Interviewing Users: Spinning Data Into Gold

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Introduction

Today
Introduction 9:00 – 9:10
Best Practices Overview 9:10 – 10:00
Methods10:00 – 10:30
Break10:30 – 10:45
Interviewing 10:45 – 11:30
Interviewing Exercise11:30 – 12:15
Lunch!
Observation Exercise 1:15 – 2:00
Synthesis 2:00 – 2:45
Break2:45 – 3:00
Ideation3:00 – 4:00
Share4:00 – 4:30
Q&A + Wrap-up 4:30 – 5:00

Take a fresh look at people
Use existing ideas as hypotheses
What to make or do
Refine & prototype
Launch
Iterate & improve
Use fieldwork throughout the development cycle
Explore new ideas

Synthesis & ideation process
Fieldwork
Synthesis
Ideation
Development

Cultural data from fieldwork
Case study: iPod accessories

Case study: iPod accessories
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Interviewing Users: Spinning Data into Gold
8

Research Project – Best Practices Overview

What do I mean by “research?”
Ethnography
Ethnographic interviews
Video ethnography
Depth-interviews
Contextual research
Home visits
Site visits
Experience modeling
Design research
User research
User-centered design
One-on-ones
Camera studies
User safaris

What do I mean by “research?”
Ethnography
Ethnographic interviews
Video ethnography
Depth-interviews
Contextual research
Home visits
Site visits
Experience modeling
Design research
User research
User-centered design
One-on-ones
Camera studies
User safaris
What-ever!

Beyond our terminology, what are we doing?
Examine people in their own context
What are they doing?
What does it mean?
Infer (interpret/synthesize/etc.)
Find the connections
The researcher is the “apparatus”
Apply to business or design problems
Use products, services, packaging, design to tell the right story
More possible types of solutions than we started out with

Identifying the problem

The Business Question
What new products and services can you offer to help partners increase social network stickiness (and thus revenues)?
What entertainment activities should you support to tap into a growing middle-class in China?

The Research Question
What are the motivations, successes, and frustrations for current and prospective users of our partners’ social media sites?
How is family life changing in middle-class China? What are the critical digital and analog technologies that are being embraced?

Pain points: default research/business question?!
While we always uncover so-called pain points, the bigger opportunity may come from understanding why– how did we get here?

It may not really be that painful
Satisficing(coined by Herbert Simon in 1956) refers to our acceptance of good-enough solutions
These can drive engineers and designers crazy…but the real problem isn’t always what it appears to be

Finding the right participants (aka recruiting)
Often an afterthought in project planning
But the right customers are crucial to get the right insights
This takes time to plan and to execute
Pointless interviews waste time and challenge the credibility of the work
Person doesn’t really want to talk to you
They don’t have the desired relationship with the product/brand
Epic FAILS will happen anyway
Identify
What type of people you want to find (criteria, screener)
How you will find those people

Recruiting criteria: Relationship to category
What is their relationship to the product/service/brand/activity?
Typical user
Non-user
Extreme user
Peripheral user
Expert user
Subject-matter expert
Wannabe user
Should-be user
Future user
Past user
Hater
Loyal to competitor
Triangulate through multiple perspectives
By creating contrast, you reveal key influencing factorsthat you wouldn’t otherwise see

Recruiting criteria: Type of user
There may be more – or different – “users”
Think about the whole system: the chooser, the influencer, the user, and anyone who is impacted by those roles
Challenge assumptions about who the organization is implicitly/explicitly designing for
Is that everyone?
Do they even exist?
Surface a broader sense – even prior to research – about who is affected by the product and who is being designed for
Is your “typical customer” real or aspirational?

Recruiting criteria: Demographics
Gender
Age
Life stage/lifestyle
Married
Stage of family
Retirement
Not in the middle of a major life-change (unless that’s of interest)
Dwelling
Suburban/urban/rural
Apartment/living alone/ roommates/single family home
Race
Reflect the population
Reflect the user base
Occupation
From outside the industries in question
Income
Can afford the product in question
Demographic factors are typically secondarywhen defining the sample

The screener
Screeners are very formal, linear documents
Typically used by market research recruiting agencies
Screeners havetwo purposes…
Does the person fits your criteria?
Convince them to participate
…and three main sections
Introduction
Checking off criteria
Invitation to participate

Recruiting criteria: The softer side
Whatever their relationship with the product/brand/service, you want the person to be engaged, have a point of view, care about the thing, and be articulate

Creative recruiting
Outside of the traditional method of working with a recruiting agency, there are other approaches
Friends and family/Social networks
Snowball recruiting (participants find more participants)
Craigslist
Intercepts
Etc.
Pros and cons
Cheap but time-consuming
Quick but harder to control and manage
Likely to find “pure” participants but they might be too close to you

Incentive
Enthusiastic thank-you rather than compensation
Recruiter will advise on best amount, depending on what you are asking for
For a fee, they will handle sending a check, but I prefer the immediate gratification of an envelope of cash
Include a thank-you note and even swag
In B2B settings, be creative about who and how to incent
You may negotiate this on a per-site basis

The interview guide (or field guide)
A detailed plan of what will happen in the interview
Questions, timing, activities, tasks, logistics, etc.
Transforms questions-we-want-answers-to into questions-we-will-ask
Share with team to align on issues of concern
Especially with multiple teams in the field
Helps you previsualizethe flow of the session
Include questions as well as other methods that you’ll use
Prepping an interview guide means that you may not need to use the interview guide
This is counter-intuitive
It does come in handy during freeze-up moments – scan it over to see what else you want to cover

Four sections to the field guide
Introduction and Participant Background
Logistics, timing, objectives
The Main Body
Subsections for each area you plan to explore (e.g., configuration, learning about new features, etc.)
Projection/Dream Questions
Be audacious and ask about predictions for the future or ideal experiences
Wrap Up
Logistics, ask about anything they want to tell you that you didn’t ask about

Minimalist field guide

Detailed field guide

Include other methods

Documentation: photos
Plan to take lots of photos
They will reveal things you don’t remember noticing
Essential for storytelling
Make sure you have permission before you start snapping

Documentation: audio, video, notes
Essential to capture exactly what is said
Difficult (impossible) to maintain eye contact, manage interview, and write down everything
Potentially a role for a second interviewer
Taking notes – not as the definitive record – can help you process, notice, think about follow-ups, etc.
I strongly recommend privileging being in-the-moment (e.g., eye contact, listening) over trying to capture everything yourself

A release is a good idea
It clarifies the rights of the interviewee and your organization
Consent – participation is voluntary
Incentive – what the participant gets but they are not an employee
Model release – how images and video will be used
Non-disclosure – in case you disclose anything in-progress
These are legal documents
Will your legal department help you prepare it?
Can you influence them to create consumer-friendly, light-weight versions
Give participants their own copy at the outset of the interview

Methods

Ask people how they would solve a problem
Participatory design
Doesn’t mean we implement the requested solution literally
“I wish it had a handle”
Many ways to solve the underlying need (“I need to move it around”)
Designers work with this data to generate alternatives
Engage people in the non-literal through games and role-playing
Uncover underlying principles and explore areas of opportunity that don’t yet exist

Show people a solution
Consider the difference betweentestingandexploring
Avoid “Do you like this?”
Don’t show your best guess at a solution; instead identify provocative examples to surface hidden desires and expectations
Make sure you are asking the right questions
What does this solution enable? What problems does it solve?
Especially for new products, needed before getting into specifics of your implementation
Image from Roberto and Worth1000.com

Use a range of methods

Workbook: Instructions

Workbook: Question and answer

Workbook: Text stimuli

Workbook: Visual stimuli

Workbook: Responses

Mapping

Storyboards

Mockups

Prototypes

Casual Card Sort

Methods can be a playground
We choose, mash-up, or create methods based on the problem, project constraints, and a desire to experiment
Build up a library of approaches and artifacts
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Interviewing Users: Spinning Data into Gold
49

Break!

Interviewing

Principles inform tactics
I don't skate to where the puck is, I skate to where the puck is going to be – Wayne Gretzky

Fieldwork principles
Check your worldview at the door
Embrace how other people see the world
Build rapport
Listen

Check your worldview at the door
Before you start doing interviews, do a team-wide brain dump of all your assumptions and expectations
Get closely-held beliefs out of your heads
You needn’t go back to verify your assumptions; goal is to make assumptions explicit
Make the interview about the interview
As a transitional ritual, agree explicitly that you are going to Learn about Paul rather than Identify NextGen Opportunities for Roadmap

Embrace how other people see the world
Go to where your users are rather than asking them to come to you
Nip distractions in the bud
Eat!
Leave plenty of time so you aren’t rushed when you arrive
Find a bathroom beforehand
Be ready to ask questions you (think you) know the answers to
Think about: “When are your taxes due?”
What do you know? What are you afraid they’ll say? What might you learn?

Build rapport
Be selective about social graces
Just enough small talk
Accept what you’re offered
Be selective about talking about yourself
Reveal personal information to give them permission to share
Otherwise, think “OMG! Me too!” without saying it
Work towards the tipping point
From question-answer to question-story
You won’t know when it’s coming; be patient
Acknowledge the interview as something…unusual
“What I want to learn today…” over friendly chat

Listen
You can demonstrate that you are listening by asking questions!
Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up
“Earlier, you told us that…”
“I want to go back to something else you said…”
Signal your transitions: “Great, now I’d like to move onto a totally different topic”
This level of listening is not how we normally talk to each other
Remember that you are interviewing, not having a conversation
This is really hard

Listening body language
Yes!
Not so much.

Silence defeats awkwardness
After you ask your question, be silent
Don’t put the answers in the question
After they’ve answered you, be silent

Use natural language
Talk like your subject talks!

Don’t make questions pass/fail (1/2)
Client: So the concept of transferring, burning, and syncing, can you talk a little about those three concepts? So transfer, burn, and sync. Just do you understand the difference?
Interviewee: Transfer, burn, sync. Burn is when I’m actually putting it onto some kind of disc.
Okay…
Transferring is I guess when I transfer the files from one place to the other.
Mm-hmm…
Whether it’s to a device or to a different drive or whatever or into the program I guess. And syncing, well, I know the phone always comes up and says it’s syncing, when it’s syncing up to the files or syncing up to the computer or stuff like that. That’s the only time I think I’ve ever really heard that.
(cont’d)

Don’t make questions pass/fail (2/2)
Client: So the only other question I have left in this area is: Would you expect to manually decide what music goes on your devices or would you rather that the machine does it for you?
Interviewee: Decide what I want on my…?
Let’s say your library is here on this machine, and you have a device, would you want it to put as much as it could put on from the library from the device when it’s connected to your computer?
If I could hold it… if the device itself could actually hold all the files, I would love that, if it automatically…
Just knew.
Just knew that it wasn’t on there, the same thing when…what do you call it - when I have to go into the program and actually have it… downl…uhh, now I’m confused in what I should call it.
No, no, don’t worry about it!

Don’t presume they accept your world view
Client: So, really interesting the sort of things that you as old Derek used to value, such as efficiency of time, and some of those things have now influenced the new Derek.
Derek: Right.
Steve: Maybe that sort of begs a larger question…We’ve offered you this idea of old versus new you, but how do you think about this transition?
Derek:Yeah, I don’t really see it.

If you want to fix something, wait until the end
Frustrating to watch users struggle with your product
Remember, you are there to learn from them
You will lose the interview if you start taking their questions
When it’s time to go, show or tell them only what will help them

Find your personal style
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Questions to gather context and collect details

Questions to probe on what’s unsaid

Questions to uncover mental models

Why so many types of questions?
Real interviews aren’t as simple as asking a question, getting an answer, and then moving onto the next question in your list.
You are unlikely to get to the actual answer without asking a few different questions a few different ways.
You need a range of tools and techniques. And you need to feel when you haven’t got to the real answer yet so you can keep going
.

Prepare for exploding questions
Well, my cousin never tells me when she has an updated bank balance so I figured I would handle it myself. That’s why I signed up for the PayPal service, I think it’s them but maybe not.
Coping techniques
Wait until these issues come up organically, without you having to ask
Make notes on your field guide about what you want to loop back to so you don’t forget
Triage based on what’s most pressing for your topic
Triage based on what makes the best follow-up, to demonstrate listening
Why does this matter?
Let’s find out what service this is?!
Okay.
I decided I had to spend the money I had from last month in order to save month’s money and this service was going to help me do that. Even if it’s not the same password that my cousin would be using
I don’t understand her financial model…
Why does she expect that it would be the same?

Exploding questions can lead to a flow state

Managing others in the field
We lead a thirty-minute training session for everyone who will join us in the field
Field teams are ideally 2, at most 3
Ensure one person leads the interview and clarify the role of the “second interviewer”
They should ask questions, but stay in the “chapter” that we’re in
During our debriefs, we offer feedback and coaching about the process, if possible

Getting better at interviewing
Practice with hallway or other serendipitous micro-interviews
Write surveys and participant screeners to practice crafting questions out of the moment
How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice, man, practice!

Participant screeners as asking practice
A good way to practice both framing a question and the empathic exercise of thinking through the respondent’s user experience with that question

Write and take surveys
Develop your own critical eye (and interviewer’s voice) by looking for bad examples and identifying just what’s wrong with them

We learn from mistakes and mishaps
Collect and share war stories with other interviewers
THANX 4 NOTHING KITTEH

Interviewing Exercise
Get in groups of 3
You are in a startup looking for opportunities in…
Music – purpose/role/interests, technology, devices
Food, groceries, meals, nutrition
News – media, information, sources, purpose
Review sample interview guides
Imagine the flow
Background, depth, reflection
Three rounds of interviews, 10-12 minutes each
One interviewer, one interviewee, one observer
Each person plays each role once
Stay in the exercise!
Group debrief

Giveaway #1
Everyone gets a license for TechSmith’s screen capture tool Snagit
Expect it by email in a couple of weeks
Everyone gets 3 tests from UserTesting.com
Use code uxworkshop; expires in 2 weeks
Draw
2 licenses for TechSmith’sCamtasia (Mac/PC)
1 license for Techsmith’sMorae (PC)

(The rest of) today
Introduction 9:00 – 9:10
Best Practices Overview 9:10 – 10:00
Methods10:00 – 10:30
Break10:30 – 10:45
Interviewing 10:45 – 11:30
Interviewing Exercise11:30 – 12:15
Lunch!
Observation Exercise 1:15 – 2:00
Synthesis 2:00 – 2:45
Break2:45 – 3:00
Ideation3:00 – 4:00
Share4:00 – 4:30
Q&A + Wrap-up 4:30 – 5:00

Homework/Observation Exercise

Homework Check-in
Your mission: Dedicate at least half an hour to walking around and observing people in your neighborhood
Props to Dylan, Caroline, and David!

Homework Check-in
Who was able to do the assignment?
Was this anyone’s first experience doing observational fieldwork?
Is there anyone who has not done user or observational research in the field?

Observing
Notice what… people, places
Notice how… processes, sequences, interactions
Suspend your point of view
Avoid conclusions
Allow confusion
Do it “out loud”
Steve, practicing his “noticing.” You can tell because he looks like he may be a little confused.

You’re observing people within their culture. Notice how cultural artifacts reflect and define the environment; and reveal what is “normal”
Normal isn’t “right or wrong” – it’s the set of background rules that define much of what people choose or ignore
Media
Products
Advertisements
Street Culture
Trends/Fads
Cultural context
What are they selling?

Cultural context

Your mission: Imagine you are working on a project for Gentrific8, looking for ideas to redevelop parts Seattle around downtown and the Central Library.
Form groups of 2 – 3. Mix it up
Wander and observe people, interactions and environments
Do it out loud!
Capture (photos, notes)
What, who, where, when?
Why, how?
This is not a design audit of signage or merchandise displays
Exercise: Explore!

Neighborhood observations: Noe Valley, San Fran

Neighborhood observations: Montara, California

Be back by 2:25!
Exercise: Explore!

Synthesis: From data to insights

Analysis
Synthesis
Ideation
Solutions
Strategies
Opportunities
Detailed solutions
Insights
Synthesis & ideation process

Fieldwork
Synthesis
Ideation
Development
Why a process?

Avoid jumping to conclusions

DTDT: Analysis vs. Synthesis
Analysis
Break large piece(s) into smaller ones in order to make sense
e.g., interviews, transcripts into anecdotes, stories

Combining multiple pieces into something new
e.g., developing themes, implications, opportunities
Synthesis
Analysis

The process gradually moves from one to the other
Synthesis
Analysis

Analthesis????
Synthesis
Analysis

Sense-makingthrough an iterativeprocess of refining gathered data
Early, Informaldata in your head
First, process the experience you had collecting data
Refer to debriefs and conversations
Articulate and identify themes
Outcome: Topline Report
Process-based, Formalheavy lifting
Then, process the data itself
Individual and group analysis
Pattern-identification, clustering, models, frameworks
Outcome: Opportunities
More narratively, what is synthesis?
Review, Refine, Rinse, Repeat

Synthesis naturally begins inthe field
Resist meaning (for now)
Focus on observations
Get the detail
Create time to talk after each fieldwork experience
Worksheet to facilitate the debrief
Write up real-timesummaries for the team, ASAP
In-field debriefing
Fieldwork highlights captured in the wild.

After fieldwork, collate reflections and quickly externalize a starter set of 5 to 10 thematic areas based on
Pre-identified areas of inquiry
Refer to debriefs and conversations from the field
New patterns that we observed
Identify interesting areas; acknowledge that you don’t understand details yet, identify questions
Outcome: Topline Report
All right researchers… what did you see?
Early, informal synthesis (data in your head)

This sheds light on what excites the team and the stakeholders and brings focus to the next stage of synthesis
The Topline Report

Go back through your raw data very closely to move beyond the Topline Report
Individually (heads-down) and collaboratively (heads-up) develop clusters, identify patterns, collate and refine findings
Process maps, eco-systems
Frameworks, models
Design implications
i.e.: What did other public announcements in the study look like? What are the layers of information and cultural context? What form factors are favored? Why?
Process-based, formal synthesis (heavy lifting)

Heads down!
Video
Photos, field artifacts
Transcripts
DV->MP3->FTP->.docx
We use Chromolume
Transcript analysis
Make marginal notes on patterns, quotes, or what seems interesting
Ask yourself questions; give labels; propose solutions
Don’t worry about implications, be descriptive and reactive
Individual analysis (not today…)

If you can’t get transcripts, watch video/listen to audio (even sped-up) and in near real-time jot down the rough narrative of the session
When you make an observation in your own voice, do something typographic to call it out (ALL CAPS, highlight, etc.)
Individual analysis (not today…)

Heads up!
Present each interview (etc.) as a case study. Introduce each, and pick out the provocative highlights.
Voice and document reactions, a-has, support and questions
Clustering with stickies
White-board notes
Develop a new shared point-of-view, beyond “findings”
Collaborative analysis

Easy to scan for patterns and relationships
Play with data by rearranging individual elements
Lo-fi way to makes data tangible, visible, and sharable
Sticky work

As you are telling stories, quickly get the key points (notes, themes, observations, quotes) up
Code with the source (interview name, etc.)
Separate what was observed from what you think it means
Write big and try to code visually (e.g. colored dots, colored post-its, symbols)
Sticky work

Group stuff
Be opportunistic, using whatever makes sense at first
You may want to re-use your topline headings or you may want to be fresh
Initial groupings may be “All things related to shopping” or “what people are doing” or “what people are feeling” or “pain points”
Sticky work

Sticky work
Re-group stuff
Now, go back and re-group at a higher level
What it means
What people are trying to accomplish (i.e., needs/motivations/goals)

Sticky work
Name your groups
These themes are the points of view you will carry forward
Individual stickies are supporting evidence you can return to

Play with possible models and frameworks
Relationship to other data
Frequency
Timeline
The 2 x 2

Spreadsheet analysis enables immersive refinement of data
Play with data by generating alternate views of the dataset
Rewrite each sticky in a cell (adding commentary, explanation, context, quote)
Processing each entry allows further synthesis and thought
More individual analysis
Categories of columns will vary by project
Comment comes from rewritten sticky
Tag each comment with person, segment, market etc. to allow you to manipulate data

Uncover patterns through additional layers of keywords
Prioritize and better understand themes and relationships
Search for quotes and evidence as you transition to writing presentation
Go back to your data in search of more insights or further inspiration
More individual analysis
Coding entries with keywords builds a taxonomy for future reference
Spreadsheet tools let you see data in different ways
Use themes from sticky work and/or presentation sections to reveal relationships and shore up shaky thinking

Opportunities are not
A reporting of “interesting findings”
A list of solutions
Opportunities are
Change we can envision based on what we heard and observed
About people
In the context of, but reframing the business questions
Generative, inviting many solutions
Keep the human touch in communication
Allow people to move seamlessly between places
Allow people to integrate seamlessly across different devices and systems
Developing opportunities
What should we do?

Topline
Summary of analthesis activities
Opportunities
Collaborative Analysis
Individual Analysis
Individual Analysis
Externalize the data in your head
The heavy lifting
Determine generative directions
Play with the entire data set
Play with individual data elements

Get in groups of 4
Quickly review what happened (today and from your homework) and what you saw. Collate reflections. Resist the urge to move too far towards conclusions
Don’t refer to notes or photos yet
Keep your own experiences, existing hypotheses, cultural clichés, etc. in the background
Develop 3 - 5 themes as a “Topline Report” sketching out the big takeaways, leading into further synthesis
Don’t fuss over exact wording
Exercise: Develop a topline (7 minutes)
All right researchers… what did you see?

Evolve your “Topline Report;” flesh out and enrich themes
Write your themes and put them up
Leave space for new ones
Now (!) tell stories from the field (from your neighborhood and today), using photos, notes and memory
Rethink the relationships between the themes, pick your strongest themes and write a sentence with a point of view
Go from “Graffiti everywhere” and “Teen gangs hanging out” to “Public spaces in the neighborhood are used to communicate identity and belongingness”
Exercise: Develop findings (7 minutes)

Build on your findings
Start each opportunity with a verb
Opportunities are not
A reporting of “interesting findings”
A list of solutions
Opportunities are
Change we can envision based on what we heard and observe
About people
In the context of but reframing the business questions
Generative, inviting many solutions
Exercise: Identify opportunities (7 minutes)
What should we do?
What should we do?

Break!

Ideation: From insights to solutions

A simple step moves you from Opportunities to Ideation Questions, reframing them into actionable language
How can we
keep the human touch in communication
allow people to move seamlessly between places
allow people to integrate seamlessly across different devices and systems
How can we
How can we
Ideate!
Ideation questions

Scope of solutions
Solutions exist across many different business areas
Functionality
Visual design
Marketing
Architecture
Public Services
Partnerships
Events
Software
Form factor
Packaging
Policy
Retail design
Even if you are unlikely to impact certain business areas, it’s crucial that you set that constraint aside for ideation
How many business and civic areas to impact can you spot in this picture?

Developing strategies
Responses to any ideation question can lead in different strategic directions
Finding:Students have to smoke outside, but they get cold and wet
Opportunity: Improve the experience of students who smoke
Ideation Question:How can we improve the experience of students who smoke?
Support underlying needs and behavior by embracing the finding
Question needs and behavior, seek change by challenging the finding
Create a protected environment for smoking
Eliminate smoking

Strategies can inspire solutions
Strategies
Eliminate smoking
Solutions
FacilitiesBuild a pavilion
AdminAllocate interior room
PartnersAlign with nearby cafe
OnlineSmoking cessation games
AdminBan smoking
PartnersStop smoking coaches

Solutions can suggest strategies
Strategies
Eliminate smoking
Solutions
AdminAllocate interior room
AdminBan smoking

Collaborative generation
This is a collective, out-loud activity! Talk, listen, build on each other’s ideas
Don’t worry about a “bad” idea… it may lead to a “good” idea
Don’t correct; generate alternatives
“Yes, and…”
This is a visual activity! Sketch, draw…
Quantity over quality; go quickly
Individual ideas matter less than what the collective produces overall
How can a sour lemon help keep things working smoothly?

Stuck?
Come up with bad ideas
Immoral
Dangerous
Bad for business

Don’t forget your second wind
Pace of idea generation
Obvious but necessary, problem-solving, need-filling, low-hanging fruit
Time

Pace of idea generation
Obvious but necessary, problem-solving, need-filling, low-hanging fruit
Wacky, transgressive, innovative, breakthrough, weird
Time

Summary of ideation exercises
Questions Business Areas Ideation and Sharing
2 minutes 3 minutes 40 minutes 30 minutes
How can we
How can we
How can we
Ideate!
Shift to “How can we…?”
Figure out where we can play
Remember, “Yes, and…”

Exercise: Ideation questions (2 minutes)
Apply How can we…? to each of your Opportunities
How can we
How can we
How can we
Ideate!

Exercise: Business areas (3 minutes)
Let’s collectively list possible business areas to design for
Think about whatever Gentrific8 could do or affect
Use this list as a starting point
Functionality
Visual design
Marketing
Architecture
Public Services
Partnerships
Events
Software
Form factor
Packaging
Policy
Retail design
Incentives
How many business and civic areas to impact can you spot in this picture?

Exercise: Ideation (40 minutes)
Use your ideation questions to generate strategies and solutions
Out loud
Visual
Collaborative
Consider the range of possible business areas
Bounce back and forth between generating strategies and solutions
Most ideas will not turn out to be winners; the goal is to practice connecting research data to solutions
Apply lemon as needed.

Exercise: Prepare to share (2 minutes)
Rapidly align on your team’s best ideas and message
Choose a messenger
The wise team will choose a bold, expressive spokesperson

Exercise: Pitch it back!

Prioritization

Big group voting

Small group ranking…and reconciliation
Ranking factors may even include how clear the idea is
Color indicates voting winner

Wrap Up

How experts use frameworks
Fieldwork
Synthesis
Ideation
Development

2-3 weeks
2-3 weeks
2-3 weeks
Who do you want to talk to?
What do you want to do with them?
Do something with the data!
Typical timelines
Fieldwork
Screening criteria, recruiting
Methodology, field guide, stimuli
Analysis, synthesis, design
Interviews, self-reporting, debriefs
When working in tighter timeframes, consider where you want to cut back. Be mindful of the tradeoffs!

Going rogue
1 day?!
1 day?!
2 days?!!
Who do you want to talk to?
What do you want to do with them?
Do something with the data!
Fieldwork
Who can you get? Co-workers, intercepts on the street or in the mall, etc.
Wide-eyed observation, winging it
Debrief
Small sample, massively parallel data gathering

Coming in 2012!
A book by Steve Portigal
The Art and Craft of User Research Interviewing
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/user-interviews/

I’ve got a tip (that you didn’t cover) that works well for me…
Yeah, I’ve got a question for ya…
One new thing I learned today is…

Brought to you by

Giveaway #2
Draw
8 Rosenfeld Media titles
Steve Krug’s Rocket Surgery Made Easy
UserTesting t-shirt(s) etc.

Thank you!
Portigal Consulting
www.portigal.com
@steveportigal
steve@portigal.com
415-894-2001

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Interviewing Users: Spinning Data Into Gold

by Steve Portigal

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Interviewing Users: Spinning Data Into Gold Presentation Transcript