By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
This post reports feedback from the first cohort of Teresa Torres's Continuous Interviewing course, which ran for 50 product managers, designers, and UX researchers. It recaps the course's rationale, drawing on deliberate practice and the idea of keystone habits, and argues that continuous interviewing is the habit that makes other discovery practices easier to adopt. Participants praised the course pacing, the value of practicing with a peer group before talking to real customers, and the interview 'snapshot' format for synthesizing findings. The piece is largely a promotional recap for the next cohort, but its testimonials offer useful signals about how a lightweight interviewing habit gets built and applied.
01Key takeaways
- Build interviewing as a recurring habit, since it tends to make other continuous discovery practices easier to adopt.
- Practice interviewing deliberately with peers before going to real customers to build confidence and skill.
- Expect imperfect interviews; teams can still learn valuable things from mistakes made during them.
- Synthesize each interview into a compact snapshot with one key quote, core facts, and top insights rather than long notes.
- Keep snapshots visible and cumulative so patterns across interviews emerge over time.
02Key sections
- Course recap and rationale
- The author summarizes the design thinking behind the course, citing deliberate practice and keystone habits as the foundations. Continuous interviewing is framed as the habit that unlocks other discovery best practices.
- Planned skills and outcomes
- The course targets question design, active listening, note-taking, synthesizing interviews into snapshots, and automating recruiting. Guaranteed hands-on practice time is highlighted as the main differentiator.
- Feedback on structure and pacing
- Participants found the spread-out schedule and modest homework load manageable and well-timed alongside their jobs. Optional reading was seen as a helpful addition.
- Value of deliberate practice
- Practicing with a 'guinea pig' group gave participants confidence to interview real customers. Respondents came to see that imperfect interviews still yield useful learning.
- Applying the snapshot format
- The one-page snapshot, capturing a memorable quote, key facts, and insights, was praised for making findings easy to share and to reveal trends over time. Several participants used the methods immediately at work.
03From the post
“Hi there, Product Talk readers! I’m Melissa Suzuno. I’ve been helping Teresa with Product Talk content behind the scenes for the past few years. You may have noticed my handiwork if you’re a fan of the Oxford comma or em dash. If you’ve been reading Product”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.