Why Customers Lie in Customer Development Interviews and What That Means for Your Product

The Unconscious Behavior That Custdev Interviews Can’t Capture

For the same reason my daughter, before starting to read a new book, opens it and smells the pages. How often do you do that? Probably every time.

And we do it without thinking. Everything we do unconsciously is impossible to put into words. Try explaining to your partner exactly why you love them.

Why Rational Answers in Customer Development Interviews Are Often Wrong

Rational reasons, on the other hand, are easy to articulate. With a printed book, for example: your eyes get less tired than from a screen. But is that really the true reason? Of course not — it’s about the feeling the book gives you.

Once, our team spent enormous effort trying to understand why customers were churning from our product. We ran a full round of customer research, dug through the data for weeks. We never found the answer. What’s more, the customers who came back couldn’t properly explain why they’d returned either.

What “Just Because” Really Means for Your Product

Eventually, the product team did find the answer. It was this: just because. Just because.

And that single phrase is more honest than anything a structured custdev interview will produce — because it points to something no rational explanation can reach.