It would be a mistake (on so many levels) to just call up a customer and start firing off questions. Spend some time brainstorming on your own or with your team at least 20 possible questions, depending on how much time the customer has to spare. It’s a good idea to create a shortlist of the 8–10 that will give you the most bang for your buck just in case their time is limited or they have to cut the interview short. For tips on developing questions, take a look at the customer interview play in the Atlassian Team Playbook.

Check in with your customer-facing teams like sales, support, and account management to get their recommendations on which customers will have the most valuable feedback. Look for customers who can share the good, the bad, and the ugly so that you gain well-rounded intel. Book a time on their calendar and have this template on your screen so you can record their thoughts in real-time.

You’ll see that the template allows you to add your questions and their answers directly into the document. Use that area to record their answers as verbatim as possible. Save the specifics about the impact your product or service has on your customer’s day-to-day for the Use cases section. These interviews are gifts that keep on giving: not only can you get firsthand evaluation of your product or service, but you can also use this time to gather and ask permission to use testimonials. You may even learn about use cases you hadn’t thought of or regular users that weren’t on your radar.

Once the interview is over, take a moment to jot down the most meaningful points your customer made and the actions your team might take to deliver a better product or service. Put these in the Observation section. If your customer has Jira tickets in with your support or IT teams, add them here as well.

Loop back to the top of the template to the Top takeaways area to write a summary of the interview. Pull from your observations and use cases to find the most salient and must-know details.