Claude Skill

customer-research

Plans, runs, and synthesizes customer research — interviews, surveys, win-loss analysis, and message testing — into findings that change decisions. Use this when the customer is being guessed at, before positioning or a major launch, when churn or conversion has an unexplained ca

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Download cbrock84-headcount-plugins_marketing_skills_customer-research-98d1c17.zip · 2 KB

cbrock84/headcount 1633 245 forks MIT Updated 7d ago

Part of cbrock84/headcount — 160 skills

Install

skills CLI npx skills add https://github.com/cbrock84/headcount/tree/main/plugins/marketing/skills/customer-research

Claude Code claude plugin marketplace add https://llmmart.ai/marketplace.json && claude plugin install cbrock84-headcount@llmmart

Git git clone https://github.com/cbrock84/headcount.git

The skills CLI installs just this skill, for any of its supported agents. Claude Code installs the whole cbrock84/headcount collection as a plugin from our marketplace. Git is the plain clone.

Skill manifest

Customer research

Research earns its cost only if a decision hangs on it. Name that decision before recruiting anyone.

Choose the method by question

Why did this happen / what do they actually do — interviews. Small n, deep.
How common is this — survey. Only after interviews have told you what to ask; a survey written from assumptions returns your assumptions.
Why did we win or lose — win-loss, with losses weighted higher. Losses are where the truth is and are systematically under-sampled.
Which framing works — message testing against a real choice, not a preference rating.

Interviewing

Ask about the past, not the future. "What did you do last time" is evidence; "would you use this" is politeness.

Open broad, follow the energy, and go quiet after their first answer — the second one is where the substance is.
Chase specifics: when, what happened next, what did that cost you, who else was involved.
Never describe your solution before you have their problem in their words. Once they know what you want to hear, the interview is over.
Watch for the workaround. Anything someone has built a spreadsheet to survive is a validated problem.

Synthesizing

Code the transcripts before forming a view — findings assembled to support an existing belief will be. For each finding record: the claim, how many independently said it, a verbatim quote, and what would change if it is true. A finding that changes nothing is trivia.

Separate what people said, what they did, and what you inferred. Conflating the three is the most common way research misleads.

Sources

references/sources.md in this skill lists the outside authorities that settle the questions here — what each one is authoritative for, and what you may do with it. Check them before answering on anything they cover, and cite what you used. Most are free to read and not free to reproduce; the use note on each is binding.

Never

Recruit only happy customers. The sample that answers your email is not your market.
Lead: "How much would this feature help?" has one answer.
Present a single interview as a finding.

Files (headcount)

references

sources.md 957 B

# Sources — `marketing:customer-research`

<!-- Generated by scripts/build-sources.py from sources/*.toml. Do not edit. -->

Check these before answering on anything they cover, and cite what you used. The use note on each one is binding: most of what a professional cites is free to read and not free to reproduce.

## Standard Definitions: final dispositions of case codes and outcome rates for surveys

American Association for Public Opinion Research · global · **read and cite only — copyrighted, do not reproduce**

<https://aapor.org/standards-and-ethics/standard-definitions/>

**Authoritative for:** How a response rate, cooperation rate, refusal rate and contact rate are computed. The arbiter when two people report different response rates from the same fieldwork.

---

Sources are maintained in `sources/` upstream, not here. If one is wrong, out of date, or missing, fix it there — this file is regenerated and an edit to it is lost.

SKILL.md 2.6 KB

---
name: customer-research
description: Plans, runs, and synthesizes customer research — interviews, surveys, win-loss analysis, and message testing — into findings that change decisions. Use this when the customer is being guessed at, before positioning or a major launch, when churn or conversion has an unexplained cause, or when a team is arguing from anecdotes. Also use to turn raw interview notes into usable findings.
---

# Customer research

Research earns its cost only if a decision hangs on it. Name that decision before recruiting anyone.

## Choose the method by question

- **Why did this happen / what do they actually do** — interviews. Small n, deep.
- **How common is this** — survey. Only after interviews have told you what to ask; a survey written
  from assumptions returns your assumptions.
- **Why did we win or lose** — win-loss, with losses weighted higher. Losses are where the truth is
  and are systematically under-sampled.
- **Which framing works** — message testing against a real choice, not a preference rating.

## Interviewing

Ask about the past, not the future. "What did you do last time" is evidence; "would you use this"
is politeness.

- Open broad, follow the energy, and go quiet after their first answer — the second one is where the
  substance is.
- Chase specifics: when, what happened next, what did that cost you, who else was involved.
- Never describe your solution before you have their problem in their words. Once they know what you
  want to hear, the interview is over.
- Watch for the workaround. Anything someone has built a spreadsheet to survive is a validated
  problem.

## Synthesizing

Code the transcripts before forming a view — findings assembled to support an existing belief will
be. For each finding record: the claim, how many independently said it, a verbatim quote, and what
would change if it is true. A finding that changes nothing is trivia.

Separate what people **said**, what they **did**, and what you **inferred**. Conflating the three is
the most common way research misleads.

## Sources

`references/sources.md` in this skill lists the outside authorities that settle the questions
here — what each one is authoritative for, and what you may do with it. Check them before
answering on anything they cover, and cite what you used. Most are free to read and not free
to reproduce; the use note on each is binding.

## Never

- Recruit only happy customers. The sample that answers your email is not your market.
- Lead: "How much would this feature help?" has one answer.
- Present a single interview as a finding.