Feature Request Interview Questions

A user need is the progress someone is trying to make in a real situation. You find it by asking about a recent attempt, watching the workflow where you can, and connecting the outcome they wanted to the obstacle and the workaround. The feature they asked for is one possible solution, not the need itself.

UserTold helps you investigate that moment with an in-product AI interviewer. Start with users you can already reach and a question you need evidence to answer.

Start with a recent event

Choose one uncertainty: why a setup step fails, why a feature is ignored, why someone keeps working in a spreadsheet. Then ask the participant to walk through the last time it happened. A specific episode comes with people, constraints, actions, and consequences; a general opinion comes with none of them.

Use neutral questions:

• What were you trying to accomplish the last time this came up?
• What started that task?
• Can you show me what you did?
• What did you expect to happen at that point?
• What did you do next, and what did that cost you?
• How did you decide you were finished?

Do not ask whether they like your idea before you understand the situation. “Would you use an export button?” invites an opinion about your idea; “What happened to the information after you found it?” investigates the work.

Copy the complete feature request interview script

This example investigates a request for CSV export without assuming export is the right solution.

{
  "version": 2,
  "goals": [
    {
      "id": "request-context",
      "description": "Understand the recent workflow and desired outcome behind a request for CSV export."
    }
  ],
  "segments": [
    {
      "id": "recent-request",
      "mode": "talk",
      "title": "The need behind the request",
      "talk": {
        "research_mode": "discovery",
        "goals": ["request-context"],
        "system_prompt": "Ask about the last time the participant needed the requested export. Ask what they were trying to accomplish, who needed the result, what they did with the information, what failed in the current workflow, and what they did instead. Ask one question at a time and request a concrete example when an answer is general. Do not pitch CSV export or assume it is the right solution."
      }
    }
  ]
}

Ask your agent to adapt it

Adapt the feature request interview at https://usertold.ai/guides/identify-user-needs to a request from one of my users.

Ask me for the exact request, who made it, and the product decision it affects. Replace the export example, keep the questions anchored in the last real occurrence, and keep the requested feature separate from the underlying outcome. Show the complete Study JSON and wait for approval before saving or activating anything.

Separate the request, need, and proposed solution

Do not infer the desired outcome from clicks alone. Backtracking can tell you where to ask a question; it cannot establish what the user expected.

Run the investigation in UserTold

1. Create a Study with one goal, such as “Understand how team leads share research with engineers.”
2. Invite reachable users who recently performed that task. Explain the purpose and recording before they participate.
3. Start with a conversation about the recent event. Add an observation segment if the participant can show the workflow inside the product.
4. Follow with a planned debrief. Turn on Pre-debrief analysis when its questions should draw on the running summary of what just happened.
5. Open the completed Interview and go through the recording and Evidence, keeping the participant's words apart from the observed behavior and from your reading of both.

Use the Quickstart for installation and the study design guide for configuration. The switching guide goes deeper when the important context is the decision to adopt or leave a tool.

Write a need you can investigate

Use this working sentence:

When [situation], [user] needs to [make progress], but [obstacle] gets in the way. Today they [workaround].

Keep the recording or transcript references beside the sentence. Mark any missing element as unknown. A convincing sentence does not become evidence merely because AI wrote it.

How many interviews are enough?

There is no universal count that validates a need. Ask instead whether you have concrete episodes from the users you meant to reach, whether you understand the differences between them, and whether you went looking for counter-examples. A small qualitative sample can explain a problem; it cannot tell you what share of your users have it.

If the next decision turns on prevalence or conversion impact, pair this with product analytics or a separate quantitative study. UserTold does not recruit a representative sample for you.

Turn the need into a reviewed Finding

Next, analyze the interviews to compare source moments and test your reading of them. Then prioritize supported problems against strategy, impact, and effort. Keep the need open to several solutions until the evidence and the product context justify one. Browse the other User Interview Script Templates when the question is about onboarding, pricing, churn, discovery, or concept testing.