \, expecting \."* If you cannot finish the sentence, the discovery slice is not yet shaped — stop and route to `po-discovery`. 2. Read the **product** slot of the [context-spine](../../../docs/contracts/context-spine.md) (if the consumer project has filled it) for bounded scope, and the **team** slot for the senior PO / researcher handoff target. Skip if absent — note in the brief. 3. Identify **one** competing solution the user might fire. Multiple competitors per session blurs the switch event. ### Step 1: Recruit the right 5–8 1. Recruit **switchers** (joined in last 60 days) and **leavers** (cancelled in last 60 days). Long-tenure power-users go in a separate bucket — they explain habits, not jobs. 2. 5 minimum, 8 maximum. Saturation hits around 6 in a tightly scoped job — the Pareto cut. Beyond 8 is research theatre. 3. Avoid friends, employees, beta-program over-talkers — selection bias is the failure mode that survives the AC. ### Step 2: Run the interview 1. Open with the **switch event**: *"Walk me through the day you decided to start using \."* Time, place, trigger, alternative considered. 2. Past behaviour, not hypothetical. Replace *"would you use"* with *"the last time you needed X, what did you do?"*. 3. Capture **quotes**, not summaries. Verbatim quotes survive the AC; paraphrases get re-interpreted into pre-existing beliefs. 4. Listen for the **anxiety / habit** pair — what they feared in switching, what habit died. ### Step 3: Code the evidence 1. One quote per insight. Tag each with: switch-event, anxiety, habit, expected-outcome, unexpected-outcome. 2. An insight without a quote is a hypothesis, not a finding — mark it. 3. Frequency-rank by how many distinct interviewees touched the insight (≥ 3 is signal; 1 is anecdote). ### Step 4: Hand back 1. Produce the three artifacts (see `## Output`). 2. Hand the brief to the senior PO. Do **not** translate findings into AC inside this skill — that is `refine-ticket`'s job. ## Related Skills **WHEN to use this** - The unit of analysis is **a real user's switch event**. - Discovery is fuzzy and the team is about to ship without validation. - A retention or churn spike needs a narrative, not a metric. **WHEN NOT to use this** - Quantitative drop-off across stages — route to [`funnel-analysis`](../funnel-analysis/SKILL.md). - Ranking competing initiatives — route to [`rice-prioritization`](../rice-prioritization/SKILL.md). - Reframing a fuzzy product ask before any user contact — route to [`po-discovery`](../po-discovery/SKILL.md). - AC sharpening on an already-validated ticket — route to [`refine-ticket`](../refine-ticket/SKILL.md). ## When the agent should load this - "We need to talk to users before we build X." - "Why are people churning at month 2?" - "Run customer research on the new pricing tier." - "I keep guessing what the user wants — let's actually ask." - "Before refining this ticket, do we know the real job?" ## Output 1. **`research-brief.md`** — frame sentence, recruit criteria, target sample, JTBD focal job, list of competing solutions in scope. Pre-interview artifact. 2. **`evidence-log.md`** — one row per insight: quote · interviewee ID · tag (switch / anxiety / habit / outcome) · frequency. Sorted by frequency descending. Verbatim only. 3. **`switch-event-summary.md`** — narrative of the dominant switch event(s) the research surfaced, with ≥ 3 supporting quotes per claim. Hand-off artifact for [`refine-ticket`](../refine-ticket/SKILL.md) and the senior product owner persona (currently [`product-owner`](../../personas/product-owner.md); senior persona shipping in next plate). ## Gotcha - Asking *"would you use"* contaminates the answer with politeness; ground every question in past behaviour. - One articulate interviewee can swamp evidence-log. Frequency-rank by distinct people, not distinct quotes. - Tagging too aggressively pre-interview hides surprise findings — leave room for `unexpected-outcome`. - A research week without ≥ 3 disqualified hypotheses is suspect — research that confirms everything is research that asked nothing. ## Do NOT - Do NOT translate findings into acceptance criteria inside this skill — hand off to `refine-ticket`. - Do NOT recruit only happy users; switchers and leavers carry the switch-event signal, satisfied users do not. - Do NOT skip the frame sentence. An unframed interview produces 50 quotes about 8 different jobs. ## Runnable example Pricing-tier churn at month 2: - Frame: *"Customers hire \ to make progress in \, motivated by \, expecting \."* - Recruit: 6 leavers (cancelled within 30 days of month 2), 2 switchers from competitor C. - Interview: open with *"Walk me through the day you decided to cancel."* Capture verbatim. - Output: `evidence-log.md` shows 5 of 8 cite the *manual export step* as the cancellation trigger — switch-event signal, ≥ 3 frequency. `switch-event-summary.md` recommends the senior PO scope a discovery slice on the export step, not the report itself.