Why Product Trios Should Interview Customers Together

Teresa Torres argues that product trios (PM, designer, engineer) should conduct their own customer discovery interviews rather than outsource them to centralized research, marketing, or BI teams. Centralized research is valuable but operates on slower cadences, is often synthesized for broad strategy rather than weekly decisions, and is easily dismissed by teams who weren't involved, due to motivated reasoning. She also warns against making one role the sole 'voice of the customer,' since that concentrates power. Interviewing together surfaces more insights because each discipline selects and interprets data differently, reflecting the Ladder of Inference. Centralized teams still matter for longer-horizon work and as methodological advisors.

01Key takeaways

• Run customer interviews yourself as a trio so findings arrive fast enough to inform this week's decisions.
• Expect outsourced research to be discounted by teams who had no part in creating it, and involve decision-makers directly.
• Use centralized research teams for long-horizon questions and for coaching on interview methods.
• Avoid designating one person as the sole voice of the customer, since that role will dominate team decisions.
• Debrief interviews together, because each discipline interprets the same customer story through different lenses.

02Key sections

Why trios should interview themselves

Product teams need research that is timely, actionable, and believable, which outsourced research often fails to deliver on its own. Centralized teams work on slower project cadences aimed at broad business questions.

Motivated reasoning and believability

People readily dismiss research they disagree with, and the blind-spot bias makes us miss flaws in our own views. Involving the decision-makers in research makes its findings harder to ignore.

Longer-horizon research has a role

Centralized research remains useful for forecasting and strategic trends, and its experts can coach product teams on research methods.

No single voice of the customer

Letting one role own customer interviews gives that person disproportionate influence in team decisions. The goal is for every team member to speak for the customer.

Diverse perspectives generate more insights

Using the Ladder of Inference, the author shows that PMs, designers, and engineers notice different details in the same interview, so joint interviewing yields richer findings.

03From the post

“The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, Continuous Discovery Habits. I’d love your feedback in the comments. After reading, are you ready to interview as a trio? Still have doubts? Please let me know your thoughts. Product research needs to be timely, actionable, and believable for a”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.