Summarize Interview

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name: summarize-interview description: Transform customer interview transcripts or notes into structured summaries with JTBD insights, pain points, and action items. Use when processing interview data after customer discovery sessions. tags: [discovery, customer-research, interviews, synthesis]

Summarize Interview

Transform raw interview transcripts or notes into structured, actionable summaries that feed directly into Opportunity Solution Trees, PRDs, and product decisions.

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Purpose

Interview transcripts are long, unstructured, and hard to compare across participants. This skill extracts the signal — jobs, pains, outcomes, and surprises — into a consistent format that enables pattern recognition across interviews.

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When to Use

• After conducting a customer discovery interview
• When processing a batch of interview transcripts
• When synthesizing research for a product brief or PRD
• When building or updating an Opportunity Solution Tree

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Required Input

Provide one of:

• Full interview transcript (text or audio-to-text)
• Detailed interview notes
• Recording summary from a note-taking tool

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Output Template

For each interview, produce this structured summary:

# Interview Summary

## Metadata

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Date | [interview date] |
| Participant | [name or ID] |
| Role / Title | [their role] |
| Company / Context | [company, size, industry] |
| Interviewer | [your name] |
| Duration | [minutes] |

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## Current Situation

**What they do today:**
[1–3 sentences describing how they currently handle the relevant activity]

**Tools / processes used:**
- [tool or process 1]
- [tool or process 2]

**How long they've done it this way:** [duration]

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## Jobs to Be Done

For each job identified:

| Job | Importance (1–10) | Current Satisfaction (1–10) | Opportunity Score |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Job description — what they're trying to accomplish] | [rating] | [rating] | [Importance × (1 − Satisfaction/10)] |

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## Pain Points

| Pain Point | Severity | Frequency | Current Workaround |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [pain description] | High / Medium / Low | Daily / Weekly / Occasionally | [how they cope] |

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## Desired Outcomes

- [What "success" looks like in their words]
- [Measurable outcome they care about]

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## What They Like About Current Solution

- [positive aspect] — why it matters to them
- [positive aspect] — why it matters to them

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## Willingness to Change / Pay

- **Have they searched for alternatives?** [Yes/No — details]
- **Have they spent money on this?** [Yes/No — how much, on what]
- **Priority vs. other problems:** [High / Medium / Low]
- **Switching cost concern:** [what would make switching hard]

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## Key Insights

- [unexpected finding 1]
- [unexpected finding 2]

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## Notable Quotes

> "[exact verbatim quote — the most revealing thing they said]"

> "[another important quote]"

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## Action Items

| Action | Owner | Due |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [follow-up action from this interview] | [who] | [when] |

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Processing Rules

1. Use their words, not yours — preserve the participant's language, especially in quotes and job descriptions
2. Fill in "—" for unavailable information — never guess or infer missing data
3. Flag contradictions — if they say one thing but describe doing another, note both
4. Separate observation from interpretation — state what they said, then (separately) what you think it means
5. Rate conservatively — when scoring importance/satisfaction, err toward the middle unless evidence is strong
6. One summary per interview — don't combine multiple participants into one summary

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Cross-Interview Synthesis

When processing 3+ interviews, also produce a synthesis table:

## Cross-Interview Patterns (N=[number] interviews)

### Recurring Jobs
| Job | Mentioned By | Avg Importance | Avg Satisfaction | Opportunity Score |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [job] | P1, P3, P5 | 8.3 | 3.2 | 5.6 |

### Recurring Pain Points
| Pain Point | Mentioned By | Severity Consensus |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [pain] | P1, P2, P4, P5 | High |

### Emerging Themes
1. [theme] — supported by [N] participants
2. [theme] — supported by [N] participants

### Contradictions / Segments
- [Group A thinks X, Group B thinks Y — possible segmentation signal]

### Recommended Next Steps
1. [action based on patterns]
2. [action based on patterns]

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Anti-Patterns

Avoid	Why	Instead
Editorializing quotes	Loses the participant's voice	Use exact words, even if imperfect
Confirmation bias in synthesis	Only highlighting data that supports your hypothesis	Include disconfirming evidence prominently
Skipping "Willingness to Pay"	Leads to building things nobody will buy	Always assess priority and switching signals
Combining interviews too early	Loses individual nuance	Summarize each individually first, then synthesize
Ignoring what they like	Understanding satisfaction prevents breaking what works	Always capture positives alongside pains

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References

• Fitzpatrick, Rob. The Mom Test (2013)
• Torres, Teresa. Continuous Discovery Habits (2021)
• Opportunity Score (Ulwick)