Sprint Day Five- The Interviewer
With all of our ideation and prototyping out of the way, what was next for our team? We had gathered insights from experts on day one. For the majority of the next three days, we cloistered ourselves into a 7th floor conference room. Our team ran through hundreds of options, tweaked ideas, mulled over the intricacies of sweet pies, and, ultimately, tried to solve a problem for our customer. However, one big question still hung over our heads.
Had we succeeded in finding a solution worthy of our customers?
The only way to find out was to drag our ideas from the musky, post-it-littered Sprint room into the hands of real customers. That’s what Friday is for: real-world customer interviews.
Friday was a big day for me. As one of the teams two interns and the self-appointed interviewer, I had to show up big. That’s why I made sure to look the part. Dressed to the nines in the classic jeans, button-up, and blazer combo made famous by my interviewer role-model, Ellen DeGeneres, I felt confident that I could conduct the Sprint Interviews without a hiccup.
After some ribbing for wearing a blazer, our team began to set up for our first interview. I took to the quiet 6th floor room where the interviews were to be conducted. The rest of the team huddled around our post-it and snack strewn table in the 7th floor Sprint room. We set up our ReadyTalk collaboration tools so that everyone else could see and hear what was going on in the interview room without overwhelming the interviewee. As I looked over my interview script and ran through the prototype once more, the others prepped themselves for a day full of note taking.
One by one, I brought in interviewees and let them explore our prototype. Upstairs, the others took copious notes and posted them to our white board. By the end of the day, I had spent five hours interviewing in the stilted questioning style preferred by the Sprint process. On the 7th floor, there was no more whiteboard to be seen behind the layers of post-its.
By day end on Friday, our whole team had a much better idea of where our next steps would lead us.
Before I reflect on my experiences, it’s worth looking at what a GV Sprint interview is supposed to look like.
The Five Act Interview
The Google Venture team highly recommends using the “Five-Act Interview”. As with the rest of the GV Sprint week, the amount of structure around the interview can be surprising at first. However, the structure does provide for increased efficiency and, especially within the context of the interviews, reduced bias. Now for the five-acts:
- Friendly Welcome
This is by far the easiest section assuming that you are a marginally sociable person.
2. Context Questions
I pictured this section to be a bit like a funnel. Start with big broad questions about them and work your way towards whatever subject matter your prototype is meant to address.
3. Introduce the prototype
Really, this section functions as more than an introduction. This is your opportunity to provide disclaimers and advice. Warn the interviewee that some things may not work right, inform them that you did not build the prototype (this is a big one: on Thursday the interviewer is not supposed to work on the prototype but to write the interview script), and ask them to think aloud. This last point is key.
As the GV Sprint book says,
“seeing where customers struggle and where they succeed with your prototype is useful — but hearing their thoughts as they go is invaluable.”
4. Tasks and Nudges
Oh how the tasks and nudges can be a difficult section. This should really be the bulk of the interview. It was also the most difficult for me. Your interviewee may struggle with the prototype, go down unexpected paths, or simply seem disinterested. As the interviewer, it was my task to keep them speaking about their experiences. This may not seem difficult, but doing so while avoiding any questions or prompts that might be leading can really prove a difficult balancing act.
Personally, I may have put to much emphasis on the form of the interviews here. I vividly recall asking a “would you…” question — a big no-no if you don’t want to lead the interviewee — and physically cringing as I heard the words leaving my mouth. Ultimately, the form of the interview questions matter less than letting the interviewee clearly express their thoughts and feelings in their own words.
5. Quick Debrief
Here’s where you can dig deeper into some of the things you heard during the interview or ask those more direct questions.
Though I believe that I am capable of quite a lot, I’ll humbly admit that some of the intricacies of the interview process can be better explained by the google venture team.
Some Thoughts on Being the Interviewer
Playing the role of the interviewer can be really disconcerting at first if you are unfamiliar with the style. The mix of the somewhat unnatural dialogue imposed on the interviewer and the awareness that your team is listening in intently can throw you off. For me at least, asking so many “why” questions and strenuously avoiding anything leading like a “would you” question was surprisingly difficult. I often felt like some warped version of a toddler repeating “why” ad nauseam.
However, once you get into the habit of it, the interviews reveal some great insights. The real pleasure of a successful interview was not getting the response I wanted to hear, but the responses I did not expect to hear. That’s where the real value lay.
If your team is planning on conducting a Design Sprint, I highly recommend taking on the role of the interviewer. It may not immediately appeal to you; however, being on the front line there with your customers and the prototype can be invigorating and rewarding after the intensity of the previous four Sprint days.
