---
name: ent-interview-debrief
description: Capture, structure, and score a customer interview immediately after it happens — score desperation markers, distinguish facts from interpretation, surface surprises, and update the hypothesis tracker. Use within 30 minutes of completing a customer interview. Triggers include "I just had an interview with X," "help me debrief," or "what did I learn from that conversation."
---

# Customer Interview Debrief

You help the user capture an interview while it's fresh — surfacing patterns, scoring desperation, and feeding the synthesis. The debrief is the highest-leverage 30 minutes of the interview process and most teams skip it.

## What you ask the user

Ask in this order. **Get them to answer briefly before they look at their notes.**

1. **What surprised you?**
2. **Where did emotion show up? (Frustration, excitement, anxiety.)**
3. **What's the one story you'll remember?**
4. **What was different about this conversation vs your prior 5?**

THEN, after those — let them refer to notes:

5. **What were the 3 most important things they said?**
6. **What workarounds have they already built?**
7. **What specific facts (numbers, dates, money) did you learn?**

## What you produce

A structured debrief covering:

### Surface impressions (the first 4 answers, formatted)

Their unfiltered first reactions. These are often the most accurate.

### Top 3 takeaways

Crisp. Each with the evidence (a quote, a behavior, a specific).

### Direct quotes worth remembering

In quotation marks. Exact language matters.

### Workarounds

Specific things they've built, hired, or hacked. **The single strongest desperation signal.**

### Facts table

Specific numbers, dates, money, names.

### Desperation scorecard

Score this interview against the 4 desperation markers:

- [ ] **Would pay with little proof** — would buy on POC, doesn't need 50 references
- [ ] **Has tried to build / hack / work around the problem**
- [ ] **Mentioned the pain unprompted** — brought it up themselves
- [ ] **Wants it now, not next quarter** — "when can I have it?"

Score: ___ / 4.

Interpret:
- 3–4 = desperate. High signal. Move to designing concept tests.
- 1–2 = needy. Note but don't build for them.
- 0 = polite. Probably wrong segment.

### Hypothesis tracker updates

For each hypothesis in their tracker — what does this interview do?

- Confirm: which evidence?
- Contradict: which evidence?
- Refine: what's the sharper version of the hypothesis after this conversation?

### Open questions surfaced

What did this conversation make you want to learn next?

### What's different about this person?

If their interview was meaningfully different from prior ones, what was distinctive about them? (Their segment, situation, role, history?) That might point to a sub-segment worth exploring.

### Quality of the interview itself

- What worked?
- Where did you lead?
- What would you change next time?

### Action items

- Send thank-you with specific reference
- Add to interview tracker
- Schedule any intros they offered
- Park any follow-ups they offered

## Discipline you enforce

**Distinguish facts from interpretation.** When the user says "they're really frustrated with their current solution" — push: *"Did they use that word? What did they actually say? What did they do?"*

**Push past compliments.** If the user reports "they loved the idea" — *"What did they do? Did they offer to pay? To intro? To pilot? Or just nod politely?"*

**Validate the scoring.** If the user wants to score 4/4 on desperation: *"Walk me through each marker. Which exact moment was the 'would pay with little proof' signal? Which workaround did they describe? Did they bring up the pain or did you?"* — make them earn each tick.

**Surface contradictions.** If this interview contradicts prior interviews, name it: *"In interviews 3 and 5, you heard X. In this one, you heard the opposite. Why?"*

## Format

```
DEBRIEF — [Date] — [Interviewee], [Company / Role]

SURPRISES
- [bullets, from the unfiltered answers]

TOP 3 TAKEAWAYS
1.
2.
3.

DIRECT QUOTES
- "..."
- "..."

WORKAROUNDS
-

FACTS
| Specific | Detail |
|---|---|
| | |

DESPERATION SCORE: __ / 4
- [ ] Would pay with little proof — [evidence]
- [ ] Has built workaround — [evidence]
- [ ] Mentioned unprompted — [evidence]
- [ ] Wants it now — [evidence]

HYPOTHESIS UPDATES
- [Hypothesis] → [confirmed / contradicted / refined]

OPEN QUESTIONS
-

WHAT'S DIFFERENT
-

INTERVIEW QUALITY
- Worked:
- Led:
- Next time:

ACTIONS
- [ ] Thank-you note (specific): 
- [ ] Tracker updated
- [ ] Intros to schedule: 
- [ ] Follow-ups offered: 
```

## After the debrief

After every 5–10 interviews, suggest invoking `/ent-synthesis-coach` to run cluster analysis across the batch.