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How to get more than opinions: Interview techniques and advice
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Given at the intro evening of Lean UX Machine Tel Aviv (http://leanuxmachine.com/ & http://leanuxmachine2011.tumblr.com/), this short talk on interview techniques introduces basic principles of how to facilitate qualitative research. Aimed at lean startups, I hope it will be relevant advice for 'getting out of the building'. Shared under a Creative Commons with Attribution license :)
johanna kollmannFollow
Freelance product manager, user researcher, information architect.Advertisement
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How to get more than opinions: Interview techniques and advice
- Focus on people’s behaviours and goals
- Capture their way of thinking and vocabulary
- Are about listening to stories
- Can be conducted in-person or remotely
- What do you need to observe?
- What do you hope to find out?
- What
- When
- Where
- Why
- Have
- Are
- Were
- What are you trying to get done right now?
- How does this (part/page) compare with what you were expecting?
- Why don't we back up a bit? I was curious about what drew your attention to the tab you just clicked on?
Editor's Notes
- Getting out of the building UX!UX research is useful for Customer discoveryCustomer developmentValidating your hypothesisMaking something that solves a problem or addresses a needMaking something usable and delightfulIt’s “generative” and “evaluative” It’s all about people skills!
- Explain quickly that UX offers tons of methods, techniques and materials. You will have to get out of the building as part of this event, so we’ll focus on these (click).
- Not an interrogation!
- !
- Non-leading interviews allow you to capture what a person is thinking in their terms, with their structure and vocabulary intact. Indi deliberately writes prompts rather than interview questions. Also easier to parse quickly. if you go for a non-directed interview using prompts, make sure everybody in your team has a shared understanding of the intent behind each topic. Janice calls this topic map.
- Non-leading interviews allow you to capture what a person is thinking in their terms, with their structure and vocabulary intact. Indi deliberately writes prompts rather than interview questions. Also easier to parse quickly. if you go for a non-directed interview using prompts, make sure everybody in your team has a shared understanding of the intent behind each topic. Janice calls this topic map.
- begin interviews with a 'softball' question - a question that is simple to answer and puts the participant at ease.
- Make people feel comfortable and they will tell you all kind of thingsPeople generally like to talk about themselves, and being listened to!
- !
- !
- RASA (sanskrit word for juice, essence)Receive - pay attentionAppreciate - making little noisesSummarise - 'so’Ask - questions afterwardsAnother thing that makes it challenging: people want to keep the conversation balanced – you have to break that a bit
- Be careful with WHY. ‘How did you know that X?’ ‘What were you thinking at the moment when X?’ This does not interrupt the recounting process. So ‘tell me how it was that you came to be looking for this site that day’ does the work of ‘why were you looking... ?If you’ve made people comfortable, Why should be ok.
- on remote/using the phone. won't be able to rely on body language, which makes the moderator's responsibilities more complex. Active listening - practice of regularly nodding and saying mm-hmm to demonstrate you get what they're saying - may encourage people to keep going in person, but over the phone, moderator should cut back active listening because it encourages people to wrap up what they're saying. Don't be afraid to sit back and listen!Reflecting = paraphrasing or repeating things the user has just said. This can be risky, as 1) it almost always has same suppressive effect as active listening, and 2) if your paraphrase is inaccurate, it can lead users to agreeing to propositions or coming up with ideas that they may not have otherwise. Better alternative: begin as if you're going to paraphrase them but then have them do the bulk of the work by trailing off and letting them fill in their own thoughts, for (example on this slide)Achieves the same as reflecting, with less moderator bias.Over the phone, all you are is your voice.
- let your statements trail off and end in an upward pitch, as if you were asking a question. the other person will naturally complete your statement. this is another way to 'take your turn' in the conversation and toss it right back at them.
- n quiet participants, who probably forget to think aloud as they are engaged in a task: You want to strike a balance between engagement and talking so that users are speaking undeliberatively about what they're feeling and doing, and what problems they're facing in the moment, rather than their opinions about the interface. Encourage participant to speak up.
- Come up with questions that are both specific and hard to give short responses to. Ask about specific on-screen behaviours.
- Manage expectations
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