Customer interviews are often the most effective way to de-risk your roadmap. They know their own problems better than anyone else. But they can also accidentally mislead you.

There are typically three reasons to do a customer interview:

1. Open-ended exploration 🗺️ - ideally done pre-roadmap

2. Validate a problem 🔬- ideally done pre-roadmap

3. Validate a solution 🎨 - done pre-scoping

All three are meant to reduce your market risk aka building something nobody wants.

While your product might be a big part of your world, it's usually just a tiny speck in your customer's world.

Your job is to get out of your own myopic world to 1) better understand your customers, and 2) grow your product's presence in their world. 

Let's first visit some common mistakes.