6. Empathy & Interview P2

In this recap, I'll provide a detailed breakdown of each step in the user interview process.

Summary

In my previous lesson recap, I mention about the step of a user interview process. In this recap, I'll break down each step in detail and share insights I gained from Mr. Chung's interview with our guest speaker.

Before the interview

1. Prepare

1.1. Interview Preparation

Define a clear goal for the interview

Identify what you want to achieve through the interview. Your project goals will determine the scope of your user research. Establishing clear goals at the outset will help you focus your research and avoid collecting unnecessary data.

Goals that are too broad can result in interviews that fail to produce useful or actionable insights.

💡 A concise, concrete set of goals that relate to your target users’ specific behaviors or attitudes can help you gather helpful and actionable insights. - Maria Rosala and Kara Pernice, User Interviews 101, Nielsen Norman Group.

💡 What do you want to learn? How do you plan to learn that?

According to Maria and Kara, some examples of reasonable research goals include:

  • What causes customers to consider and try a product?

  • What are the highs and lows of their experience?

  • How much knowledge of the process do users have?

  • What makes users abandon the product?

Prepare an interview guide

An interview guide is used to direct the conversation and help you answer your research goals. An interview guide should contain a few well-designed, open-ended questions that get participants talking and sharing their experiences.

An interview will also contain follow up questions to gather more-detailed information. When constructing the guide, these questions are often nested underneath the main questions.

💡 Step on building an Effective Guide for a UX Interview

In this article from Maria Rosala, Writing an Effective Guide for a UX Interview, we'll learn how to prepare a user interview guide that ensures key topics related to your research questions are covered, while gathering in-depth insights into people’s lives and needs.

Step 1: Write Your Research Questions

the research questions are clear and obvious. However, sometimes they’re not. If you're unsure what to ask, start by identifying what you want to learn from users. You might use the 5W1H question method to help you shape your interview:

  • What are users' expectations in this situation?

  • How do users make decisions here?

  • How have users solved this problem before?

  • What aspects of the product matter most to users, and why?

Step 2: Brainstorm Interview Questions

Note down all interview questions that come to mind using mind maps, digital whiteboards, or a simple list, etc. It doesn’t matter whether they are good or poor - you’ll deal with that later.

Step 3: Broaden Your Questions

Review your list of questions and ask yourself, for each interview question, is there a broader, more open-ended version of that question that you can ask instead?

Example questions, that prompt the user to recall a certain event and are similar to those used in the critical-incident method, are excellent for gathering stories and unanticipated statements.

💡 The critical incident technique (CIT) is a research method in which the research participant is asked to recall and describe a time when a behavior, action, or occurrence impacted (either positively or negatively) a specified outcome (for example, the accomplishment of a given task).

A table of example question list followed the CIT method from Maria Rosala, The Critical Incident Technique in UX:

💡 Mr. Chung's advice is to guide the interview by recalling events in sequence, helping the interviewee remember details in that certain event.

Step 4: Fill In for Unaccounted Research Questions

Ensure each interview question aligns with your research goals. If any research questions aren't covered, create additional interview questions to fill the gaps.

💡You can include your research questions in the interview guide to keep your research goals top of mind.

Step 5: Arrange Your Questions

To make the conversation flow in a logical order and seem natural think about the best order for your questions. For example, if you’re talking about an experience people have had, it makes sense to move in a chronological order.

Consider starting with open-ended, easy-to-answer warm-up questions to build rapport at the beginning of the interview.

Step 6: Prepare Additional Probing and Follow up Questions

After organizing your questions, prepare some follow-up questions to gather more detail and clarification, such as, “Where were you when this happened?”, “When did that happen?”, “Tell me why you did that?”, and so on.

Probing questions can be included to help you delve deeper, like “Tell me more about that”, “Tell me why you felt that way”, “Why is that important to you?”

Step 7: Pilot Your Guide

Piloting your guide helps you identify:

  • Questions you need to add

  • Questions that need rewording

  • If the question order flows well

  • If you have enough time for all questions

Recruit a pilot participant and allow time to adjust your guide. While it’s fine to update your guide during interviews, piloting helps resolve major issues before you start your research.

1.2. Recruiting Participants

Decide who to recruit for your research

Ensure to recruit a representative sample of users for the interviews, so you should start with your user personas and try to find interview participants that match them.

Targeting should typically be defined by using a mixture of the following criteria:

  • Psychographics: Activities, hobbies, interests, and opinions

  • Demographics: Age, gender, education, income, marital status, etc.

  • Geographics: Country, city, region, or radius around an area

To refine your participant selection, consider adding behavioral criteria such as daily activities or job-related factors. For example, specify the job industry, role level, and years of experience to detail your criteria further.

Determine how many participants you need

The right number of participants will depend on the type of research you’re doing and the specific methods you plan to use.

According to Jakob Nielsen, Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users, he stated that the best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.

💡 "Study participants reported an average no-show rate of 11%, which translates into one in nine users failing to show up as promised." - Jakob Nielsen, Recruiting Test Participants for Usability Studies

Uncontrollable factors like weather, traffic, or personal events can cause no-show rates to vary widely between studies. So, when conducting a simple test with five users, you may experience one or two no-shows.

Therefore, a recommended sample size for UX interview research is 3-10 participants.

Filter your candidates

While demographic questions like age, gender, and location are common and useful in screener surveys, they shouldn't be your primary focus. Include a few demographic questions at the beginning or end, but first determine which, if any, truly define your target audience.

💡 Prioritize behaviors over demographics.

Start with questions that quickly filter out unqualified participants. Rank your questions by importance and check for dependencies.

💡 Eliminate unqualified people early

Schedule participants for a mutually convenient time

Create an interview schedule based on your availability and let participants choose from the offered time slots.

💡 Respect your own time by limiting the number of sessions you conduct each day and give yourself at least 15 minutes between interview sessions.

To help your participants remember the interview and get to the right place at the right time, be sure to include 3 key pieces of information:

  • Time and date

  • Location

  • Research topic

1.3. Preparing the Interview Environment & Tools

Ensure the setting is comfortable, quiet, and free from distractions to help the interviewee feel at ease. For remote interviews, ensure a stable internet connection, clear audio/video, and have a backup plan for technical issues.

Before your interviews, prepare all materials and equipment, including your script, consent forms, incentives, and recording tools. Test your equipment and have spares ready. Proper preparation prevents delays and ensures a smooth experience for participants

💡 Prepare recording and transcription tools to effectively track the interview and gain deeper insights.

Why do you need a user interview tool?

According to Maze on their article of 7 User interview tools to simplify UX research and elevate your interviews:

💡 One thing's for sure - a user interview tool makes user interviews a whole lot easier, especially when done at scale.

Effective user interview tools can enhance your process by handling tasks such as organizing participants, automating admin work, recording interviews, generating transcripts, and analyzing data. Benefits include:

  • Reducing interviewer bias

  • Enabling remote participation

  • Capturing and annotating multimedia

  • Providing a shared understanding of user needs

How to select the right tool for user interviews

Evaluate your needs and the cost of tools. Consider these optional tools:

  • Participant Management: Helps find and filter participants and build a database for targeted research.

  • Recording and Transcription: Captures and transcribes user responses for effective review.

  • Insight Reporting: Offers customization and data visualization to create compelling reports for stakeholder engagement.

During the interview

2. Interview

At the start of your interview, to make sure you capture everything important

🔴 Always remember to hit record for your supporting tools

2.1. Warm up & Breaking the ice

Start Easy

Begin the interview by introducing yourself and providing a brief overview of the conversation’s purpose and your role in the project. Start with some light questions to get to know the participant before diving into the main topics.

💡 Start with questions that are easy to answer

Build Rapport

Build rapport by showing you’re listening and by asking related questions. You can show you’re listening by using verbal and nonverbal cues.

Verbal cues include:

  • Neutral acknowledging like, "I understand", "okay, I see"

  • Making noises like "mmmh"

  • Echoing what the participant has said

  • Adjusting the speed, volume, and intonation of your questions

Nonverbal cues include:

  • Frequent eye contact

  • Nodding

  • Raising eyebrows occasionally

  • Smiling when the participant smiles (also known as mirroring)


Verbal and nonverbal cues are used during an interview to build rapport with the participant.

2.2. Conduct the interview

As you use the critical incident technique (CIT) to build your interview guide, follow your script but remain flexible. Allow users to share their own insights freely.

When discussing an experience, it's often best to follow a chronological order, especially if the experience has distinct phases:

For example, in a purchasing experience: Discover ➝ Choose ➝ Purchase ➝ Use ➝ Review.

Similarly, when Mr. Chung interviewed our guest about their Product Management journey: Encounter (initial exposure to the field) ➝ Discover (learning more about it) ➝ Research (investigating and entering the field) ➝ Practice (working in the field and gaining product experience) ➝ Review (review and evaluate the work process).

💡 Follow a chronological order

Additionally, use probing questions to delve deeper into their responses, uncovering motivations, mental models, perceptions, and attitudes.

Suggest probing questions include:

  • "Can you tell me more about that?"

  • "Could you expand on that?"

  • "What are your thoughts on that?"

  • "How do you feel about that?"

  • "Why is that important to you?"

Or a few probing question we learnt from Mr. Chung:

  • "What would you do if you didn't receive the help in a certain phase?"

  • "What challenges do you think you would face if you haven't done such things?"

  • "What benefits do you think you would gain if you do such things?"

  • "If your were to re-do a certain phase in the project, what would you change?"

  • "Why would you change it like that?"

2.3. Wrapping up

Finally, debrief participants by thanking them for their time and inviting any follow-up questions about the project. Confirm their continued consent, as they now have a full understanding of the interview's context and can provide informed consent.

💡 Let participants know that a follow-up interview may be necessary and confirm their continued consent.

After the interview

3. Analyze & Report

Here's some insight I gain from Maze in their article How to analyze user interviews: Step-by-step

3.1. Transcript

To analyze your data, you need to convert it to written word. After your user interviews, you’ll likely have hours of audio and/or video recordings.

You can transcribe this manually, by listening to the recording and typing out the responses, or automatically, by using a transcription tool.

💡 While transcription tools make the process easier, manually transcribing can help you better identify recurring themes and highlight crucial information.

You’ll want to organize your scripts for easy access, helping you cross-reference participants and their answers. There are two ways to do this:

  • Create a script or document for each interviewee: This method makes it easy to cross-reference your answers between individuals

  • Make a separate document for each question: This method makes it easier to identify patterns and themes

3.2. Detail analyze

Read through your data and assign relevant codes

Carefully read through the transcript, linking answers to specific questions. Print out the transcript and highlight key points if needed for clarity.

Begin thematic analysis of user interviews by familiarizing yourself with the data and reading through participant responses multiple times.

"Thematic grouping is the best, but it takes time. You have to read everything closely, seeing through the responses and parsing them for deep meaning." - Scott Hurff, CPO and Co-Founder at Churnkey

Scott Hurff, CPO and Co-Founder at Churnkey, suggests asking yourself:

  • “How did users speak?

  • “What words did they use?

  • “Did certain phrases keep appearing?

  • “Were they frustrated, happy, content, timid?”

Sort codes into overarching themes

As you review your data and assign codes, you'll start to see relevant patterns, sentiments, and themes emerge. After analyzing all responses, record your codes in a separate document and organize them into overarching themes.


💡 Once your data is distilled into broad themes, valuable insights are likely ready to be uncovered.

Identify recurring ideas and highlight crucial information

Begin uncovering customer insights linked to your research goals by analyzing recurring codes within each theme to identify the most pressing user issues.

3.3. Report

The final step in analyzing user interview data is to share your findings

Two main purposes of a report

  1. Engage Stakeholders: Clearly communicate your accomplishments, capture their attention, and gain support for proposed solutions.

  2. Align the Team: Ensure everyone understands the findings and knows what steps to take for design changes.

Key components to include

  • Summary: Briefly outline research goals, methodology, and key themes to provide context.

  • Methodology: Detail your research approach and serve as a reference for future user interviews.

  • Next Steps: Based on insights, outline recommendations for product updates, features, and information architecture improvements.

3. Analyze & Report

Here's some insight I gain from Maze in their article How to analyze user interviews: Step-by-step

3.1. Transcript

To analyze your data, you need to convert it to written word. After your user interviews, you’ll likely have hours of audio and/or video recordings.

You can transcribe this manually, by listening to the recording and typing out the responses, or automatically, by using a transcription tool.

💡 While transcription tools make the process easier, manually transcribing can help you better identify recurring themes and highlight crucial information.

You’ll want to organize your scripts for easy access, helping you cross-reference participants and their answers. There are two ways to do this:

  • Create a script or document for each interviewee: This method makes it easy to cross-reference your answers between individuals

  • Make a separate document for each question: This method makes it easier to identify patterns and themes

3.2. Detail analyze

Read through your data and assign relevant codes

Carefully read through the transcript, linking answers to specific questions. Print out the transcript and highlight key points if needed for clarity.

Begin thematic analysis of user interviews by familiarizing yourself with the data and reading through participant responses multiple times.

"Thematic grouping is the best, but it takes time. You have to read everything closely, seeing through the responses and parsing them for deep meaning." - Scott Hurff, CPO and Co-Founder at Churnkey

Scott Hurff, CPO and Co-Founder at Churnkey, suggests asking yourself:

  • “How did users speak?

  • “What words did they use?

  • “Did certain phrases keep appearing?

  • “Were they frustrated, happy, content, timid?”

Sort codes into overarching themes

As you review your data and assign codes, you'll start to see relevant patterns, sentiments, and themes emerge. After analyzing all responses, record your codes in a separate document and organize them into overarching themes.


💡 Once your data is distilled into broad themes, valuable insights are likely ready to be uncovered.

Identify recurring ideas and highlight crucial information

Begin uncovering customer insights linked to your research goals by analyzing recurring codes within each theme to identify the most pressing user issues.

3.3. Report

The final step in analyzing user interview data is to share your findings

Two main purposes of a report

  1. Engage Stakeholders: Clearly communicate your accomplishments, capture their attention, and gain support for proposed solutions.

  2. Align the Team: Ensure everyone understands the findings and knows what steps to take for design changes.

Key components to include

  • Summary: Briefly outline research goals, methodology, and key themes to provide context.

  • Methodology: Detail your research approach and serve as a reference for future user interviews.

  • Next Steps: Based on insights, outline recommendations for product updates, features, and information architecture improvements.

3. Analyze & Report

Here's some insight I gain from Maze in their article How to analyze user interviews: Step-by-step

3.1. Transcript

To analyze your data, you need to convert it to written word. After your user interviews, you’ll likely have hours of audio and/or video recordings.

You can transcribe this manually, by listening to the recording and typing out the responses, or automatically, by using a transcription tool.

💡 While transcription tools make the process easier, manually transcribing can help you better identify recurring themes and highlight crucial information.

You’ll want to organize your scripts for easy access, helping you cross-reference participants and their answers. There are two ways to do this:

  • Create a script or document for each interviewee: This method makes it easy to cross-reference your answers between individuals

  • Make a separate document for each question: This method makes it easier to identify patterns and themes

3.2. Detail analyze

Read through your data and assign relevant codes

Carefully read through the transcript, linking answers to specific questions. Print out the transcript and highlight key points if needed for clarity.

Begin thematic analysis of user interviews by familiarizing yourself with the data and reading through participant responses multiple times.

"Thematic grouping is the best, but it takes time. You have to read everything closely, seeing through the responses and parsing them for deep meaning." - Scott Hurff, CPO and Co-Founder at Churnkey

Scott Hurff, CPO and Co-Founder at Churnkey, suggests asking yourself:

  • “How did users speak?

  • “What words did they use?

  • “Did certain phrases keep appearing?

  • “Were they frustrated, happy, content, timid?”

Sort codes into overarching themes

As you review your data and assign codes, you'll start to see relevant patterns, sentiments, and themes emerge. After analyzing all responses, record your codes in a separate document and organize them into overarching themes.


💡 Once your data is distilled into broad themes, valuable insights are likely ready to be uncovered.

Identify recurring ideas and highlight crucial information

Begin uncovering customer insights linked to your research goals by analyzing recurring codes within each theme to identify the most pressing user issues.

3.3. Report

The final step in analyzing user interview data is to share your findings

Two main purposes of a report

  1. Engage Stakeholders: Clearly communicate your accomplishments, capture their attention, and gain support for proposed solutions.

  2. Align the Team: Ensure everyone understands the findings and knows what steps to take for design changes.

Key components to include

  • Summary: Briefly outline research goals, methodology, and key themes to provide context.

  • Methodology: Detail your research approach and serve as a reference for future user interviews.

  • Next Steps: Based on insights, outline recommendations for product updates, features, and information architecture improvements.

Key Takeaways

Here's a few things that I learnt from this lesson

🌊 Let the interview flow naturally (like a river), allowing the interviewee to share freely. Avoid forcing questions.

🌊 Let the interview flow naturally (like a river), allowing the interviewee to share freely. Avoid forcing questions.

🌊 Let the interview flow naturally (like a river), allowing the interviewee to share freely. Avoid forcing questions.

🚀 Engage with the interviewee both verbally and nonverbally to convey that you are genuinely listening and interested.

🚀 Engage with the interviewee both verbally and nonverbally to convey that you are genuinely listening and interested.

🚀 Engage with the interviewee both verbally and nonverbally to convey that you are genuinely listening and interested.

💡 Follow a chronological order and use probing questions to explore their responses more deeply, revealing motivations, mental models, perceptions, and attitudes.

💡 Follow a chronological order and use probing questions to explore their responses more deeply, revealing motivations, mental models, perceptions, and attitudes.

💡 Follow a chronological order and use probing questions to explore their responses more deeply, revealing motivations, mental models, perceptions, and attitudes.

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Contents

Before the interview

During the interview

After the interview

Key Takeaways

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