Research Interview Template Library: 10 Proven Question Sets for Common Research Jobs

Good interview questions do not come from a blank page — they are adapted from frameworks validated across hundreds of research sessions. This library gives you 10 ready-to-use question sets for the most common research jobs, each designed for AI-moderated interviews using Koji's structured question system.

How to Use These Templates

Each template below contains 6–8 questions, mixing quantitative and qualitative question types. In Koji, add these directly to your study's interview brief as structured questions.

For each question, the type is noted in brackets: [open_ended], [scale], [single_choice], [multiple_choice], [ranking], or [yes_no]. These are Koji's six structured question types — the same types that determine how each answer is visualized in your auto-generated research report.

Customize the options and scale labels for your specific product and context. The AI interviewer will adapt the conversational framing automatically — you are defining the structure, not scripting the exact words. For most templates, set open-ended questions to 2 AI follow-ups. For scale and choice questions, set 1 follow-up to capture the "why" behind the number.

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Template 1: Product Discovery (Jobs-to-Be-Done)

Research goal: Understand the fundamental job participants hire your product to do.

Best for: Early-stage product development, major feature pivots, understanding latent needs before building.

1. [open_ended] "Take me back to the moment you first started looking for a solution like ours. What was going on in your work at that time?"

2. [single_choice] "Which best describes the primary outcome you are trying to achieve?" Options: Save time on recurring tasks / Make better decisions faster / Improve team collaboration / Reduce costs / Other

3. [open_ended] "Describe the last time you felt like the problem you are trying to solve was really costing you. What happened?"

4. [scale 1–10] "Before using our product, how well were you able to solve this problem with other tools?"

5. [yes_no] "Have you tried other solutions for this problem before?"

6. [open_ended] "If our product did not exist, what would you do instead?"

7. [single_choice] "How did you first learn about us?" Options: Word of mouth / Search / Social media / Direct outreach / Other

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Template 2: Usability and Feature Feedback

Research goal: Understand friction points in a specific feature or workflow.

Best for: Pre-launch feature validation, post-launch usability issues, redesigns.

1. [open_ended] "Walk me through how you typically use [feature name] in a normal week."

2. [scale 1–10] "How easy was it to accomplish what you needed with [feature name]?"

3. [open_ended] "Tell me about a moment when [feature name] did not behave the way you expected. What happened?"

4. [single_choice] "Compared to similar tools you have used, how does [feature name] compare?" Options: Much better / Somewhat better / About the same / Somewhat worse / Much worse

5. [multiple_choice] "Which aspects of [feature name] do you find most valuable?" Options: Speed / Accuracy / Flexibility / Integration with other tools / Visual output / Other

6. [yes_no] "Have you ever found a workaround because [feature name] could not do what you needed?"

7. [open_ended] "If you could change one thing about [feature name], what would it be and why?"

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Template 3: Churn and Cancellation Research

Research goal: Understand why customers leave and what would have retained them.

Best for: Win-back campaigns, product gap analysis, retention strategy, pricing reviews.

1. [open_ended] "What was the main thing that led you to stop using [product]?"

2. [single_choice] "Which best describes your primary reason for cancelling?" Options: Too expensive for the value / Missing features I needed / Switched to a competitor / My needs changed / Technical issues / Other

3. [open_ended] "Tell me about the last time you used [product] before you decided to cancel. What were you trying to do?"

4. [yes_no] "Did you try to get help or find a solution before deciding to cancel?"

5. [open_ended] "What would [product] have needed to do differently to keep you as a customer?"

6. [scale 1–10] "How likely would you be to consider [product] again if the main issues were resolved?"

7. [single_choice] "What are you using now to solve the same problem?" Options: A competitor product / Internal tools / Manual processes / Nothing — the problem is unsolved / Other

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Template 4: NPS Follow-Up (Qualitative Depth)

Research goal: Understand the "why" behind NPS scores and identify specific improvement areas.

Best for: Post-NPS survey follow-up, quarterly voice-of-customer programs, relationship research.

1. [open_ended] "You gave us a [NPS score] — walk me through what has been top of mind when you think about your experience with us."

2. [single_choice] "Which part of your experience had the biggest influence on your score?" Options: Product capabilities / Ease of use / Customer support / Pricing value / Onboarding experience / Other

3. [open_ended] "Tell me about a specific moment in the last three months that shaped how you feel about us."

4. [scale 1–10] "How well does our product fit into your existing workflow?"

5. [yes_no] "Have you recommended [product] to a colleague in the last six months?"

6. [open_ended] "What is the one thing that would make you a stronger advocate for us?"

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Template 5: Onboarding Experience Research

Research goal: Identify friction in the onboarding journey and understand time-to-value.

Best for: Activation improvement, onboarding redesign, research with users in their first 30 days.

1. [open_ended] "Take me back to your first week using [product]. What was going through your mind?"

2. [scale 1–10] "How easy was it to understand what [product] was going to do for you in the first few hours?"

3. [single_choice] "What did you do first after signing up?" Options: Followed the getting-started guide / Explored on my own / Watched a tutorial / Asked a colleague / Contacted support / Other

4. [open_ended] "Was there a moment when things clicked and you understood the value? Describe it."

5. [yes_no] "Did you ever consider stopping before you felt comfortable with the product?"

6. [ranking] "Rank these by how quickly they delivered value for you:" Items: Core feature A / Core feature B / Core feature C / Reporting / Integrations

7. [open_ended] "What is one thing we could do to help new users get to value faster?"

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Template 6: Competitive Intelligence

Research goal: Understand how participants evaluate and compare competing solutions.

Best for: Sales enablement, positioning research, competitive differentiation, analyst prep.

1. [open_ended] "When you were evaluating tools in this category, what were the most important criteria for your decision?"

2. [multiple_choice] "Which of these did you seriously evaluate before choosing your current solution?" Options: [Competitor A] / [Competitor B] / [Competitor C] / [Your product] / Other

3. [open_ended] "Tell me about the deciding factor that made you choose your current solution over the alternatives."

4. [single_choice] "How did you first learn about the alternatives you evaluated?" Options: Industry analyst reports / Peer recommendations / G2 or review sites / Vendor outreach / Search / Other

5. [scale 1–10] "How satisfied are you that you made the right choice?"

6. [yes_no] "Are you actively monitoring any alternative solutions right now?"

7. [open_ended] "What would have to change in the market for you to reconsider your current tool?"

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Template 7: Pricing Sensitivity Research

Research goal: Understand how participants think about pricing value and willingness to pay.

Best for: Pricing model changes, new tier introduction, expansion pricing, packaging decisions.

1. [open_ended] "When you think about what you pay for [product], what do you compare it to?"

2. [single_choice] "How do you typically evaluate the ROI of tools like [product]?" Options: Time saved / Revenue impact / Team cost reduction / Risk reduction / Hard to quantify / Other

3. [scale 1–10] "How confident are you that you are getting strong value for the price you are currently paying?"

4. [open_ended] "Tell me about a time when pricing came up in a decision about your subscription."

5. [yes_no] "Has pricing ever been a factor in considering switching to a competitor?"

6. [open_ended] "What would need to be true about a higher tier for it to be an easy yes for your team?"

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Template 8: Employee Stay Interview

Research goal: Understand what keeps employees engaged and where retention risks exist.

Best for: HR and people teams, quarterly retention programs, manager effectiveness research.

1. [open_ended] "What gets you most excited about coming to work these days?"

2. [scale 1–10] "How strongly do you feel your work connects to the company's overall mission?"

3. [single_choice] "Which of these feels most important to your decision to stay here?" Options: Growth opportunities / Team culture / Compensation / Flexibility / Meaningful work / Leadership quality / Other

4. [open_ended] "Tell me about a moment in the last few months when you felt genuinely valued."

5. [yes_no] "Have you been approached by another employer in the last six months?"

6. [open_ended] "What is one thing we could change that would make the biggest difference to how you feel about working here?"

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Template 9: Market Validation (New Product or Feature)

Research goal: Validate demand for an unbuilt product or feature before committing to development.

Best for: Pre-build validation, startup idea testing, feature bet validation, investor due diligence prep.

1. [open_ended] "Tell me about how you currently handle [problem area]. Walk me through what that actually looks like day to day."

2. [scale 1–10] "How significant a pain point is [problem area] for you right now?"

3. [yes_no] "Have you tried to solve this problem with a tool or process that did not fully work?"

4. [open_ended] "If I told you there was a solution that could [describe proposed solution in one sentence], what would your first reaction be?"

5. [single_choice] "How likely would you be to try a solution like this?" Options: Would try immediately / Would try after seeing it work for others / Would need strong proof first / Probably would not try it / Other

6. [scale 1–10] "If this solution cost [€X] per month, how would you rate its value at that price?"

7. [open_ended] "What would you want to see in a first version for it to be worth your time to try?"

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Template 10: Customer Journey Mapping

Research goal: Map the end-to-end customer experience across all touchpoints from first awareness to ongoing use.

Best for: CX research, journey redesign, identifying dropped moments, pre- and post-purchase experience gaps.

1. [open_ended] "Take me all the way back to when you first realized you had the problem that led you to us. How long ago was that?"

2. [single_choice] "Where in your journey did you experience the most friction?" Options: Finding a solution / Evaluating options / Getting started / Day-to-day use / Getting support / Understanding results / Other

3. [open_ended] "Tell me about the most memorable moment in your experience with us — positive or negative."

4. [scale 1–10] "Looking at your full journey, how well has the experience matched what you expected when you started?"

5. [multiple_choice] "Which touchpoints have you used when you needed help?" Options: In-product guidance / Help center / Email support / Live chat / Community forums / A customer success person / Other

6. [open_ended] "What is the one moment in your experience you would most want us to improve?"

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Customizing These Templates for Your Context

These templates are starting points. In Koji, you can:

• Add your product name, feature names, and competitor names throughout
• Adjust choice options to reflect your actual product capabilities and market context
• Set scale labels (e.g., "1 = Not at all satisfied" to "10 = Extremely satisfied") to make numeric responses more meaningful
• Reorder questions based on your research priority — the AI interviewer works through them in order
• Add a custom intake form to qualify and segment participants before the interview begins
• Combine elements from multiple templates for mixed-method studies (for example, NPS follow-up questions combined with competitive intelligence questions)

The six structured question types in Koji — open_ended, scale, single_choice, multiple_choice, ranking, and yes_no — ensure that quantitative responses are automatically extracted and visualized in your auto-generated report. You get distribution charts, ranked lists, and frequency breakdowns without any manual analysis, alongside the qualitative themes and quotes the AI surfaces from the open-ended responses.

Building Your Own Template Library

Once you have run a few studies, you will have question sets that work particularly well for your product, your customers, and your research objectives. Save these as named templates in your team's documentation system (Notion, Confluence, Google Docs) so other researchers and non-researchers can use them as approved starting points.

A template library combined with a lightweight review process is the foundation of a scalable self-service research program — enabling your whole organization to generate consistent, reliable insights without every study starting from zero.

Related Resources

• Structured Questions in AI Interviews
• How to Write Great Interview Questions
• Discussion Guide Template: How to Structure Your Research Sessions
• Understanding the Research Brief
• Choosing a Methodology
• User Interview Guide Template