How to conduct user interviews

I am not an expert on “how to perform User Interviews,” but surely by this time, I have experienced a handful of interviews on varied topics. I am eager to share my knowledge which I have gained from my internship experiences at Ola while working with some great people.

User interviews are not just another design process; it is about making your design more user-approved. It’s a big and important step that leads and helps you validate the problems. It basically fills the gap between the things you already know and the truth. Additionally, it will help you discover the things about your product that you weren’t even looking for or weren’t even aware of.

How Spotify discovered its users' confusion with “ads skip limit”? How Netflix identified the different needs of its customers at a different hour of the day?

User interviews were a major step in their journey through which they identified the real problem. So, before starting the design process, it is better to validate the problem.

“A brilliant solution to the wrong problem can be worse than no solution at all: solve the correct problem.”
― Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things

Understanding your user

User interview is a way to dive into the life experiences of different users. I think psychology plays a massive role in understanding people. Above the basic needs of your user comes psychological needs that initiate a desire to collaborate, compete, create, and destroy. To understand the psychological needs of a user, observation is an essential key element.

Don’t ask the user directly what they want

Generally, users are unaware of what they want or what you are trying to change for them. So, it’s normal if they are unable to tell the problems with the product. In these cases, you need to analyze their situation and find their problems.

Remember, here, asking direct questions would not help you much.

In that case, you need to reframe the questions and depict the situation through which they can relate. You may need to ask them from multiple angles by relating them with different sections of your script.

Example:

In IIT Roorkee there is a platform that is developed to post announcements and problems related to the student body and SAC(Student Affairs Council) body. We conducted a survey to know the shortcomings of this platform in order to ease the experience on both sides.

Instead of asking : “How can we improve your experience?”

Ask them : Do you encounter any problem before posting, while posting or after posting any issue? Are they getting solved? Whom do you contact? How do you contact them?

Build a Meaningful questionnaire set

Asking just generic stuff wouldn’t lead you anywhere. As people who know similar products would interfere with your process by suggesting features while others who are normal audiences will not be able to detect their problems.

Before going on a user interview, you must spend enough time to build the questions. Also, be prepared with further conversation in the same context. After each question, ask yourself what can a user possibly answer, and how would their response adds value to your research project. There is a methodological way to set questions.

1. First, before starting the actual interview, give an introduction as to why are you here for, what you want from them, what are you going to do with that.

2. Then, ask about the general demographics and try to build a user persona out of it. Like asking age, education, gender, experience.

Like in the above example we tried to separate the users by asking:

Current Year of students and campus groups students are involved in.

Their interest in electing a correct representative.

3. Now don’t jump on the topic directly, first try to build conversational questions like: do you know about the product, how do you use it, how often, etc.

4. Somewhere around here, you would be in a position to tell how serious the interviewee is and how much you need to rephrase and explain to him.

5. Now dig deeper into your problem and start being specific to the problem. Try to ask Open-ended questions with no or slight probing.

Try to ask Open-ended Questions.

Forget the information you have before asking the question, try to be as new as possible. The person would make you walk the path that he takes whenever he uses your product.

Avoid using yes/no questions. Any vague language should be avoided as it would only create confusion in the user’s mind.

Example:

Instead of asking : Do you feel ignored if the problem you posted doesn’t have enough response?

Reframe as : How do you feel when the problem you posted didn’t have enough responses?

Asking open-ended questions would result in expansive responses. Try not to interrupt in between unless they are going too much off the topic.

Probing is always harmful to the interview and may affect the answers of the user. However, sometimes, you may have to probe to draw the user back on track.

Remember to dig deeper

Every question has at least five “why possibilities” to go deeper. Keep repeating “why” five times until you understand the nature of the problem and solution to that problem.

Example:

How do students generally contact you if they have any problem regarding campus groups.

— They try to contact me personally.

Dig Deeper : Why do they contact you personally instead of posting on the complaint portal.

Closure

After completing your interview, give a sense of closure to your user. Your abrupt ending may make them feel ignored. Don’t forget to ask them if they want to ask or add something to the discussion.

And, finally, thank them for their time and contribution to your research. Thereafter, comes research analysis and further documentation. It is necessary as you would give meaningful insights for your product.

I had a great experience at Ola while working with Kavya and Deepak Jose. The exposure to the field and interviewing Ola partners was indeed a challenge. As all drivers are not well educated and hence mostly unable to tell their problems & needs. For such type of audience, observation is the key.

Thank You for reading. All types of suggestions are welcome.