1. Lisbon
Customer Development Interview
Tips & Tricks
(Get what you need when you get out of the building)
Ian Collingwood
@johnnyforeigner
ian@uxdna.co.uk

2. Eric & Steve say...
“Get out of the building!”
@johnnyforeigner

3. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
@johnnyforeigner

4. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner

5. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner

6. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Generative
Evaluative
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner

7. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Depth Interviews
Contextual Inquiry
Surveys Ethnography
Generative Interviews Diary Studies
Participatory Design (Co-creation)
Mental Models
Web Analytics
Multi-variant Testing Usability Testing
Remote Card Sorting Moderated Card Sorting
Evaluative Clicktale / CrazyEgg (et al) Wizard of Oz Testing
Treejack (et al) Desirability Toolkit
Chalkmark / 5-Second Test (et al) R.I.T.
Usertesting.com (et al)
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner

8. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Depth Interviews
Contextual Inquiry
Surveys Ethnography
Generative Interviews Diary Studies
Participatory Design (Co-creation)
Mental Models
Web Analytics
Multi-variant Testing Usability Testing
Remote Card Sorting Moderated Card Sorting
Evaluative Clicktale / CrazyEgg (et al) Wizard of Oz Testing
Treejack (et al) Desirability Toolkit
Chalkmark / 5-Second Test (et al) R.I.T.
Usertesting.com (et al)
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner

9. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Depth Interviews
Contextual Inquiry
Surveys Ethnography
Generative Interviews Diary Studies
Participatory Design (Co-creation)
Mental Models
Web Analytics
Multi-variant Testing Usability Testing
Remote Card Sorting Moderated Card Sorting
Evaluative Clicktale / CrazyEgg (et al) Wizard of Oz Testing
Treejack (et al) Desirability Toolkit
Chalkmark / 5-Second Test (et al) R.I.T.
Usertesting.com (et al)
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner

10. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Depth Interviews
Contextual Inquiry
Surveys Ethnography
Generative Interviews Diary Studies
Participatory Design (Co-creation)
Mental Models
Web Analytics
Multi-variant Testing Usability Testing
Remote Card Sorting Moderated Card Sorting
Evaluative Clicktale / CrazyEgg (et al) Wizard of Oz Testing
Treejack (et al) Desirability Toolkit
Chalkmark / 5-Second Test (et al) R.I.T.
Usertesting.com (et al)
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner

11. Who are your
customers?

12. Describe the main customer segment(s)
for your product
@johnnyforeigner

13. @johnnyforeigner

14. Demographics
@johnnyforeigner

15. Demographics
Behaviours
@johnnyforeigner

16. What kinds of Behaviours would define
your typical customer?
@johnnyforeigner

17. Demographics
Behaviours
@johnnyforeigner

18. Demographics
Behaviours
Needs & Goals
@johnnyforeigner

19. What are the main Needs & Goals for your
typical customer?
@johnnyforeigner

20. Demographics + Behaviours + Needs &
Goals = Persona
@johnnyforeigner

21. Sketch & Demographics Behaviours
Barbara Avila Is coming to the UK to study for more than 3 months
Sao Paulo, Brazil, Has never travelled abroad alone
22 years old Does not speak perfect English
Female Has not lived away from home
High educational achievement so far Does not already have a connection with anyone in the UK
Speaks some English but not high level Frequently uses internet as primary source of information
Parental income is middle-high Knows where & when they will be studying abroad
Internet native Receives all or most of their living money from parents
Stories Needs/Goals
To find out what it’s going to be like living abroad
To reassure her parents and loved ones that she will be safe
To focus on settling in to student life, not worrying about
practicalities of daily life in a foreign country
To know that she has someone meeting her when she
arrives and somewhere nice to stay when she gets there
To feel relaxed, safe and excited about her trip
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman & Janice Fraser @johnnyforeigner

22. Sketch & Demographics Behaviours
Barbara Avila Is coming to the UK to study for more than 3 months
Sao Paulo, Brazil, Has never travelled abroad alone
22 years old Does not speak perfect English
IS IS
ES ES
Female Has not lived away from home
TH TH
High educational achievement so far Does not already have a connection with anyone in the UK
Speaks some English but not high level Frequently uses internet as primary source of information
PO
Parental income is middle-high PO
Knows where & when they will be studying abroad
Internet native
HY HY
Receives all or most of their living money from parents
Stories Needs/Goals
To find out what it’s going to be like living abroad
To reassure her parents and loved ones that she will be safe
IS
To focus on settling in to student life, not worrying about
ES
practicalities of daily life in a foreign country
TH
To know that she has someone meeting her when she
PO
arrives and somewhere nice to stay when she gets there
H Y
To feel relaxed, safe and excited about her trip
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman & Janice Fraser @johnnyforeigner

23. Where will you find
them?

24. @johnnyforeigner

25. Finding participants
Physical locations: go where the behaviours happen
- Types of store
- Sports centre
- Railway station
- Events
- Offices
- Cafes
@johnnyforeigner

26. @johnnyforeigner

27. Finding participants:
Digital locations:
- Forums
- Facebook groups
- Facebook product pages
- LinkedIn groups
- Twitter hashtags (beware of being marked as
spam)
- Game chat rooms/social gaming
@johnnyforeigner

28. @johnnyforeigner

29. Finding participants:
Always be recruiting:
- At parties
- In the street
- At work
- At the gym... etc
Most of all, use “snowball recruiting.”
i.e. The question you ALWAYS ask is: “do you know
anyone else we can speak to.”
@johnnyforeigner

30. @johnnyforeigner

31. Screening participants
- Must fit your customer profile
- Be contactable (face-to-face or phone/
Skype)
- Be willing to spend 1-2 hours talking to
you
- Have recent, direct experience of the
problem your product will solve
@johnnyforeigner

32. @johnnyforeigner

33. The approach:
- Physical locations
- Smile!
- Choose your moment
- Respect their time
- Explain quickly what you want
- Make it clear you are not selling
anything
- Offer to buy them a coffee
@johnnyforeigner

34. @johnnyforeigner

35. The approach:
- Digital locations
- Be polite
- Spend time getting the “vibe”
- Provide a response channel
(questionnaire/landing page)
@johnnyforeigner

36. Planning your
interviews

37. Deciding what you want to find out:
A Topic Map
@johnnyforeigner

38. Choosing a place
to visit Working out Budgeting
who will be
coming with me
Searching for flights
Guide books
Visas and
paperwork
Topic map: Going on holiday @johnnyforeigner

39. Interview technique

40. Interview technique:
Asking the right questions in the right way
@johnnyforeigner

41. Getting started
After the initial introduction, ask...
“Have you ever had ______ problem?”
- If not, close the interview
@johnnyforeigner

42. Focus on specific instances, not generalisations
- Good: “Tell me about the last time...”
- Bad: “What do you usually...”
Keep them talking
- “Tell me more about...”
- “What do you mean by...”
- “Help me to understand better...”
Summarise in their own words & check
understanding
@johnnyforeigner

43. Try not to lead the participant
Ask “open” questions
- Good questions often start with
- Who, What, When, Where, How
- Not so good questions often start with
- Did, Have, Is, Are, Were, Will
- Look for stories (context, need, action)
@johnnyforeigner

44. Don’t interrupt, but guide back onto topic
Don’t offer solutions
- Do ask “What would be your ideal
solution?”
Don’t pitch your product
- Don’t even mention it!
Don’t ask about hypothetical situations
- “Do you think you would...?”
- “Would you...?”
@johnnyforeigner

45. Notes & Recordings

46. If possible, bring someone to take notes.
- But write your own notes too.
If you are alone, record audio if possible.
- But still make plenty of notes!
Bring a notepad & at least 2 spare pens.
- Check that they work!
@johnnyforeigner

47. If you do record audio or video:
- Ask permission before you start
- If possible ask them to sign a release form
giving explicit permission.
- Explain what recordings are for and how
they will be used, stored & deleted.
- Accept that you might not be able to
record, especially when interviewing
business customers.
- It’s OK. Be ready to take notes just in case.
@johnnyforeigner

48. If you do record audio or video:
- Make sure you are familiar with the
device/app you are using
- Check you have plenty of disk space
- Bring spare batteries, charger &
extension lead
- Make a test recording (and listen to it!)
just before you go in to the interview to
check it’s working and set the levels
@johnnyforeigner

49. Making sense of it
all

50. As soon as you walk out the door:
- Write down the 3 most important things
you heard in the interview
- If using a note taker, do this before
discussing the interview with them
As soon as possible:
- Review your full interview notes
- Be sure to do this on the same day
@johnnyforeigner

51. Find a room with a large table or smooth
walls
- Have lots of Post-it notes
- Go through notes and recordings
- Write one note per finding
- Don’t filter or analyse at this point
@johnnyforeigner

52. Once you have been through the whole
interview, review your Post-it notes
Cluster & Categorise each note
- What it means
- Why it matters
- Does this confirm or refute any hypothesis?
- Frequency & repetition
- At the end, try to build “Stories” that define
that user and their needs and behaviours
@johnnyforeigner

53. What if you’re completely wrong?
- Have you picked the wrong people to talk
to?
- Are you targeting the wrong target
segment?
- Are you choosing the wrong problem to
solve?
@johnnyforeigner

54. Thank you
ian@uxdna.co.uk
@johnnyforeigner