A Breakdown of the Pre UX Session Housekeeping Speech
“Before we get started today, I want to go over a few details with you.”
Sound familiar? I think a lot of us could do this speech in our sleep, but it’s so important for building context around the session to come, for putting people at ease in a new situation, and for helping tie up any loose ends; I think it deserves attention and examination.
I want to talk a little bit about the housekeeping speech as I give it today, as well as how it’s evolved since I started giving it and where I think it’s headed.
My Current Housekeeping Speech
Thanks so much for joining us today! Do you have a webcam you could turn on?
Let me cover a few things before we get started. My name is Sonya, and I’m an independent researcher hired to conduct interviews. Your participation in this conversation will be anonymized beyond your first name, so please feel free to be very honest with your opinions and reactions.
[optional] We understand that ___ can sometimes be a sensitive topic, but please know that the information you share with us will be handled responsibly. We’re interested mainly today in how you/your organization ______. If there’s a question you don’t feel comfortable answering, you can skip it — or feel free to leave out information as you see fit.
I know you might have answered a couple of the background questions during the phone screening process, but hopefully you won’t mind me asking them again, just for the purpose of having all of the contextual information about your role in one place.
Lastly, we would like to record this session if that is ok with you. The video will be used only within the context of this internal research project, and it won’t be seen by anyone except the people working on the project.
Do you have any questions before we begin?
Breakdown and Thoughts
Thanks so much for joining us today! Do you have a webcam you could turn on?
Of course this one only applies to remote sessions, but that’s the majority of the research we do at Marketade — especially lately! I haven’t always prioritized webcam use, but I’m starting to insist on it more strongly and make that a larger part of my confirmation email to users before their session so they can plan on having one available to turn on. We immerse our clients in the research, often making them watch full sessions, and I’ve found that it’s much easier to keep clients engaged when there’s a face on the screen — not just a website screenshare or a black GoToMeeting icon.
Let me cover a few things before we get started. My name is Sonya, and I’m an independent researcher hired to conduct interviews. Your participation in this conversation will be anonymized beyond your first name, so please feel free to be very honest with your opinions and reactions.
Depending on the context, I might adjust this a little bit to define independent researcher more generally (“Today we’ll be talking about your car insurance, but I don’t work at a car insurance company — so your opinions, good or bad, won’t make a difference to me beyond just that I’m interested in hearing them”).
We understand that ___ can sometimes be a sensitive field, but please know that the information you share with us will be handled responsibly. We’re interested mainly today in how your organization ______. If there’s a question you don’t feel comfortable answering, you can skip it — or feel free to leave out information as you see fit.
This is a section I don’t always use, but I’ve been doing a bunch of computer security research lately, so this is crucial. I try to make it clear that although I’m asking specific questions about them and their enterprise, I’m using it to create a general picture of their industry for product development purposes. I don’t want people to be cagey or suspicious of my questions, but I also want them to feel comfortable keeping something confidential and saying so.
I know you might have answered a couple of the background questions during the phone screening process, but hopefully you won’t mind me asking them again, just for the purpose of having all of the contextual information about your role in one place.
I added this after I got a couple of participants saying things like, “Didn’t you already ask me this [on the phone screener]?” To be safe, I started adding this in — but I’m not sure whether it’s really necessary and I’d be curious to hear whether others have similar sections.
Lastly, we would like to record this session if that is ok with you. The video will be used only within the context of this internal research project, and it won’t be seen by anyone except the people working on the project.
I’ve never had anybody be surprised by this — and sometimes I even sense a little bit of impatience with my explanation. I’d never remove the notice that I’m recording, but I’m starting to think about ditching any details beyond, “I’m also going to record this — is that ok?” It seems like people by and large “get it,” and if they had any questions about how it might be used, they’d likely speak up.
Do you have any questions before we begin?
It’s really important to give folks the opportunity to ask any questions —sometimes they’ll ask about payment, technical/logistics issues, (“Can you hear me ok?”), or they’ll have a question about my role (“So you don’t work at ____? You’re just a contractor?”).
Improving My Housekeeping Speech
I spend a lot of time thinking about this monologue as its own strange little art form, ritual, tone-setter, and context builder. I wonder about how the spirit of this delivery affects the insights you’ll receive from the session, because of the specific ways in which it builds (or doesn’t build) rapport. I think mine is pretty straightforward — I haven’t experimented with adding humor into it, although I think that could be interesting. I also don’t add much extra personality into the housekeeping details, either, or invest time in chatting before getting the session going.
However, as per a recent coaching session our team had with Dana Chisnell, I have been thinking about incorporating more friendly chat into the time before the session. I’ve been resistant to this in the past because I don’t want to use the session time unwisely, but Dana pointed out that it helps give insight into the participant’s state of mind, which can help inform their perspective and give context to the feedback and thoughts they have during the session to come.
I’d love to do more of this going forward, and build in the time to make sure I get to know a little bit about the person on the other line.
What does your housekeeping speech look like? I’d love to hear about how you’ve adjusted it over time, and how you deliver it. Maybe there are parts you don’t give, or parts you have at the end of the session instead of the beginning. Let me know!
