For an owner deciding which part of an established offer to change.
01Choose a decision the conversation can change
Research becomes useful when someone can name the decision it informs. “Understand our customers” is too broad for an afternoon. “Decide whether the quote needs a clearer scope or a faster turnaround” gives the conversation a job. Write both explanations before you ask anything. Include an explanation you would prefer not to find, such as a weak fit between your service and the enquiry.
Choose people who recently faced the decision: a customer who chose you, someone who chose an alternative, and someone who did nothing. These are contrasting perspectives, not a statistically representative sample. If only delighted customers are available, record that limit rather than treating them as the whole market.
02Reconstruct the episode before discussing your idea
Start with a recent occasion. Ask what triggered the search, what they did first, which alternatives they considered, who else became involved and what happened next. A useful prompt is: “Walk me through the last time you needed this.” Ask for an example when a person uses an abstract word such as reliable, convenient or expensive.
GOV.UK’s interview guidance recommends open, neutral questions and attention to stories and real examples.1 Keep your explanation of the proposed change until later. Otherwise you will struggle to distinguish the customer’s experience from their reaction to your proposal.
From a customer’s account to a test
Episode
What happened, in what order?
Evidence
What did they say or show?
Interpretation
What might explain it?
Test
What would change our mind?
03Keep observation separate from interpretation
A customer might say, “I forwarded the estimate to our facilities manager and it stopped there.” That is their account. “Facilities managers dislike our format” is your interpretation. “A scope summary might help internal approval” is a hypothesis. Put them in separate fields. A timestamped email, shared with permission and stripped of unnecessary details, can clarify the sequence without proving the motive.
Record what contradicts the favored explanation. Ask what was acceptable about the alternative and what made staying put easier. Silence after a quote could involve budget timing, an unresolved technical question or an internal decision you cannot see. Do not convert a missing answer into a convenient sales story.
04Turn one finding into a modest test
In the opening illustration, the owner discovers that customers pass quotes to colleagues who never attended the site visit. The next test is a short scope summary attached to selected quotes, with the same delivery process and a recorded follow-up question: could the recipient explain the work and exclusions? This is a comprehension test, not evidence that conversion will improve.
Steve Blank describes experiments as tests of explicit hypotheses rather than building for its own sake.2 Here the hypothesis is narrow enough to fail. If recipients already understand the scope and are waiting for a funding decision, a prettier summary will not address the obstacle.
05Know what an interview cannot establish
People can forget sequences and often explain decisions after the fact. A courteous customer may protect a relationship. Even a detailed interview does not establish how common the issue is or what somebody will pay. Compare accounts with permitted operational records and a later behavior test. Keep disagreement; it may reveal different customer situations rather than an error to average away.
Sometimes immediate action is warranted. Fix a confirmed broken attachment or missing contact detail while research continues. An interview programme should not postpone an obvious repair. Use the worksheet to prepare the next conversation and capture one decision-changing observation, with a competing explanation and a bounded test.
One customer choice record
Use a redacted past episode. Get permission for notes or recordings and keep private records in your approved system. Whether and how you may record a conversation is a legal question; ask your own attorney before recording.
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Sources and limits
Source pages checked 10 October 2026 UTC. The worksheets are editorial aids; they have not been validated as predictive assessments.
- Government Digital Service · Using in-depth interviews. Published 21 February 2017; checked 10 October 2026. Primary practice guidance. Supports open, neutral questions about actual experiences. It does not establish how representative a small set of conversations is.
- Steve Blank · Why Build, Measure, Learn isn’t just throwing things against the wall. 6 May 2015; checked 10 October 2026. Author’s methodological essay. Supports explicit hypotheses and experiments, including ideas inside established companies. It does not validate an opportunity or predict success.
Our interest
Heritage is taking first conversations about paid advisory work on growth. You can use this guide and its worksheet independently, without engaging Heritage.
Service work, The Read included, is a separate relationship: if we become interested in buying a business we are working with, we stop that work and tell the owner plainly before any purchase discussion begins.
This article is educational. It is not individual legal, tax or investment advice, an offer or a promise of results.
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