interview-me

Interview Me – Requirements Discovery and Intent Confirmation Skill

Skill Overview

Interview Me is a skill that uncovers users’ true needs through one-on-one interviews. It helps identify the gap between what users say they want and what they actually need before any plan, specification, or code exists, continuing until approximately 95% confidence is reached.

Applicable Scenarios

1. Vague Requests with Unclear Requirements

When a user makes a conventional request such as “Build me an X” but omits key information like “who it is for,” “why it is needed now,” or “what the success criteria are.” For example, the user says, “Build a dashboard,” but cannot explain who will use it, what problem it should solve, or how its effectiveness will be measured.

2. When the User Proactively Requests In-Depth Validation

When the user explicitly says things like “Interview me,” “Quiz me,” “Let’s align before we start,” or “Pressure-test my idea,” indicating that they want help clarifying their thinking and avoiding wrong turns.

3. When You Notice Yourself Filling in Missing Assumptions

When you realize you are silently filling in details for the user’s vague request—for example, assuming the target users, usage scenarios, or technical constraints—these are all signals to pause and use Interview Me.

Core Functions

1. Hypothesis–Confidence Method

Before asking questions, write a one-sentence hypothesis about the user’s needs and include an honest confidence score from 0 to 100%. When confidence is below 70%, you must explain what information is missing. This number forces you to remain honest and avoid overestimating your level of understanding.

2. One Question at a Time with a Guess

Ask only one question at a time, accompanied by your guess about the answer. This is useful because users respond more quickly to an incorrect guess than they do when generating an answer from scratch; your guess is explicitly validated or corrected; and your implicit assumptions are exposed.

3. Restating Intent and Explicit Confirmation

When confidence reaches a high level, restate the user’s intent in their own language—including the outcome, users, timing, success criteria, constraints, and what not to do—and ask the user to give an explicit “yes,” rather than vague responses such as “Do you think it’s good?” or “That works.”

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of projects is Interview Me suitable for?

It is suitable for any project with unclear requirements, involving human decision-making, or requiring trade-offs among multiple reasonable options. It is particularly useful before beginning to write specifications, create plans, or write code. It is not suitable for clear-cut mechanical operations, such as renaming a variable, or for purely informational queries.

How long does Interview Me take?

It typically requires 4–6 rounds of questions, with one question accompanied by a guess in each round. The process is quick and negligible compared with the cost of building the wrong functionality. You can stop once you reach the point where you can predict how the user will respond to the next three questions.

How is Interview Me different from other requirements analysis skills?

Interview Me is the most preliminary skill in the definition phase—it identifies gaps in requirements before other skills begin. idea-refine assumes you already have a general idea of what you want, while spec-driven-development assumes the requirements are clear and only need to be documented. Interview Me helps you discover your true intent through interviewing when you are not yet sure what you actually want.