Customer interview to requirements

Turns a transcript into problems and constraints, and separates them from proposed solutions.

Research productinterviewsrequirements Verified 2026-11-03

When to use it

After a user call, before anyone writes a ticket called 'add a button'.

The prompt

Copy into your assistant
Turn this interview transcript into a requirements document.

Produce:
1. Problems the person described, in their words, quoted.
2. What they said they do today instead, and what that costs them.
3. Constraints they mentioned (tools they cannot change, rules, habits).
4. Solutions they proposed — separated out, and explicitly labelled as proposals, not requirements.
5. The question you should have asked and did not.

Rules:
- Quote for sections 1 and 4. No quotes, no item.
- Do not merge two people's problems if the transcript has several.
- Do not write any requirement that is really a feature someone asked for.

Transcript:
<transcript>

What to change

Section 5 is the most useful output for a second interview, and almost nobody includes it.

Why it works

Separating proposals from problems is the difference between building what was asked and building what was meant.

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