Every project starts with a conversation. The shape of that first conversation usually decides whether the next six months will produce something users want — or something the founder thought users wanted.
§Listening for the Real Question
Founders rarely arrive with the right brief. They arrive with a solution that's already three iterations deep in their head, and the job of the first interview is to walk that back to the original problem. Most of the time, the problem they describe in minute thirty-two is the one worth solving.
§The Three Questions We Always Ask
- Who told you to build this? — surfaces the real stakeholder.
- What's the worst version of this that would still work? — finds the MVP.
- What does success look like in 90 days? — pressure-tests the whole brief.
If a founder can't describe the user in one sentence, they don't have a product yet — they have a hypothesis.
§The Awkward Silence
After every answer, we wait. Sometimes too long. The first answer is usually rehearsed; the second answer is usually true. Silence is the cheapest research tool we own and the one we use most.
§Walking Away (Sometimes)
Not every project is a fit. The interview is a two-way door. If the founder can't articulate the user, the problem, or the constraint by the end of the call, we say so — gently, but clearly. The worst projects are the ones that should have been declined in week one.
§What Comes Out the Other Side
A good founder interview produces three artifacts: a one-paragraph problem statement, a list of assumptions ranked by risk, and the three things we'd test in week one if we started today. Everything else — the spec, the timeline, the team — gets built on top of those three.
