Story-Based Customer Interviews
Collect reliable feedback from every customer interview.
- Always know exactly what to ask
- Uncover actionable insights every time
- Drive outcomes for your customers and your business
- 140,000+ books sold
- 7,200+ reviews
- 18,000+ students
- 100+ countries
Tell me about the last time you…
Learn how to collect a rich, detailed customer story about past behavior. This is the secret to uncovering reliable insights that drive product success.
What's included
- On-Demand Content: Get access to 100% of the content on day one. Learn at your own pace with in-depth, how-to content to guide your learning.
- The Interview Vault: Watch and learn from case studies where we conducted 15 real, 20-30 minute, story-based customer interviews.
- The Interview Coach: Get detailed, personalized feedback with customized coaching tips on every practice interview.
- Instructor Support: Our instructor team is standing by to answer questions, review your work, and cheer you on as you work your way through the curriculum.
- Office Hours: Attend monthly Office Hours sessions to get real-time help and connect with peers and our instructor team.
- Supportive Community: Get support and learn from peers who are also practicing story-based interviews.
Who this is for
Product managers, product leaders, designers, researchers, and anyone who conducts customer interviews to drive product decisions. Whether you are running your first interview or your hundredth, you will leave with a repeatable way to get a reliable story from every participant.
What no other interview course has
The Interview Vault
Most interview courses tell you what a good interview looks like. This one shows you. Watch 15 real, 20-30 minute story-based customer interviews conducted by Teresa Torres: five with AnyList customers about their grocery habits (B2C) and ten with Lovable customers about AI prototyping (B2B).
The Interview Coach
Practice is where the skill develops, and feedback is what makes practice count. Record a practice interview, and the Interview Coach gives you detailed, personalized feedback with coaching tips on every question you asked.
"This is shockingly good."
"Really valuable feedback. It is so detailed. Love it!"
"Very helpful and insightful feedback. And really specific and on-point."
Explore the course outline
7 modules, 28 lessons, 10 hr 56 min of video
00 Start Here
- Welcome: How the Course Works1 min
- The Fine Print: Our Terms and Conditions1 min
- The CDH Slack Community1 min
- Understanding the Psychology of Interview Questions: Why It Matters What You Ask33 min
01 Preparing for a Story-Based Customer Interview
- Distinguishing Research Questions from Interview Questions: A Key to Reliable Feedback1 hr 2 min
- Enumerating Your Research Questions: What Do You Want to Learn4 min
- Identifying Your Story-Based Interview Question: Optimizing for Scope and Clarity4 min
- Activity: Define Your Research Questions and Interview Questions and Get Feedback
02 Conducting a Story-Based Customer Interview
- Uncovering the Hidden Structure of a Good Customer Story: Teasing Out the Narrative9 min
- Understanding What a Detailed Story Looks Like: 3 Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches7 min
- Setting the Scene: How to Ask the Right Context Questions5 min
- Building the Timeline: Specific Prompts to Help You Elicit Stories and Red Flags to Look Out For5 min
- Watch and Learn: Collecting a Customer Story30 min
- It's Time to Practice: Conduct a Story-Based Interview30 min
03 The Interview Coach
- Video to Transcript Tool: Generate Transcripts for Your Practice Interviews
- Get Feedback: Excavating a Story
04 Getting More Out of Every Customer Story
- A Deep Dive on Active Listening: How to Stop Worrying About What to Ask Next16 min
- Watch and Learn: Active Listening22 min
- It's Time to Practice: Focus on Active Listening30 min
- Memory Cues: Helping Your Participant Remember Their Story9 min
- Show and Tell: When Observations Reinforce the Story5 min
- Watch and Learn: Memory Cues10 min
- Watch and Learn: Recognizing an Unreliable Memory20 min
- It's Time to Practice: Play with Memory Cues24 min
05 Common Challenges When Conducting Story-Based Customer Interviews
- Atypical Stories, Patterns, Themes, and Outliers4 min
- Fight Confirmation Bias: Every Customer Is Unique1 min
06 The Interview Vault: Watch and Learn from Real Customer Interviews
- AnyList: Exploring Grocery Habits (B2C). Watch 5 real customer interviews1 hr 33 min
- Lovable: AI Prototyping, What's Working and What's Not (B2B). Watch 10 real customer interviews3 hr 51 min
What students say
Even if you only have time to get halfway through, this course provides immediate, practical value. I was able to directly apply what I learned in the first few modules to plan better questions for an upcoming user interview. It's highly actionable right from the start.
If you're new to customer interviews, this is an excellent place to start. I appreciate the quality of notes as well as videos that show what interviews look like in practice.
Even for experienced interviewers it is great for taking a step back and evaluating your techniques.
I appreciated the real customer interviews and the breakdowns that Teresa provided.
Go for it. Teresa is a good teacher, and this course is exactly what I needed.
Great mix of education and real practice. Highly recommend.
Learn from the author of Continuous Discovery Habits
Teresa Torres wrote the book on continuous discovery. Continuous Discovery Habits has become the standard playbook for product teams that want to interview customers every week and act on what they learn, and story-based interviewing is the interviewing method at its heart.
Through Product Talk, she has taught these habits to product people around the world. She conducted every interview in the Interview Vault herself, and she built the Interview Coach that gives you feedback on yours.
Earn a course completion certificate
When you finish the course, submit one of your own customer interviews for review by the instructor team. Once they verify that it is an effective story-based customer interview, you receive a course completion certificate.
Certificates must be generated while your term is still valid. If your term has expired, you can extend it through the CDH Membership program.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have access to the course content?
You'll have access to all of the course content for 3 months starting from your course purchase date. Your enrollment also includes the Slack community, monthly community calls, and office hours for those 3 months. Want more time, or access to every Product Talk Academy course you've purchased? The CDH Membership program extends your access and adds several other benefits.
Why don't you offer lifetime access like other self-paced courses?
We limit access for two reasons. We know that many people buy self-paced courses, procrastinate, and never complete them. We limit your access to motivate you to complete the course in a reasonable timeframe. And your course access includes our community, monthly community calls, monthly office hour sessions with our instructors, and the Interview Coach. We can't offer those benefits indefinitely.
Can I transfer my enrollment to another student?
No. A course purchase is tied to a specific student. You cannot transfer your enrollment to another student.
Is there a way to extend my course access after it expires?
The only way to extend your course access is through the CDH Membership program. It extends your access to any Product Talk Academy course you have previously purchased and includes several other benefits.
Can I defer my enrollment or pause my 3-month term?
We do grant deferrals in some situations. If you have budget to spend before the fiscal year ends but a busy quarter coming up, we can defer the start of your term. If something unexpected happens and you won't be able to complete the course during your remaining term, we can pause your term. We only defer or pause the remaining portion of your term, so let us know as soon as possible. When deferring or pausing, you must complete your 3-month term within 12 months of your purchase date. To request a deferral or a pause, or to resume your term, email support@producttalk.org. We typically respond within 2 business days.
Do you offer a course completion certificate?
Yes. We do not issue certificates for consuming the course content. Instead, the course includes assessment activities, and we issue certificates to students who complete each one and show proficiency. Certificates must be generated while your term is still valid. If your term has expired, you can extend it by joining the CDH Membership program.
What's your refund policy?
We want you to be satisfied with your purchase. Because students get access to the full course immediately, we handle refund requests case by case. Send requests to support@producttalk.org with as much detail as possible about why you are requesting a refund; we typically respond within 2 business days. Requests are usually not granted when you didn't make time to engage with the course before your term ended, when you had different expectations than what this page describes, or when a tactic from the course didn't work right away in your organization. Every tactic needs to be adapted to your context, and we support that experimentation through office hours and the Slack community. Refunds are issued to the original form of payment.
Is this course accessible?
We use high-contrast fonts and reasonable font sizes, include alt text on all images, and provide closed captions on every video. We do not currently offer audio versions of our text content, but we hope to add this soon. If you have a specific need that is not addressed here, email support@producttalk.org. We'd love to accommodate additional needs if we can.