frank-luongt/plugins/faos-pm/skills/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)

<!-- Source: .faos/custom/skills/business/summarize-interview/SKILL.md -->