Representative Sample
What is a representative sample?
A representative sample is a subset of a population that statistically reflects the whole population. This concept comes from quantitative research methods like surveying and split testing, where the goal is to make predictions about a larger population based on data from a smaller group.
However, this concept doesn't apply to qualitative research methods like customer interviewing. Quantitative methods live in the realm of statistics, while qualitative methods do not. The mindset and goals behind quantitative and qualitative research are fundamentally different, which impacts how you should choose participants.
What should product teams do instead of seeking a representative sample?
For qualitative research like customer interviews, you can throw out the idea of selecting a representative sample. Instead, select for variation when choosing interview participants.
This means talking to a wide breadth of people to uncover how much variation there is in behavior:
- Power users and first-time users
- Really active users and disengaged users
- People who use every feature and people who only use one or two things
- Different company sizes, industries, or user segments
Why does variation matter more than representation?
With qualitative research, you're not going to get statistically significant data. What you're trying to uncover is the breadth of experiences related to your topic. The wider the breadth of people you talk to, the more variation you're going to discover.
Even if you've never talked to a customer before, you could talk to a complete outlier and still learn valuable things. As you build your interviewing muscle and start talking to customers regularly, you naturally expand to interview for more variation.
Learn more:
- Why You Are Probably Interviewing the Wrong People (And How to Fix It)
- Customer Interviews: How to Recruit, What to Ask, and How to Synthesize What You Learn
Related terms:
- Customer Interview
- Generative Research
- Continuous Interviewing
Last Updated: October 25, 2025