How to ace your first user interview (Post-Survey Edition)
Hey you! It’s me again. This week, we’ll be delving into the complex world of user research, particularly user interviews and some practical tips on how to conduct effective ones. Still, as you’ve probably seen from the title, for now we’ll only be tackling one scenario or approach leading up to these conversations — user surveys.
The gist about user surveys
So what is a user survey, really?
Well, userpilot describes it as “a tool for gathering in-depth customer feedback on their product experience.” They add that a survey “consists of a set of questions posed to a sample of users to gather insights on customer satisfaction, usability, and user experience.”
Now, in a good number of cases, I wouldn’t endorse the feedback from surveys as being “in-depth" due to their constraints (such as brevity and the absence of interaction with those who answer them), which is why I believe they work best for quickly gathering quantitative data from a wide range of people and then laying groundwork for interviews or interactive sessions to get more qualitative data.
As you may or may not know, surveys, especially online ones, are increasingly popular in the world of user experience and product design. As for how they’re perceived though, you may get mixed responses. Some designers see them as a crucial part of their user research process, others feel they can be done without, and some in-between folks use them or evaluate their importance depending the context of their project or work environment. And all of these responses can also be informed by the varying experience levels of different designers.
Still, one thing’s a fact. Surveys are a simple and inexpensive way to get (especially quantitative) data as well as narrow the scope of your design project through insights from the people your product serves or will serve. And I firmly believe as a junior designer, a solo designer, a UX researcher, or even a designer in general, you should keep this tool in your arsenal. What’s more though? You also need to know how to wield it effectively, and by that I mean knowing a) when to use one, and b) how to design a standout UX research survey that will drive you the insights your product needs.
After all, as userinterviews puts it:
…Although surveys are one of the easiest methods to conduct, they’re also one of the easiest methods to mess up.
To help you create a great survey, you could conduct some research on your own to discover some of the best practices to employ. However, dscout creates a solid guide I’ll plug in right here to get you started on how to design a UX research survey.
Now back to the business of qualitative data as derived from user interviews.
Tips for conducting effective user interviews
So you’ve conducted your first survey using Google Forms (or whatever medium you chose) and, thankfully, a few people are actually interested in speaking with you about your project. Great!
But now what? How do you actually go out there and make the best out of your conversation with this person?
Well, one thing’s for sure and that’s you need to be prepared. So here are a few steps and tips to help.
1. Outline your user interview goals.
You need direction in order to get to your desired destination, which is why writing down the goals you have, or the outcomes you want the interview to help you achieve is just like creating your own compass to streamline your process and help keep you from falling off track.
So write down the goals you have for your interviews in general. For instance, to better understand user patterns and behaviors, to discover users' pain points when undergoing certain task flows or using certain features included in your product, or whatever the case may be. Outline those goals so you can read them repeatedly and stay focused on achieving them.
2. Write down your interview questions.
This one’s pretty obvious but it can also get tricky. Your interview questions need to be strategic enough to get you the insights you need, but broad enough to not be leading your participant. And by leading, I mean deliberately nudging the person you’re interviewing to give you a particular answer or kind of response, especially through subtle means. (Asking leading questions is actually a common topic in the UX world because it’s a dark UX research pattern you should be wary of!)
You want to get the facts here, not just what you think or perceive things should be, and to do that you need to get the most honest version of your interviewee, whether or not their truth is what you expect to hear.
So what you want to do is find that sweet spot that encompasses strategy and openness, and then work within it. A bonus tip here can be to craft questions that align with both your research objectives and the feedback from your survey(s).
Additionally, and this depends on the scale of your project (so also how many people you have to interview), you can analyze each participant’s (or participant segment’s) survey response and then tailor some of your questions to suit the insights they’ve already shared. This is in order to help you dig deeper and learn more about them. Sure, you may end up having more than one set of questions in this case, but you’re a step closer to discovering the information you’re after and are even more equipped to be adaptable when the need arises.
Because, most times, it will.
3. Organize your participant’s staple information in advance.
Soon before your interview, the last thing you want to do is start scrambling around for your interviewee’s contact information, struggle to remember what whose name was, or whether they shared that they actually clicked “not tech savvy” as the category they fell under in the survey.
You should be ahead of this curve by having clear access to their names (if shared), contact information, and general important information prior to your session. This will help you stay organized and boost your composure before your conversation. More so, they’ll most likely feel less generalized and a bit more at ease as you start to talk, seeing as you seem to have an interest in their particular perspective, rather than you just viewing them as a routine statistic.
4. Carefully read the survey response of the user you’ll be interviewing prior to your session (if possible).
This is a bit of an extension of step three, but it will help you have a more personalized conversation and appropriately tweak your interview questions as the discussion progresses. For instance, if you’ll be interviewing someone who is interested in using travel booking apps but is yet to actually do so, your questions should be a bit more broad (to get feedback stemming from their use of similar experiences), and better tailored as to what they would hope to experience as opposed to what they already have.
A disclaimer about this step though is that it may not always be possible depending on the context you’re working in, and is actually more practical if you’re working solo or in a smaller team. Hence, you’re doing research and reaching out to people nearly all on your own for the sake of those initial projects or case studies.
So now that we’ve discussed the more actionable parts of your interview prep (or the hard prep skills as I like to call them), let’s consider a few that have more to do with your mental preparation, especially in order to take initiative during your interview.
5. Take a deep breath and remember it’s not about you.
Although this tip applies to everyone, I know that for my fellow social anxiety bunkers, this whole interview set up can feel like a recipe for disaster. Still, you need to learn to operate outside yourself.
When you focus too much on how the user will perceive you during the interview, you actually lose sight of your main objective: getting to know them better.
Their insights are valuable, but people often need to feel comfortable enough to share what they really think and feel. What’s more? Interview participants actually tend to be more self-conscious or guarded about speaking with you than the other way around. So try to relax, take a step outside your thoughts, and focus more on making them feel more comfortable to open up to you.
6. Be adaptable.
Your interview questions are an important guide, not a rigid script. Now, don’t get me wrong, your questions are written for you to use them. Nonetheless, you need to also be ready to adapt to the feedback you’re getting from the participant in order to take full advantage of the conversation.
Remember how we talked about the conversation heading in a direction you may not expect? Well, that happens a lot of the time. And the truth? It’s a good thing! This way, you may gain valuable insights you originally didn’t set out to find. Plus, you’re uncovering your participant’s actual experience as opposed to what’s been assumed.
Remember you’re there to guide, not control the conversation.
7. Be observant and take notes.
This surely doesn’t come as a surprise, but you’ll need all of the information you can get from your participants. So listen attentively to them and take down all you can. This also includes the things they don’t say, but can be deciphered through cues such as their facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, and more. A lot of the time, this is even where you get the good, unfiltered stuff. So, in short, you need to be observant.
A great help here comes from recording your meeting with your participant so you can always refer to it later. (Remember to first ask their permission of course!) Regardless, even if you unfortunately can’t have a recorded meeting (or another team member to handle note-taking), these are still essential skills to have as a UX researcher as they’ll help you gather more accurate feedback.
8. Make them leave feeling valued.
I’ll keep this last one cute and short. In all honesty, your interview participants are of much greater help to you than you are to them, at least in this context. In other words, they’re helping you to help create what’s expectantly a more effective solution or response to their context, as only they can do best.
So, hopefully with a polite smile, don’t forget to thank your interviewee for their time and wish them a good rest of their day.
Conclusion
That’ll be all for today’s ride! If you read this far, you deserve a cookie and I’m positive your first user interview (and the ones after that) will be a success. Also, remember that no one has this all figured out and, especially if you’re new to this, the first rodeo will be less than perfect. Still, just like growing a skill, the more interviews you conduct, the more comfortable with and better at them you’ll get.
Remember it’s all about progress, not perfection.
I’m rooting for you and you’ve got this. So go get those insights and have your cookie too while you prepare. 🍪
See you in the next one!
x Jess.
