Customer Discovery Question Bank + Scoring Rubric

Last Updated: March 23, 2026 Use with docs: 24 (GTM pilot plan), 25 (enablement pack), 38 (marketing/product sprint).

Purpose

Standardize partner and customer discovery so findings can be compared across conversations and converted into prioritized product and go-to-market actions.

Interview Rules

  1. Ask open-ended questions first; avoid leading prompts.

  2. Capture direct quotes when possible.

  3. Separate facts from interpretation in notes.

  4. Tag each finding to workflow, risk, and milestone context.

Discovery Question Bank

Section A: Workflow Reality

  1. Walk me through your current workflow from start to handoff.

  2. Where do delays or rework happen most often?

  3. Which decisions are most error-prone today?

  4. What would a “great day” look like for this workflow?

Section B: Impact and Priority

  1. Which issue costs you the most time each week?

  2. Which issue creates the biggest downstream risk?

  3. What is currently non-negotiable in your process?

  4. Which pain can wait, and which cannot?

Section C: Adoption Constraints

  1. What would block a pilot from starting this month?

  2. What integration or environment constraints matter most?

  3. Who must approve a pilot internally?

  4. What evidence would make your team confident to proceed?

Section D: Commercial and Partnership Signals

  1. How would you define pilot success in 30-60 days?

  2. What support level do you expect during pilot?

  3. How should outcomes be reported to decision-makers?

  4. What would make you expand after pilot completion?

Scoring Rubric (Per Conversation)

Dimension

Score 1

Score 3

Score 5

Problem Intensity

Minor inconvenience

Frequent friction with moderate impact

High-frequency issue with clear operational cost

Urgency

No near-term action intent

Interested within quarter

Active need now

Pilot Readiness

Unclear stakeholders and scope

Partial alignment, needs follow-up

Clear scope, stakeholders, and decision path

Constraint Clarity

Unknown blockers

Known blockers, partial mitigation

Blockers identified with viable mitigation

Expansion Potential

One-off use case

Limited team-level expansion

Clear path to broader deployment

Priority Formula

Use this weighted score to rank opportunities:

$$ Priority = 0.30(P,Intensity) + 0.25(Urgency) + 0.20(Pilot,Readiness) + 0.15(Constraint,Clarity) + 0.10(Expansion,Potential) $$

Findings Capture Template

  • Account:

  • Date:

  • Interviewer:

  • Primary workflow discussed:

  • Top 3 pains:

  • Top 3 objections:

  • Supporting quote snippets:

  • Rubric scores:

  • Priority score:

  • Recommended next stage:

Weekly Synthesis Workflow

  1. Aggregate scores from all conversations.

  2. Group findings by recurring pain and objection themes.

  3. Map top themes to milestone/risk implications.

  4. Recommend actions: message change, pilot adjustment, or roadmap input.

  5. Publish short synthesis summary in weekly updates.

Governance

If a recommendation from this document conflicts with doc 00 or doc 03, doc 00 and doc 03 take precedence.

References

  • 00-vision-and-success-criteria.md

  • 03-phase-plan-p0-p5.md

  • 05-risk-register.md

  • 10-milestones-dashboard.md

  • 11-weekly-updates.md

  • 24-go-to-market-partner-pilot-plan.md

  • 25-marketing-sales-enablement-pack.md

  • 38-marketing-product-research-sprint.md