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The text recommends that the interview team all now begin brainstorming sets by each writing their set of questions for the project on post-it notes. The team should be keeping in mind using the general guidelines of Category, Current Situation or Today, and Where We Want To Be or Tomorrow. The table below is an example of that from the text.
Category | Today | Tomorrow |
|---|---|---|
Customers (those who would buy our product) | Who are the customers? | How well are current products satisfying the needs today? |
| Who are the biggest customers? | What future trends do we see in the market? |
| Who are the most profitable customers? | How do we see the market size changing over the next three to five years? |
| Who are the most attractive potential customers? | Who is winning and losing in the market? |
| What do customers need? |
|
| What products do they buy today? |
|
| What is the market size (by region)? |
|
Competitors (those who compete against us) | Who are the competitors? | Are there projected changes in competitors on the horizon? |
| Who are leading competitors and which ones may be having problems? |
|
Technology (in manufacture or use of our product) | What technologies are used today? | What future trends do they see in technology? |
| What advantages are there for one technology over another? | Are there not-in-kind substitute products on the horizon? |
Regulatory (issues that would impact the use of our product) | What are the regulatory issues today (environmental, tax, political, federal, state, local)? | What are the regulatory issues tomorrow (environmental, tax, political, federal, state, local)? |
The resulting post-its are organized onto a board or table together by groups and duplicates are eliminated. When possible similar questions may be combined to ensure that the interview is kept to a reasonable time frame. The goal it to have five or six large groups of questions, covering major areas where the customer needs to articulate their requirements.
The set of questions is then documented, and can be adjusted to match the customer being interviewed. While these questions cover the major goals of the interview, there will be some that can be dropped or new ones added as follow ups based on experience with the interviews.