Differentiation Proof Interview Plan
Investigate whether a claimed software distinction mattered in a recent buying decision, using concrete experiences and disconfirming evidence.
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When to use this template
Use this when your team can demonstrate a capability difference but does not know whether it changes a buyer’s choice. Recruit someone with a recent relevant decision, including people who chose an alternative.
Choose another approach when: You want participants to praise a feature, need a representative market estimate, or plan to disguise a demo or sales follow-up as neutral customer research.
Gather these inputs
- One precise differentiation hypothesis and the evidence for the capability itself.
- A voluntary participant with recent experience choosing how to handle the target task.
- A note-taking agreement and a way to separate the participant’s account from your interpretation.
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Worked example
Illustrative example, not a Crany customer result. Replace every example detail with facts you can verify.
Fictional example: a founder believes a login-free client preview is the reason designers would switch tools. A participant describes a recent handoff and explains that a client’s procurement rules required an authenticated portal. The founder records this as evidence against the hypothesis in that situation. They do not rewrite the story as “customers demand login-free access” or argue that the participant is wrong. Another participant’s different circumstances may produce a different account. The next research question concerns which client constraints make the preview useful. A claimed technical difference remains separate from evidence that a specific buyer values it.
How to use it
- Write the hypothesis and a disconfirming possibility before the conversation.
- Follow the recent decision story before introducing a neutral description of the distinction.
- Preserve contrary accounts and choose an observation that can check the strongest remaining assumption.
Check before using it
- The prompts do not describe the capability as better, essential or unique.
- A participant is free to decline and is not surprised by a sales pitch.
- Stated preference, a remembered choice and an observed task outcome remain separate evidence types.
What to measure
Record where the distinction entered an actual decision, where it did not and what context differs. Use qualitative patterns to refine a hypothesis; do not turn a small interview set into a market percentage or treat verbal enthusiasm as buying behavior.
Research and sources
Dunford connects differentiation to customer value. Strategyzer recommends experience-based questions and distinguishes verbal accounts from actions. The script and evidence labels are original, with no claim that this interview protocol predicts sales.
- April Dunford: A Quickstart Guide to Positioning — checked 2026-10-24. Author’s 2021 explanation of buyer alternatives, differentiated capabilities, customer value and category expectations; no universal growth or numeric claims adopted.
- Strategyzer: Ways to test your value proposition and business model — checked 2026-10-24. 2015 practitioner guidance on experience-based questions, verbal versus behavioral evidence and researcher-presence effects; no guaranteed experiment validity.
About Crany
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