100 Job Strategies
100 Job Strategies · 76 of 100
The Customer Research Gift
Interview five of their customers and send them the findings. You have done the job before being hired.
In short
Talking to five of a company's actual customers and writing up what you learned produces something the company wants, rarely has and cannot easily get — honest outside feedback. It is the most substantial gift an outsider can make, and it demonstrates the whole skill rather than describing it.
The situation
A company's product team argues internally about why mid-market customers churn after four months. Everyone has a theory. Nobody has spoken to the churned customers, because their own team asking produces polite answers.
Someone outside the company contacts five of those customers, has a proper conversation with each, and writes up what they actually said — including the thing none of the internal theories had considered.
That document is worth more than any resume, and it arrives from a person the company has never met.
Why this works
Companies are chronically short of honest customer insight and structurally bad at obtaining it.
When a company asks its own customers why they left, it gets diplomacy. People soften criticism when the person asking built the thing, has a commercial relationship with them, or might take it personally. An outsider with no stake gets markedly more candid answers, which is why research agencies exist and charge substantially for exactly this.
Doing it unprompted demonstrates the entire skill rather than claiming it. Designing the questions, finding participants, conducting interviews without leading, spotting the pattern across five conversations and writing it up clearly is essentially the job specification for product, research, marketing and strategy roles.
It also gives you a genuine information advantage in the process. You know something about their customers that they do not, which makes every subsequent conversation a discussion between peers rather than an assessment.
The gift framing is what makes it land. Handing over research they can act on costs them nothing to accept and creates real reciprocity, unlike an application that asks for time.
It is the highest-effort strategy in this series, which is exactly why almost nobody does it and why it works when they do.
How to run it
- 1
Find customers you can legitimately reach
Public case studies, review sites, community forums and user groups identify customers by name. Public reviewers are the easiest first approach.
- 2
Be completely transparent about who you are
Say you do not work for the company, that you are researching independently, and what you intend to do with the findings. Never imply official status.
- 3
Ask open questions and stop talking
What made you choose it, what nearly stopped you, what would make you leave. Then let silence do the work rather than filling it.
- 4
Talk to at least five people
Below five you have anecdotes. At five a pattern starts to emerge, and the pattern is what makes the document worth reading.
- 5
Report what they said, not what you conclude
Quote people. The value is unmediated customer voice, not your interpretation of it. Keep your analysis brief and clearly separated.
- 6
Anonymise unless you have explicit permission
Participants spoke to you, not to the company. Never attribute a quote without asking, and say so in the document.
What to say
When it does not work
- Misrepresenting yourself. Implying you work for or represent the company is dishonest and potentially unlawful. Be explicit that you are independent.
- Breaching participants' confidence. They spoke to you on certain terms. Attributing quotes without permission damages them and destroys your credibility.
- Data protection obligations. Collecting and sharing information about identifiable people carries real legal duties in many jurisdictions. Understand them.
- Leading the witness. Asking questions that fish for a predetermined finding produces research that tells the company nothing and exposes you when probed.
- Too few conversations. Two or three interviews is anecdote. Presenting it as a pattern is misleading and easily challenged.
Companies cannot get honest answers from their own customers. An outsider can — and handing over what you heard is the most substantial thing you can give them.
Questions
How do I find a company's customers to interview?
Public sources identify more than people expect. Case studies and customer logos on the company's own site name organisations directly, review sites carry named reviewers willing to discuss their experience, and community forums and user groups are full of active customers. Public reviewers are usually the easiest first approach, since they have already demonstrated willingness to talk about the product. Anyone who declines simply declines; there is no cost to asking politely.
Is it ethical to interview customers of a company I do not work for?
Yes, provided you are completely transparent about who you are and what you intend to do. You must state clearly that you do not work for or represent the company, explain that you are researching independently, and say that you intend to share the findings. Implying any official connection is dishonest and potentially unlawful. Participants can then make an informed decision about whether to speak to you, which is the entire ethical requirement.
How many interviews do I actually need?
At least five. Below that you have a collection of individual opinions rather than a pattern, and presenting two or three conversations as a finding is misleading and easily challenged by anyone who knows the customer base. At five, recurring themes begin to separate from individual experiences, and it is the recurrence across independent conversations that makes the document credible and useful.
What are the legal considerations?
Collecting and sharing information about identifiable individuals carries genuine data protection obligations in many jurisdictions, including requirements around consent, purpose and storage. Practically, this means telling participants what you will do with what they say, anonymising quotes unless you have explicit permission to attribute them, and not retaining personal data you do not need. Where participants are speaking about their employer, be additionally careful, since they may be disclosing more than they intend.
More from 100 Job Strategies
- Backfill Sniping
- The Funding Lag
- The Unsolicited Audit
- The Vendor Side Door
- Repost Archaeology
- Ex-Employee Networks
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