How to find people for customer interviews
Last updated 12 November 2026
To find people for customer interviews, you reach out to those who have the problem you are researching and ask for a short conversation using HeyLead. HeyLead is an AI agent for LinkedIn outreach: it finds the right people, writes to them in the voice of your own LinkedIn posts, follows up, and handles replies. It runs from Claude Code, Cursor, any MCP client or a web dashboard.
Who this is for
This is for a founder or a product person who needs to talk to people with the problem before building more. You reach people who have the problem you are researching. You ask for a short conversation. You do not ask for a sale.
The campaign goal is research interviews. You reach people to interview, survey or test with. The message is for the participant. HeyLead asks a fit question. Is this audience who you need to hear from?
Campaigns with this goal work with a custom brief. You say what you ask of the person.
What the first message contains
You write what they said or did that made you write. You state that this is research. You clarify that it is not a pitch. You explain how long it takes. You tell them what they get from it.
HeyLead drafts the campaign from your brief. You review it and press Launch. Nothing is sent before.
Before an invitation, HeyLead warms up. It does a profile view, a follow, and a comment on a recent post. An invitation goes out with a note. It is followed by an opening message. HeyLead sends up to 2 follow-ups on Free and 5 on Pro. It uses InMail and email fallback.
What to leave out
You leave out a product demo. You leave out a survey link in the first message. You leave out leading questions.
Replies are read, classified and answered from the campaign's facts. A reply that could mean two things gets one short question back. A question your facts can't answer is held for you. "Not now" gets a check-in in 30 days.
Opening messages, follow-ups and answers to replies go out without review unless you switch review on. Then they wait for your approval. Invitations are not held. In review mode, invitations go out without a note.
The brief to type
You type a one-sentence brief in Claude, Cursor, or the HeyLead dashboard. Campaigns with this goal work with a custom brief. You say what you ask of the person.
Interview finance leads at small companies about how they close the month; no pitch, we are still learning.The signals for this job
HeyLead watches 40+ signal types, scored, matched to your ICP and expiring. A strong signal starts outreach and the opener says why now.
Signals that can start this outreach include a post about a pain point. This means a person posted about a problem your offer solves. Another signal is a post about a negative experience. This happens when a person complained about a competitor or the category.
A third signal is a post seeking recommendations. This is when a person asked their network for recommendations.
The limit that applies to this goal
HeyLead runs from the cloud with your laptop closed. It reads your own LinkedIn posts to learn your voice. It never posts unless you ask for a post.
One connected account is a LinkedIn seat or an email mailbox. Free includes cloud sending and up to 2 follow-ups per person. This lasts until your 2nd hot lead. A hot lead is a person whose reply HeyLead reads as interested.
From then HeyLead keeps working the conversations already open. It reaches new people on Pro.
Questions people ask
What should I write in the first message for customer interviews?
You write what they said or did that made you write, that this is research and not a pitch, how long it takes, and what they get from it.
What should I leave out of my research outreach?
You leave out a product demo, a survey link in the first message, and leading questions.
How do I write a brief for research interviews?
Campaigns with this goal work with a custom brief where you say what you ask of the person. You type a one-sentence brief stating who to interview and what to ask.
HeyLead sends from your own LinkedIn account at a human pace: at most 20 invitations a day and 100 a week on a free LinkedIn account (more on Premium or Sales Navigator: a newly connected paid account starts at 20 a day and doubles each week up to its limit), Monday to Friday 08:00 to 22:00 in your time zone, minutes apart. It backs off when LinkedIn pushes back and resumes on its own. You can pause any campaign at any time.
HeyLead is not affiliated with LinkedIn. It reaches LinkedIn through Unipile, which is also not affiliated. LinkedIn's own rules are in the Terms.
Set up HeyLead using https://heylead.dev/llms.txt