startup-interview-synthesis

Startup Interview Synthesis

When to use

Use after interviews, outreach replies, paid-audit conversations, smoke-test responses, or validation-test notes have been collected, and before deciding whether to scope a v1.

This skill turns messy qualitative evidence into a decision. It should not convert polite interest into validation.

Core rule

Separate observed behaviour from opinion, compliments, guesses, and founder interpretation. Treat contradictions as useful evidence, not noise to smooth away.

Inputs to request if missing

Ask only for the missing inputs needed to make the synthesis credible:

Problem statement:
Target user:
Validation goal:
Interview notes or outreach replies:
Test setup:
Success / kill criteria:
Evidence packet so far:

If the user has raw notes, synthesize from them. If they only have a summary, mark confidence lower and ask for exact quotes, commitments, and objections.

Workflow

1. Normalize the notes by respondent, role, segment, source, and date if available.
2. Extract evidence as short claims tied to exact quotes or observed behaviour.
3. Classify each signal as Strong, Mixed, Weak, or Noise.
4. Separate problem reality, buyer/budget, urgency, workaround, reachability, willingness-to-pay, why-now, and behavioural commitment.
5. Look for contradictions between respondents, segments, and stated intent versus behaviour.
6. Identify the strongest evidence for and against the idea.
7. Decide whether the validation criteria were met, missed, or remain inconclusive.
8. Update the evidence packet with a proceed, narrow, retest, park, or kill gate.

Evidence quality rubric

Strong signals:

• A respondent describes a recent real instance with cost, workaround, and consequences.
• The buyer or budget owner is identified and reachable.
• Someone agrees to a concrete next step: introduction, paid audit, pilot, LOI, trial, data share, or calendar follow-up.
• The same pain appears across several similar users without being prompted.
• A respondent already spends time, money, political capital, or risk budget on the workaround.