Customer research call guide

Strategic Recruitment Plan

The cancellation form pre-selects "Too expensive", severely skewing quantitative data toward price. Furthermore, while 81% of retained users cook ≥3 recipes/week in month 1, only 34% of churned users do—suggesting retention is fundamentally won or lost on habit formation, pace, and food waste guilt (evident in recurring free-text notes like "kept piling up").

To evaluate exec hypotheses (Price, Recipe Repetition, Delivery) against these underlying behavioral dynamics, we will recruit six subscribers across distinct behavioral archetypes:

Backup recruits: S-8044 (Repetitive), S-8115 (Delivery), S-8038 (Price/High engagement).

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Interviewer Guide (30 Minutes)

> Interviewer Note (for new PMs): > 1. Never mention their cancel form response. It was pre-selected and biases answers. > 2. Focus on stories, not opinions. Don't ask "Was it too expensive?" Ask "Walk me through the last box you unpacked." > 3. Embrace 3 seconds of silence. Let the participant fill pauses.

#### 1. Welcome & Rapport (3 mins) * "Thanks for taking the time! I’m [Name], a product manager at Sprig. We’re working to make our boxes better, and we learn the most from people who decided Sprig wasn't right for them." * "There are no right or wrong answers, and you won’t hurt my feelings. I’m recording this for notes—is that okay?"

#### 2. The Early Days & Habit Formation (7 mins) Goal: Understand the baseline expectation and initial activation (testing month-1 cooking habit). * "Think back to when you first signed up for Sprig. What was going on in your life that made you want meal kits?" * "Walk me through your first couple of weeks. How often were you cooking the meals?" * "Did you cook with someone else? How did the portion sizes fit your household?"

#### 3. The Turning Point & Kitchen Reality (12 mins) Goal: Neutral deep dive to evaluate price, delivery, repetition, and food waste without leading. * "Think about the last box you received before canceling. Walk me through what happened from the moment it arrived to when you decided to cancel." * If Ops signal: "Did it arrive when and how you expected? How did that affect your week?" * If Food signal: "How did picking your meals feel toward the end compared to the beginning? Did you feel excited by the menu?" * If Fridge/Time signal: "Did you ever have ingredients left over when the next box arrived? How did you handle that?" * "I noticed you skipped a few deliveries [or never skipped]. How did skipping fit into your routine?" * "Tell me about the specific moment you went to the website to hit 'Cancel'. What tipped you over the edge that day?"

#### 4. The Alternative & True Cost (5 mins) Goal: Test CEO hypothesis (competitors vs. grocery vs. takeout). * "Now that you aren't using Sprig, what are you doing for dinner on busy weeknights?" * "Did you try or consider any other meal kits or services? Why or why not?" * "When you think about the total cost of Sprig, what felt like the biggest driver of whether it was 'worth it'?"

#### 5. Wrap-Up (3 mins) * "If you had a magic wand and could change one thing about Sprig so that it fit your life perfectly, what would it be?" * "Thank you so much for your candor. We’ll send your $30 gift card within 24 hours."

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Post-Interview Debrief Checklist (Immediately after call)

Capture within 10 minutes in Slack/Notion: 1. Primary root cause: (e.g., Recipe boredom, Food waste guilt, Box delivery timing, Absolute price, Household mismatch). 2. True competitor: (e.g., Trader Joe’s, HelloFresh, Takeout, Cooking from pantry). 3. Exec hypothesis validation: Did this support CEO, Food, or Ops? (Yes/No/Partial + 1-sentence quote).

Sprig Retention: Churn Interview Plan (Next Week)

To stress-test our executive hypotheses (CEO: Price/Competitors; Head of Food: Repetitive recipes; Head of Ops: Late deliveries) and address the alarming baseline metric—only 34% of cancellers cooked $\ge$3 recipes/week in month one, versus 81% of retained users—we have selected a targeted cross-section of 6 users from last quarter’s cancellation dataset.

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Part 1: Recruitment Plan (Who & Why)

We need a mix of profiles to isolate the real drivers of churn while accommodating our two interviewers who are new to the process (we will pair them with experienced leads or give them highly structured transcripts).

1. S-8028 (Delivery Problems / High Engagement) * Profile: Subscribed 3 weeks, skipped 2, cooked 9 recipes (heavy initial usage). Reason: Delivery problems. Free text: "kept piling up in the fridge". * Why: Tests Head of Ops' delivery hypothesis against actual usage. With 9 recipes cooked, they were engaged until logistics broke down. Good for new interviewers (clear timeline). 2. S-8056 (Price / Power User / Churn after 29 weeks) * Profile: Subscribed 29 weeks, skipped 1, cooked 12 recipes in the last 4 weeks. Reason: Too expensive (default). Free text: "cheaper at the supermarket". * Why: Tests CEO's price hypothesis. Crucially, they were cooking 12 recipes a week right up until cancellation—meaning value was high, but price sensitivity or a competitor offer triggered the exit. 3. S-8035 (Recipes / Long-term Churn) * Profile: Subscribed 56 weeks, skipped 1, cooked 2 recipes. Reason: Recipes got repetitive. Free text: "didn't have time to cook". * Why: Directly tests Head of Food’s hypothesis on long-term fatigue. Shows how a loyal user of over a year slowly disengaged. 4. S-8005 (Price / Early Drop-off / Zero Engagement) * Profile: Subscribed 20 weeks, skipped 5, cooked 0 recipes. Reason: Too expensive. Free text: "too much food for two". * Why: Represents the bulk of cancellers who fail activation (0 recipes cooked). Unpacks whether "Too expensive" is a proxy for value failure (didn't use it, so it felt like a waste). 5. S-8115 (Delivery / Mid-term / High Usage) * Profile: Subscribed 17 weeks, skipped 2, cooked 10 recipes. Reason: Delivery problems. Free text: "cheaper at the supermarket". * Why: Combines delivery issues with secondary price/supermarket comparison. Great for testing if operational friction causes users to re-evaluate overall cost. 6. S-8214 (Recipes / Mid-term / Moderate Usage) * Profile: Subscribed 31 weeks, skipped 3, cooked 3 recipes. Reason: Recipes got repetitive. Free text: "too much food for two". * Why: Explores the intersection of recipe fatigue and household sizing ("too much food for two"), providing actionable product feedback for the Head of Food.

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Part 2: 30-Minute Interview Guide

Designed for clarity, supporting our two new interviewers with clear guardrails against leading questions.

Phase 1: Introduction & Context (5 mins)

• Interviewer Script: "Hi [Name], thanks for taking 30 minutes. I’m with Sprig. We’re not here to win you back or sell you anything—I genuinely want to understand your experience so we can fix things for current subscribers. There are no right or wrong answers."
• Warm-up: "Take me back to when you first signed up. What were you hoping Sprig would solve for you?"

Phase 2: The Journey & Engagement (10 mins)

(Focusing on the gap between our 81% retained benchmark and their early experience) * "Looking back at your first month, how easy or hard was it to get through [X] recipes a week?" * Probe (for New Interviewers): Listen for signals matching the data (e.g., "I see you skipped a few weeks around month two..."). Ask: "What caused you to skip those weeks?" * "When you thought about skipping or pausing, what usually drove that decision? (e.g., schedule, food piling up, getting bored)?"

Phase 3: Stress-Testing Executive Hypotheses (10 mins)

• Testing Delivery (Ops): "Did delivery timing or box condition ever impact your cooking plans? Can you share a specific instance?"
• Testing Recipes & Portions (Food): "You mentioned [repetitive recipes / too much food for two]. At what point did the menu start feeling stale? Were there specific meals you started dreading?"
• Testing Price & Alternatives (CEO): "When you selected 'Too expensive' / noted supermarket prices, what were you comparing Sprig to? Did a competitor offer trigger the switch, or did the value equation shift over time?"

Phase 4: The Final Decision & Wrap-Up (5 mins)

• "Take me to the exact week you decided to cancel. What was the final straw?"
• "If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about Sprig the day before you cancelled, what would it have been?"
• Close: "Thank you so much for your candor. This is immensely helpful for our team."

Recruit these six

Recruit all six, with the listed cancellation-form reason treated as a clue—not a confirmed cause. “Too expensive” was pre-selected, so it is especially unreliable as a standalone explanation. These interviews are for exploring different churn paths, not estimating how common each one is.

1. S-8004 — 11 weeks subscribed; five skips and no recipes cooked in the last four weeks; selected “Too expensive.” A low-engagement case to explore whether price was the trigger, or whether skipped deliveries and unused food came first.
2. S-8008 — 18 weeks; no skips and six recipes cooked; selected “Too expensive,” with “cheaper at the supermarket” in free text. An active subscriber whose account is more consistent with a price comparison worth probing.
3. S-8006 — 29 weeks; no skips and eight recipes cooked; selected “Too expensive,” but wrote “too much food for two.” Tests whether perceived cost may be tied to household fit or waste, even for a frequent cook.
4. S-8013 — 28 weeks; two skips and three recipes cooked; selected “Recipes got repetitive,” but wrote “didn’t have time to cook.” Explore how recipe experience, time, and skipped weeks related to one another.
5. S-8025 — 50 weeks; one skip and no recipes cooked; selected “Recipes got repetitive,” but wrote “too much food for two.” A long-tenure contrast to S-8013: investigate whether repetition was an experienced problem or a label for a broader mismatch.
6. S-8028 — three weeks; two skips and nine recipes cooked; selected “Delivery problems,” with “kept piling up in the fridge.” A distinct early-tenure, high-cooking case to investigate what happened with delivery and whether delivery was connected to the food backlog.

30-minute interview guide

Before the calls: Use the same guide for all six. Don’t tell participants which executive theory you’re testing. One PM moderates and the other takes notes; rotate roles so each new interviewer leads three calls. Record exact examples and the participant’s wording, not just interpretations. Don’t defend Sprig, pitch a save offer, or rush to fill silences.

0–2 min | Welcome > “Thanks for speaking with me. I’d like to understand your experience with Sprig and what led you to cancel. There are no right answers, and we’re not trying to persuade you to come back. Is it okay if I take notes?”

2–8 min | Let them tell the story > “Could you walk me through how Sprig fit into your routine, from when you joined through when you decided to cancel?”

Follow up neutrally: “What happened next?” “Can you give me a specific example?” “When did you first notice that?”

8–15 min | Reconstruct recent behavior > “Think about your last few weeks as a subscriber. What did a typical week look like?”

Ask what arrived, what they cooked, skipped, or didn’t use, and what was happening in their household or schedule. If relevant: “Can you tell me about the last delivery you remember?” Don’t assume a skip, delivery issue, or uneaten food had a particular cause.

15–23 min | Explore the cancellation decision > “When did cancelling first feel like the right choice? What was happening then?”

> “What were the main things that went into that decision?”

After the open account, ask about specifics that have come up naturally: price and alternatives; recipe choice or repetition; delivery timing or condition; cooking time; household size; food left over; and how often they skipped. Ask for concrete examples and how each factor affected the decision.

23–27 min | Check their form response > “The cancellation form shows [selected reason]. How well does that capture what was going on for you? Was anything more important?”

If they selected “Too expensive,” note that it was pre-selected; don’t treat the selection as confirmation. Ask what they compared Sprig with and what “expensive” meant in practice, without suggesting an answer.

27–30 min | Close > “If one thing had been different, might you have made a different choice—or was cancelling still the right decision?” > “What haven’t I asked that would help me understand?”

Thank them. After each call, the PMs should separately note the apparent trigger, contributing factors, and unresolved questions before comparing notes.