Interviews: Stop Thinking and Start Listening

Interviews: Stop Thinking, Start Listening
How to Get the Whole Story
Indi Young

Slideshare Deck - 17-Feb-2011
2
Andrew Maier’s tweet, Friday 24-Sep-2010

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“Data-Driven” versus Qualitative
Non-directive interviews generate qualitative data that can masquerade as “data-driven”
Stories are just data with a soul.
The Gifts of Imperfection – Dr. Brené Brown 12-Jun-2010 TEDxHouston

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The Transition from Interview to Design
Non-Directive Interviews
Relative Qualities of People’s Mental Process
Empathy with the Types of People Interviewed
Generate Better Designs to Support These Types of People
Non-Directive  Qualitative  Empathy  Generative

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Tips & Tricks Summary
Set a scope perimeter inside which any sort of conversation can happen
Listen without an internal dialogue
Ask why, to get to the root of things
Follow the action –verbs!

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Keep the Conversation Inside the Perimeter
Yak yak?
Yak yakyakyakyakyakyak
Yak yak?
Yak yak?
Yak yakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyak
Yak yak?
Yak yak?

7
Take the Time to Ask “Why?”
Why – Pierrette Wiseman CC-BY-NC-SA Flickr pjboudreau/4854288925/

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Open Questions
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
Who?
What does …?
Why?
Why?
Why?
How come …?
Tell me a story about …
Give me an example of …
Could you explain …?
Tell me more about …

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Verbs Are Stronger Than Nouns
crowd
expect
priest
murmur
tourist
feel spiritual
tour guide
tour
pack
go inside
Vatican
Sistine Chapel
tour
shush
walk out
group
decide
ticket
turn around
TV
soccer game
join
shout
gather
blow horn
Spanish Steps
rub
team
show
win
feel cool
visit
watch
Rome
befriend
strangers

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Verbs Are How We Empathize
The point is to understand people deeply—
— so deeply you could live their life, walk in their shoes, and make decisions exactly the way they would.
So, how was my honeymoon in Italy?

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What to Listen For
Behaviors(Motivations, Actions)
Beliefs(Philosophies, Underpinnings)
Reactions(Emotions, Feelings)

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Blunder Summary
Skip the list of interview questions
Don’t play Mr. Smarty Pants or Ms. Control Freak
Conjecture would be futile
Don’t “belief” everything

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Start with One Question & Go From There
Yak yak?
List of Interview Questions
Yak yakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyakyak
Yak yakyakyakyakyakyakyak

14
Mr. Smarty-Pants
Explain too much
Doubt participant understands your question
Pretend to understand
Make condescending statements
Ms. Control-Freak
Follow your own agenda / topics
Forget participant’s previous answer
Feel embarrassed by your mistakes
Miss key story elements

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What Is Conjecture?
“… a statement likely to be true based on available evidence, but which has not been formally proven”
A guess about “what I would do if …”
bad word!
Definition from wiktionary.org

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Just Because Someone Used the Word “Believe” or “Think” …
… don’t confuse beliefs with:
Emotion (dig deeper)
Behavior (dig deeper)
Opinion (move on)
Conjecture (move on)
Preference (move on)

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www.rosenfeldmedia.com
- slides & videos
- articles
- how-to’s & templates
@indiyoung
indi@acm.org
Code: INDI
(25% discount)

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Interviews: Stop Thinking and Start Listening

by Indi Young on Feb 17, 2011

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Interviews: Stop Thinking and Start Listening — Presentation Transcript