You're about to start customer research. You plan to interview 10 customers to understand their pain points, use cases, and feedback.
Before you schedule a single customer call, talk to your internal teams.
Your sales reps, customer success managers, and support agents talk to customers every day. They've heard hundreds of objections, questions, and feature requests. They know which customers love you and which are about to churn.
Stakeholder interviews—talking to internal teams before talking to customers—help you:
- Identify the right research questions
- Avoid asking customers things you already know
- Focus customer interviews on gaps in knowledge
- Build buy-in from teams who will act on findings
Here's how to conduct stakeholder interviews that set up better customer research.
Why Stakeholder Interviews Come First
Reason 1: Internal teams have pattern recognition you don't
A sales rep has run 50 demos. They know which features prospects ask about, which objections repeat, and where deals stall.
A CS manager has onboarded 100 customers. They know where new users get stuck, what drives adoption, and why customers expand or churn.
That knowledge is invaluable. Tap into it before designing customer interviews.
Reason 2: You'll waste time researching things you already know
If you ask customers "what's your biggest onboarding challenge?" and your CS team could have told you "everyone struggles with data import," you've wasted interview time on a known issue.
Better: Learn known issues from internal teams, then use customer interviews to go deeper or explore unknowns.
Reason 3: Teams won't act on research if they weren't involved
If you interview customers, synthesize findings, and present them to teams who've never been consulted, they'll resist.
"We already knew that." "That doesn't match what I'm hearing." "Customers are just complaining, not giving real feedback."
Stakeholder interviews create buy-in. Teams feel heard and invested in the research.
Who to Interview Internally
Team 1: Sales (reps, sales engineers, sales leadership)
They know:
- What prospects care about during evaluation
- Which features drive deals vs. which are nice-to-haves
- Competitive dynamics and common objections
- Deal blockers and sticking points
Team 2: Customer success / account management
They know:
- Which customers are thriving vs. struggling
- Common onboarding issues
- Feature adoption patterns
- Reasons customers expand or churn
Team 3: Support
They know:
- Most frequent customer questions
- Product friction points
- Where documentation or UX fails
- Bugs and edge cases
Team 4: Product and engineering
They know:
- Technical constraints
- Product roadmap direction
- Hypotheses about what customers need
Optional: Marketing, partnerships, executives
They bring strategic perspective but may be further from day-to-day customer conversations.
Prioritize teams closest to customers: sales, CS, and support.
The Stakeholder Interview Structure
Keep it focused. You're not doing therapy. You're extracting customer knowledge.
Time: 30-45 minutes per person
Format: One-on-one or small group (2-3 people)
Question framework:
Phase 1: Customer context (5 min)
"Who are the customers you talk to most? What segments or personas do you interact with?"
This helps you understand whose perspective this stakeholder represents.
Phase 2: Customer needs and pain points (15 min)
"What are the top 3 problems customers are trying to solve with our product?"
"What do customers complain about most?"
"Where do customers get stuck or need help?"
"What do customers love about our product?"
Listen for patterns. If multiple stakeholders mention the same issue, it's important.
Phase 3: Decision-making and buying process (10 min—mostly for sales)
"How do customers typically find us?"
"What questions do they ask during evaluation?"
"What makes them choose us vs. competitors?"
"What causes deals to stall or fall through?"
This reveals buying dynamics customer interviews might not fully capture.
Phase 4: Gaps in knowledge (5 min)
"What do you wish you knew about our customers that you don't know today?"
"What questions come up that you can't answer?"
This surfaces what to focus on in customer research.
Phase 5: Hypotheses and hunches (5 min)
"What do you think is the biggest opportunity to improve the product or experience?"
"If you could ask customers one question, what would it be?"
This reveals stakeholder assumptions you can validate (or challenge) with customer research.
How to Capture and Synthesize Stakeholder Insights
During interviews:
- Take detailed notes
- Capture exact quotes when stakeholders say something striking
- Tag themes as you go (onboarding issues, pricing concerns, competitive intelligence, etc.)
After interviews:
Look for patterns:
- What's mentioned by multiple stakeholders? These are likely real patterns worth exploring with customers.
- Where do stakeholders disagree? Maybe sales thinks Feature X matters, but CS says customers never use it. That's worth researching.
- What surprises you? Unexpected insights from one stakeholder might be worth probing.
Synthesis output:
Create a one-page summary:
Themes from internal stakeholders:
- Onboarding friction: CS and Support both mentioned customers struggle with data import (mentioned by 5 out of 7 stakeholders)
- Pricing confusion: Sales mentioned prospects find our tier structure unclear (mentioned by 3 out of 7)
- Competitive pressure: Sales sees us losing to Competitor X on integrations (mentioned by 2 out of 7)
Gaps in knowledge:
- We don't know how customers decide between Tier 2 and Tier 3
- We don't know why some customers adopt Feature Y quickly and others don't
Hypotheses to validate:
- Sales believes pricing is a blocker, but CS thinks it's more about perceived complexity
- Product thinks Feature Z would drive expansion, but CS hasn't heard customers ask for it
This synthesis shapes your customer research plan.
Using Stakeholder Insights to Design Better Customer Research
Stakeholder interviews inform three things:
1. Research questions
Instead of: "Tell me about your experience with our product" (too vague)
Based on stakeholder input: "Walk me through your first 30 days. Where did you get stuck? What was easier than expected?"
2. Customer selection
If stakeholders say enterprise customers churn faster than mid-market, interview churned enterprise customers to understand why.
If CS says customers who adopt Feature X expand more, interview both adopters and non-adopters to see what drives adoption.
3. Validation priorities
Stakeholder interviews generate hypotheses. Customer interviews validate or challenge them.
Hypothesis from sales: "We lose deals because our integrations aren't as strong as Competitor X."
Customer interview goal: Validate whether integration concerns are a primary loss reason or just one factor among many.
Common Stakeholder Interview Mistakes
Mistake 1: Only interviewing leadership
Leaders have strategy perspective but may not know day-to-day customer realities.
Talk to front-line reps, CS managers, and support agents who live in customer conversations.
Mistake 2: Treating stakeholder opinions as facts
Stakeholders tell you their perception of customers. That's valuable but not the same as customer truth.
Example: Sales says "customers think we're too expensive." But when you interview customers, you learn the real issue is ROI clarity, not price.
Use stakeholder input as hypotheses, not conclusions.
Mistake 3: Skipping stakeholders who seem "too busy"
The busiest people (top sales reps, senior CS managers) often have the most customer insight.
Make it easy: 20-minute calls, clear agenda, respect their time.
Mistake 4: Not sharing what you learned
After stakeholder interviews, share synthesis back with teams:
"Based on our conversations, here are the top themes we heard. Here's what we're planning to research with customers."
This closes the loop and builds trust.
When Stakeholder Interviews Reveal Conflicting Views
Sales says: "Customers want more features."
CS says: "Customers are overwhelmed by the features we have."
This conflict is valuable. It might mean:
- Different customer segments have different needs
- Sales talks to prospects (who want everything), CS talks to users (who want simplicity)
- Teams are solving for different success metrics
Don't resolve the conflict internally. Use customer research to find out which perspective is more accurate—or whether both are true for different segments.
The Stakeholder Interview Output That Drives Action
After synthesizing stakeholder insights, create:
1. Research plan
- Questions we'll ask customers
- Customer segments we'll interview
- Hypotheses we're validating
Share this with stakeholders: "Here's what we heard from you, and here's how it's shaping our customer research."
2. Known issues log
- Issues stakeholders mentioned consistently
- No need to re-research these—we know they're real
- Teams can start addressing them while customer research is underway
3. Knowledge gaps to explore
- Things stakeholders don't know or disagree on
- These become the focus of customer interviews
How Stakeholder Interviews Save Time and Money
Without stakeholder interviews:
- You interview 10 customers, spending 2 weeks scheduling and conducting interviews
- You ask broad questions, some of which internal teams could have answered
- You present findings that teams already knew or disagree with
- Teams don't act on research because they weren't involved
With stakeholder interviews:
- You spend 1 week talking to internal teams
- You focus customer interviews on gaps and validation, not discovery
- You present findings that teams helped shape
- Teams act on research because they're invested in the process
Stakeholder interviews are an investment that makes customer research more efficient and impactful.
When to Repeat Stakeholder Interviews
Before major research projects: Always do stakeholder interviews before launching significant customer research.
Quarterly: Check in with sales, CS, and support to hear updated patterns and emerging issues.
When new team members join: New reps or CS managers bring fresh perspectives. Interview them after they've been in role for 3-6 months.
After major product changes: When you launch new features or enter new markets, stakeholder perspectives shift. Capture that shift.
The Collaborative Research Mindset
Stakeholder interviews signal: "We're not researching in a vacuum. We value what you see every day."
That mindset builds a culture where research isn't just the PMM's job—it's a shared practice of listening to customers and acting on what they tell us.
Internal teams are the closest you have to customer experts. Treat them like it. Interview them first, involve them in research, and co-create insights together.
That's how research goes from academic to operational.