What my mum taught me about being a better facilitator

In my role as a UX researcher I cover a broad spectrum of investigation, from the ‘discovery’ phase or ‘problem space’ as it sometimes is, all the way to stress-testing the usability of products. At every stage I need to speak to the users we hope to cater for. I need to understand their needs and very often their motivations and reasons behind their behaviour too.

Since joining the Auto Trader family I’ve been sharing my experience, offering guidance on investigative questioning techniques so that more people can run effective research sessions. This got me thinking again about how my own skills have developed over the years.

I’m still honing my skills as a facilitator — I always will be! I realised a few years ago that each time I facilitate e.g. a usability test, I’m not just getting insight on my research objectives but I’m also learning about how people think and act. Particularly about my influence on my participants’ thoughts and actions.

So each time I finish a round of usability tests or user interviews, I find myself mulling over little ways that participants acted or reacted, wondering how those could have been different. What connections did my participant make that caused them to believe, say, that I wanted them to lay their phone on top of their hand? Sounds like a weird thing to do, right? But one of my participants has done just this, thinking that’s what I wanted.

It sounds like something my mum would do. She, Steph, my mum, has Alzheimer’s and getting our wires crossed is pretty standard. Although dementia can be sad or frustrating, it’s also bloody fascinating.

You might assume that dementia or Alzheimer’s causes off-the-wall links in its own right — that may be the case for some people but for my mum, there’s often a thread you can follow back to an understandable, if not quite logical, origin. It’s usually some little detail she’s picked up on and magnified into significance.

On numerous occasions I’ve tried to track the thread of confusion back to a trigger point. It reminds me of the influence I can have. Also of the links that may not be apparent to me but come naturally to her. Since confusion can lead to upset and sometimes anger, I want to manage that for her and facilitate positive experiences.

Similarly, running a usability test is so much about caring for the person in your charge. It’s about being hyper aware of yourself and your influence. And it’s vitally important to their comfort and success that you hone your skills in facilitating them.

Get it wrong and confusion, even anxiety, abounds. Here’s what my mum has taught me about being a better facilitator.

Make tea…

This is my #1 tip, if you stop reading now just remember this one!

I grew up in Ireland and we know the power of a cup of tea. Offering a drink — and in fact accepting it — is a critical social performance. It’s a very simple act of welcome, indeed it’s nothing groundbreaking.

But I noticed that for my mum, a cup of tea does so much more. It gives her purpose and something to do in situations where she might otherwise feel lost. There’s control in having that tea and, to some extent, completing the task of drinking it.

A lot of you might be able to imagine that feeling. Let’s say you’re at a party or a local tech meetup and you’re self conscious. You feel you ought to be doing something, talking to someone maybe. Getting a drink or checking out the food are little tasks we give ourselves to feel comfortable.

Accepting a cuppa eases you into a setting. A cup of tea gives my mum something to do when she’s a little lost in the situation. It holds purpose and gives her some control at a moment when she could feel disoriented and confused about what to do next.

…And make your participants comfortable

Tea, coffee, or any other drink, can settle your research participants too. Being the subject of research is immediately an awkward situation. Participants can often worry about what’s expected of them. A drink gives them something to hold, something to do, whilst they grasp the task at hand. Tea, in particular, is a comforting drink, feeling familiar and homely.

I saw a brilliant example of this when observing a usability test through a 2-way mirror. I was able to see that the participant’s mug was empty but the test moderator wouldn’t have been able to see that. The participant kept hold of their mug and continued to sip from it periodically — obviously finding a lot of comfort in that action.

Be present…

For my mum, being present and engaged is a two way street. It’s difficult to have a conversation with her whilst you make a cup of tea for example. It’s harder for her to make sense of my multi-tasking, it’s distracting. Make the tea, then sit down and concentrate on the conversation.

…And stay engaged

The same goes for a research scenario. Avoid distraction as much as possible. And engage in a real conversation. It’s hard for a participant to engage with you if you’re in your head, thinking of the next question rather than listening to them.

To stay as present as possible, I recommend bringing someone else to note-take. This is preferable to recording and watching the session back because

• it’s faster and
• you have a second person to spot important points that come out.

Be mindful to give your note taker instructions on how you’d like notes recorded e.g. single points on post-its or perhaps with categories or tags to apply.

However, recording the session will give you total peace of mind that you can watch back and double check the interviewee’s responses.

One last point on staying present, if you need to check your questions or notes then tell the participant that’s what you’re doing. It’ll be much less awkward than sitting in silence for some unknown reason.

Developing engagement skills

To assist my colleagues at Auto Trader, I developed a few scales to help illustrate some key skills necessary for good research interviews. The first is ‘Attentive and engaged’, shown below.

Either ends of the scale fall outside of the desired skill, with “Shows no listening cues” on the far left and “Interrupts or agrees too much” on the far right. The middle of the scale is where the desired behaviour, “Acknowledges and responds to key points”, sits.

To understand where you are on the scale, take a look at the table below:

Use clear language…

In conversations with my mum I’m acutely aware of my phrasing and terminology. I try to be mindful of phrases that could be taken literally or taken to mean something else. I myself have been tripped up by turns of phrase in the past e.g. when asked “What might that look like?”, I’ve responded in very literal terms, giving a description of visual appearance.

To help my mum do things for herself, I phrase instructions as clearly as possible and set parameters e.g. if prepping dinner, I will set out a board, carrots and a knife but I’ll only put out the carrots we need rather than the whole bag. The task is then easy to start, the scope of it is clear upfront and the end point is obvious.

I won’t give the next task until the first is complete. This allows her to concentrate on one thing at a time, with no need to recall instructions given too far in advance.

…And make sure your participant understands what you want from them

I like to give instructions for a task verbally but also in written form for the participant to refer back to as they please. I find this actually prompts me to set out my instructions in a standardised format, curbing the risk of giving overly wordy instructions.

You’ll decide based on your research goals what parameters to put in place e.g. if asking the participant to compare different purchase options, will you dictate an item or price point for them to consider? Or will you leave that up to them? Will it cause unnecessary uncertainty on their part to leave it up to them?

Additionally, don’t give too many instructions at once, you’re in charge of providing focus.

Make time to do a mock test to see if you need to tweak your instructions for the best results.

…especially if you want to harness the power of open-ended questions

Whilst you need to give clear instructions, UX research also requires asking open-ended questions when interviewing or probing further on a person’s actions or answers. At these points, you need to avoid being overly vague or circuitous. I’ve noted this in myself and other facilitators when striving to not ask leading questions. Unfortunately this can result in your interviewee being unsure what you’re asking.

Developing questioning skills

I’ve illustrated the skill of ‘Open and encouraging’ facilitation style on a scale putting “Closed Yes/No questions” at the far left, “Unclear questions” at the far right and “Exploratory, open-ended questions” as the balanced midpoint.

Take a look at the table below for examples of how to phrase open-ended questions.

Avoid (cognitive) overload…

For my mum, her Alzheimer’s means new information is hard to grasp and retain. Hypothetical situations or speaking of future plans are also hard for her to imagine. For example, “What would you like to do on Tuesday” is problematic. Firstly, it’s vague and asks her to put a lot of effort in imagining possible things to do, secondly ‘Tuesday’ is intangible.

…And stick to tangible experiences

It’s a fairly common rule in research that you should avoid asking people what they ‘would’ do as often our actions are different than our best intentions. What my mum’s experience has taught me is that it also takes a lot of effort to imagine what you might do. As well as being pretty unreliable.

So avoid providing new information where possible and ‘imagine that’ scenarios. Hinge off past experiences for easier, faster and more reliable insight.

Never disagree with your mum…

I never tell my mum she’s wrong. She can’t be wrong because something, internally or externally, has led her to believe something. Instead I follow the “Yes and” rule of improv, that is to say that I tend to “go along with it” to a certain extent.

I listen to her and try to understand her thinking or her actions as fully as I can. My view is that her conclusions are true accordinging to the information she has. To disagree is extremely confusing and it can be upsetting to be “corrected” on a point you believe to be true. It’s not always necessary to understand her thought process but if her belief is causing her stress, it can be useful to understand.

This approach, of going along with it, has developed in dementia care over the last few decades. The thesis is essentially “that it’s kinder to ‘go along with’ the apparent illogic or slip into the past than to keep traumatising the sufferer by forcing them to face ‘reality’ (aka facts they have no memory of)”. You can learn more about this in the book Contented Dementia by Oliver James.

More often than not, when I pay close attention or ask my mum to elaborate, I can see how she’s made certain connections. In doing this I’m looking for the reason ‘Why?’ behind the ‘What?’ of her thoughts or actions — arguably the core question in all UX research.

…And don’t “correct” your research participants

In research, we should never let ourselves think or say that a participant did something wrong. If we allow ourselves to say for example “Oh they were just confused/distracted/not very techy” we fail to do our jobs properly. We need to drill into what it is that’s made a participant say or do something that the ideal user journey doesn’t accommodate.

Developing active listening skills

This brings me to the third scale I created to measure research interview skills, “Investigative”, shown below:

The scale runs from “No follow-up questions” on the far left to “Pursues or allows irrelevant tangents” on the far right. The mid-point i.e. the point of balance and where you want your skills to sit is “Identifies threads, seeks the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’”.

Here’s a table with some examples of probing questions you can adapt for your research.​

You can also utilise a technique called Nine Whys (alternatively you can use The 5 Whys) to prompt yourself to go deeper in your questioning. This is a technique to drill down into an interviewee’s initial response to a question. You continue to ask Why, seeking to fully understand the motivations behind actions until you can go no deeper.

In user research care for the person right in front of you

For my mum, making her comfortable and making her feel understood is vital. What I’ve learnt works for her, which is an extreme case, has taught me what can work for people generally.

By creating a comfortable environment, fostering confidence and giving your full focus you can attune to your participant. Writing your question set in an open, exploratory way that still provides direction will ensure you maintain your participant’s confidence. Lastly, equipping yourself with a few phrases or techniques to drill into reasons ‘Why?’ will elicit more detail and a deeper understanding of your research area.

I hope you’ll keep your mums in mind next time you facilitate a research session.