A moderator will often find the information gleaned in response to a question is not adequate to take meaningful action. Specific examples or relevant facts and experiences are not what people usually give when answering a question. More often they tend to speak in generalities that are the result of their own emotions, opinions, and conclusions, resulting in senseless statements with no context or reference. Part of the role of the moderator is to continue to drive them toward the level of detail that will allow the organization to address the root of the customer's initial response.

If you are in an interview you might hear the customer say something like "your current product is too expensive" when asked his impression of your current product. Upon reflection, you may find that your product is actually LESS expensive than your competition and you choose to disregard what the customer said as you perceive him as being uninformed, or just trying to get a better deal. But what the customer might have meant was that your transportation costs were higher than the competition, that your product was more difficult to use than the competition—which required more training expenditure on the part of the customer—or that the difficulty and resulting cost to install your product is significantly more than the competition, which drives up the total cost of the product. The initial response does little to help you understand the current perceptions of your product. Only by diving deeper and asking what the customer means are you able to understand the problem the customer has and potential ways to fix it.

During the course of your interviews, you will hear customers using emotionally-charged words or expressing opinions by using words such as great, poor, easy, hard, and expensive. Your task is to move the interviewees beyond their initial statements to a more specific, actionable response by exploring the connection between features, benefits, and values. Continue to ask things like: "Why is that great?", "If you had that feature, what would it do for you?", "What are the consequences of not having this function?", "How does that affect you?", and more.