What Changed My Mind About Problem Interviews (B2B SaaS)

I used to skip B2B problem interviews. I had worked in the space. I knew the workflow. The interviews felt redundant. Several stalled deals later, I changed my mind.

It Was Not the Stalled Deals

The stalled deals did not change my mind directly. I rationalized them. The first one stalled because security review took too long. The second because vendor consolidation. The third because the buyer changed jobs. Each had a story.

What Actually Did It

The same buyer at the third stalled deal told me something specific in a follow-up: "We were never going to approve this without SOC 2. I told the user that on day one."

The user had not told me. The user did not know SOC 2 was the gating issue. The buyer knew. I had not interviewed buyers. I had assumed the user's pain was enough to drive the purchase.

The Realization

The buying system is the unit, not the user. Every B2B product has at least three roles: user, buyer, gatekeeper. Skipping any of them in interviews means missing constraints that will kill deals later.

What I Did Differently After

Every B2B project since: at least seven user interviews, five buyer interviews, three gatekeeper interviews before any commitment to architecture or pricing. The roles produce different signal. The product spec is the union.

The Lesson for You

If you are reading this and have only interviewed users, you are about to learn this lesson the expensive way. The cheap way is to schedule three buyer interviews this week.