Customer interviewing is a core PM skill, yet many product managers struggle to do it consistently. The barrier is not a lack of curiosity. It is the absence of a repeatable process that makes the whole thing manageable, especially for introverts who find unstructured conversations draining.
At the third Gathering of The Product Consortium, Pieter Strouven, a product manager with a SaaS and operations background, shared the process he built to make customer interviewing sustainable. His four-step framework covers everything from sourcing participants to distilling insights, with practical tactics at each stage that reduce the cognitive load of research.
The Four-Step Process
Pieter structured his talk around a clear four-phase process he developed for making customer interviews a habit rather than an occasional heroic effort. The phases are sequential and each builds on the previous one.
