Solution Interview
In Brief
A solution interview is a structured conversation where you present a proposed solution — using a prototype, mockup, or demo — to potential customers who have the problem you want to solve. You walk them through the solution, observe their reactions, and ask targeted questions about what works, what is missing, and what they would pay. The output is qualitative feedback that defines the minimum feature set, validates (or invalidates) the approach, and informs pricing.
Common Use Case
You have identified a clear customer problem through earlier research and now have a prototype or mockup of your solution. You want to sit down with potential customers, walk them through it, and learn whether this solution actually addresses their needs, what features are essential, and what they would pay for it.
Helps Answer
- What is the minimum feature set needed to launch?
- Which features are must-haves versus nice-to-haves?
- Does the solution actually work for the target user?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach?
- Is the messaging and presentation clear?
- Is the price right compared to alternatives?
- How does this fit into the customer’s existing tools and workflow?
Description
The biggest risk product entrepreneurs face is that they’ll create a product that absolutely no one wants to buy. Problem interviews help identify common problems within a particular market segment. When you have identified a clear problem, solution interviews help nail down the reasons why or whether a particular product “works” for your early adopters.
Often solution interviews are performed with some kind of a proxy for a product — screenshots, a clickable prototype, a storyboard, a hand-drawn mockup — created to spark a conversation with the prospect or customer. The point of the proxy is to give the interviewee something concrete to react to, so you can measure their reactions and start defining the minimum feature set for an MVP.
The primary goals of solution interviews are to:
- Define the minimum features needed to solve a previously identified problem.
- Find a price the customer is willing to pay (to check that you can build a business around it).
For smaller dollar-value products, you may want to perform some kind of a smoke test instead. A solution interview is a useful way to prepare a smoke test or to understand why a smoke test didn’t pass your research hypothesis.
For a larger dollar-value product, the solution interview may feel like a consultative sale, but it’s primarily a research tool to help adjust or customize a product to real customer needs.
Like other types of customer interviews, solution interviews are best done in pairs. One person takes notes during the interview. The other actually asks the questions and focuses on building rapport with the user.
AI-powered design tools like v0, Figma AI, and Cursor can generate interactive prototypes from text descriptions, allowing founders to create realistic product mockups in hours rather than days. For software products, you can even build a functional AI-powered prototype that simulates the core value proposition, giving interviewees something tangible to react to. However, the solution interview itself must remain a genuine human conversation — do not use AI chatbots to conduct interviews, as the qualitative signal you need (facial reactions, hesitation, enthusiasm, confusion) requires a real interviewer who can read the room and follow unexpected threads.
How to
Prep
- Define what you want to learn. Pick a single, focused learning goal — for example, which of three features customers consider essential, or whether a proposed price is in the right range. If you can’t state the goal in one sentence, you’re not ready to interview.
- Formulate a research hypothesis. Write down what you currently believe is true (e.g. “mid-market CFOs will pay $50/seat/month for automated month-end close”) so the interview can falsify it, not just confirm it.
- Recruit interviewees who fit the segment. Re-screen for the actual problem before booking time — interview feedback from the wrong user generalizes to nothing.
- Prepare a prototype or proxy. Use whatever fidelity is just sufficient to provoke a real reaction: a paper sketch, a clickable mockup in Figma or v0, or a working slice for a software product. Keep it intentionally rough enough that the conversation stays focused on whether the solution addresses the problem, not on UI polish.
- Draft an interview script. Plan the story you’ll use to set the problem context, the prompts you’ll use to walk through the solution, and the open-ended questions you’ll ask afterward. Decide in advance who is asking and who is taking notes.
Execution
- Greet the user or prospect.
- Confirm that they fit your criteria and have the problem you want to solve.
- Set the problem context by telling a story.
- Reflect or reconfirm the problem back to the customer.
- Propose or demo a specific solution.
- Optionally discuss pricing, particularly relative to alternative products.
- Ask “what do you need to do to make progress?”
- Get permission to follow up and ask for referrals.
- Document your results, ideally on a small A6 notepad that fits in your pocket if you are out on the street.
Analysis
Use the solution interview to plan the initial feature set of your product and determine pricing strategy.
- Leading questions Questions like “Do you usually add products to the cart or use one-click purchase?” miss the chance to actually learn how the user behaves. Ask open-ended questions instead.
- Imagined-future bias Asking customers how they would feel about a hypothetical feature produces unreliable answers. Give them something concrete to react to, and watch what they actually do.
- Wrong-user bias If your interviewee isn’t currently seeking out a product like yours, their feedback won’t generalize. Re-screen for the actual problem before drawing conclusions.
- AI polish bias AI-generated prototypes can look so finished that interviewees react to execution quality rather than the underlying value proposition. Keep prototypes intentionally rough enough that the conversation stays focused on whether the solution addresses the problem, not whether the UI looks nice.
- Pitch trap A solution interview is a research conversation, not a sales pitch. Let the customer talk first about what the prototype seems to do for them; resist the urge to over-explain features.
Learn more
Case Studies
Idea Validation Framework (backed by 100+ founder interviews)
A validation framework distilled from 100+ founder interviews documenting how founders use solution interviews to nail down minimum feature sets and pricing. Key finding: 15-20 interviews is enough to see patterns, and the most common mistake is asking leading questions like “Would you use an app that…?”
F22 Labs
How to Do Market Validation in 2025: Walks through the full solution interview process with real startup case studies, including how to present prototypes, gather pricing feedback, and interpret signals of genuine interest versus polite enthusiasm.
Superhuman
CEO Rahul Vohra developed a systematic survey-driven interview process. Starting at 22% “very disappointed,” the team used segmented solution interviews to understand what users loved and what held others back, crossing the 40% product-market fit threshold within three quarters.
ProductPlan
Conducted 30 solution interviews with product managers across different company sizes before writing a single line of code, validating the core problem and defining the minimum feature set for their product roadmap tool.
Airbnb
When Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia could not afford their San Francisco loft, they hosted design-conference attendees on air mattresses in their apartment. Each guest stay doubled as an in-person solution interview testing willingness-to-pay and the air-mattress-as-hotel-substitute concept.
Further reading
- Steve Blank — The Four Steps to the Epiphany, K&S Ranch, 2013 (5th edition, ISBN 978-0989200509). Origin of the customer-development model and the framing of solution interviews as evidence-gathering, not selling.
- Steve Blank & Bob Dorf — The Startup Owner’s Manual, K&S Ranch, 2012 (ISBN 978-0984999309). Step-by-step expansion of customer development including solution-interview structure and pass/fail criteria.
- Rob Fitzpatrick — The Mom Test, CreateSpace, 2013 (first printing, ISBN 978-1492180746). Practical playbook for keeping interview conversations grounded in real behavior rather than hypothetical praise.
- Cindy Alvarez — Lean Customer Development, O’Reilly, 2014 (ISBN 978-1449356354). Field guide for running solution interviews, recruiting interviewees, and synthesizing findings into product decisions.
- Dan Olsen — The Lean Product Playbook, Wiley, 2015 (ISBN 978-1118960875). Maps solution interviews onto the product-market-fit pyramid and ties feedback directly to MVP feature-set decisions.
- How to Generate Valuable Insights From a Solution Interview
- The Sales Pitch is Dead. Long Live Solution Interviews!
- LeanSteps: Solution Interviews
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