Participants interviewed each other in pairs about their current project. When they were interviewed they had to act like the customer of their project. When they interviewed they had to discover what the other player's project was all about.
We did this in groups of 4 players. We played 4 rounds of 15 minutes. In each round, 1 played customer, the other interviewer, the two others observed and checked if the rules were being followed.
The interviewer had a big sheet with the nine boxes before them and had to move a counter in the right box before asking a question. After 15 minutes, we rotated the sheet, so that the two observers now had to play customer and interviewer.
Participants learned a bit about interviewing and looking for problems. They also learned a bit more about their own project by being asked about it. Some people came to the realisation that they were building solutions, while they didn't know what the problem was. Or if there even was a problem :-)
If any of you wants to include a "How to talk to customers" session in your courses, give this format a try. It's easy to explain and set up and it seems to work.
