Customer research call guide

Sprig Churn Research Plan & Interview Guide

Why Our Current Data is Misleading

Before recruiting, we must look at how our exit survey distorts reality: 1. Default Bias: "Too expensive" is pre-selected. Half our cancellers leave it checked, but their free-text responses and behavioral data tell a different story: 79% of cancellers cooked 3 or fewer recipes in their final 4 weeks, and most skipped multiple deliveries. 2. The Value-Perception Trap: When food goes uncooked ("kept piling up in the fridge", "didn't have time to cook", "too much food for two"), the effective cost-per-meal skyrockets. Subscribers aren't necessarily leaving because of sticker price or competitor discounts; they are leaving because paying for food you end up throwing away feels expensive.

Our 6 interviews will test the execs' hypotheses (Price, Recipe Fatigue, Delivery) against this underlying Utilization/Lifestyle Fit problem.

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Recruitment Plan (6 Participants)

Note: Invite 2–3 backups per slot using the backup IDs provided.

1. The "Default Price" Low-Utilizer (Tests CEO Hypothesis vs. Waste) * Recruit: S-8016 (Backup: S-8029) — 14 weeks, "Too expensive (pre-selected)", skipped 4/6, cooked 0, free text: "kept piling up in the fridge". * Why: Represents our largest churn segment. Left the default reason checked, but stopped cooking entirely and threw food away. Tests if "price" actually means "wasted food."

2. The High-Usage Price Chiller (Tests True Price Sensitivity) * Recruit: S-8056 (Backup: S-8096) — 29 weeks, "Too expensive (pre-selected)", skipped 1/6, cooked 12, free text: "cheaper at the supermarket". * Why: Cooked 3 meals/week right up to cancellation (matching our retained user benchmark) with zero waste, yet still felt it was too expensive. Tests the CEO's hypothesis on a user who actually got full utility.

3. The Long-Tenure "Bored" Subscriber (Tests Head of Food Hypothesis) * Recruit: S-8057 (Backup: S-8246) — 53 weeks, "Recipes got repetitive", skipped 4/6, cooked 3, no free text. * Why: Actively changed the dropdown to "Repetitive" after a year of loyalty and recent skipping. Tests genuine menu fatigue vs. seasonal routine changes.

4. The Time-Poor "Repetitive" Subscriber (Tests Menu Fatigue vs. Cooking Effort) * Recruit: S-8022 (Backup: S-8013) — 20 weeks, "Recipes got repetitive", skipped 4/6, cooked 3, free text: "didn't have time to cook". * Why: Selected "repetitive" at 5 months, but wrote they had no time. Did the flavors get boring, or did the 45-minute prep work become a chore?

5. The "Too Much Food" Down-Sizer (Tests Plan Flexibility) * Recruit: S-8006 (Backup: S-8240) — 29 weeks, "Too expensive (pre-selected)", skipped 0/6, cooked 8, free text: "too much food for two". * Why: Consistently cooked 2 meals/week without skipping, but felt overwhelmed by volume. Tests if inflexible portion/box sizes are driving "price" churn.

6. The Early-Tenure Ops Failure (Tests Head of Ops Hypothesis) * Recruit: S-8097 (Backup: S-8152) — 2 weeks, "Delivery problems", skipped 2/6, cooked 10, no free text. * Why: High intent (cooked 10 meals in a very short window) but churned immediately citing delivery. Isolates pure operational failure during the critical first-month habit-building window.

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30-Minute Interview Guide

Golden Rules for New Interviewers

• Don't ask about the future or hypotheticals: Never ask "Would you have stayed if it were 20% cheaper?" (People always say yes). Ask what actually happened.
• Ask for stories, not opinions: Instead of "How were the recipes?", ask "Walk me through the last box you unpacked."
• Don't lead the witness: Do not mention their survey selection ("I see you cancelled because of price"). Let them bring it up.
• Embrace silence: Count to 5 in your head after they finish speaking. They will often fill the silence with the real truth.

1. Intro & Warm-up (3 mins)

• "Hi [Name], thanks for joining. I'm [Name] on the product team at Sprig. We're talking to former subscribers to understand how Sprig fit into your life and where it fell short. There are no right or wrong answers—criticism won't hurt my feelings, it actually helps us improve. Do you mind if I record this just for internal notes?"

2. The Origin & Early Habit (5 mins)

• Goal: Understand the job they hired Sprig to do and their first-month habit.
• "Take me back to when you first signed up for Sprig. What was going on in your life that made you want to try it?"
• "In that first month, what did a typical week with a Sprig box look like?"

3. The Last Box (10 mins) — CRITICAL SECTION

• Goal: Uncover the behavioral reality of food waste, prep time, and portion sizes.
• "Think about the very last Sprig box that arrived at your door. Walk me through what happened to that box from the moment you brought it inside."
• Follow-up: "How many of those meals did you end up cooking?"
• If meals went uncooked: "What got in the way of cooking the others? What ended up happening to those ingredients?" (Listen for: guilt of throwing away food, fridge clutter, unexpectedly busy evenings).
• "Looking back at the last month or two before you cancelled, I noticed you skipped a few weeks. How did you decide whether to get a box or skip?"

4. The Trigger & Executive Probes (9 mins)

• Goal: Pinpoint the exact moment of cancellation and test exec hypotheses without leading.
• "What was the exact moment you decided, 'Okay, I'm going to cancel my subscription today'?"
• Use the relevant probe below based on what they bring up (or their profile):
• If they mention Price / Value: "When you felt it wasn't worth the cost, how were you doing that math? Did you switch to another meal kit, or what are you doing for dinners now?"
• If they mention Recipes / Food: "When you logged in to pick recipes toward the end, what was going through your head? Was it the flavors, the ingredients, or the time/effort to cook them?"
• If they mention Volume / Leftovers: "How did the amount of food in the box match up with what your household actually eats?"
• If they mention Delivery: "Tell me specifically what happened with the delivery. How did that impact your plans for the week?"

5. Wrap-up (3 mins)

• "If a friend asked you today whether they should try Sprig, what would you tell them?"
• "Is there anything else about your experience we didn't cover? Thank you so much for your time!"

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.