You’ll develop an outline for the conversation, but first you’re going to focus on making the user comfortable and willing to share. You’ll ask follow-up questions to guide the conversation toward the answers you want to know. The user shouldn’t feel like they're verbally answering a survey with a long list of questions.
Now that you have the questions you'd like to answer, the next step is to determine the correct segment of individuals to talk to to answer these questions.
This could include (but is not limited to) leads, current customers, recently churned customers, competitors' customers, or people who have never heard of your company.
Find people who match the segment of folks you'd like to talk to. Start by finding people who may fit your idea segment, then send them to a screener survey to dig a little deeper. This screener survey will ensure you're finding the best people to chat with.
How many user interviews do you need to conduct?
You may be wondering how many user interviews should you conduct? Well, this example has space for up to ten user interviews. More often than not, patterns start to emerge with five users. Conduct at least five, but no more than ten user interviews. You’re aiming to reach theoretical saturation, which is when the responses no longer surprises you.
Accounting for no-shows, you'll likely want to schedule 10-15 interviews knowing 25% will not show.
Get any required prototypes, paperwork, and documentation ready so you can jump right into relationship building and the interivew with the user.
Ideally, have the users complete any required paperwork or releases before coming into the interview. Make sure to send out a reminder to each user 24 hour before their interview to ensure they don't forget.
First thing's first, you want to make the person you're interviewing feel comfortable, safe, and open.
Explain the purpose of the interview and what you're looking for from them. Explain that you're looking for honest feedback: the good, the bad, the ugly.
Ask if you can record the interview, do so, so you don't have to scramble to take notes. This allows you to focus on smart follow-up questions, good conversation, and relationship building.
You can start with personal questions, or simple questions, and put yourself out there — be vulnerable.
Remember that your prepared quesitons are simply a guide for the conversation. The real gold comes from digging deeper using follow-up questions and asking for stories.
If you're looking for a great read on running user interviews, check out The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick.
Check out this role-playing example of a Jobs to Be Done interview by Kevin Kupillas.
Directly after the user interview wraps up, block off 15 minutes to chat with your team, discuss what was talked about, and create some summary points.
Doing this immediately after the interview is key while everything is fresh in your minds.
Once all of your user interviews conclude, it's important to step back, compare and contrast the interviews, and look for patterns and themes.
One way to quantify the user interviews and dig into the responses is to create a rainbow spreadsheet. This research tool helps you identify patterns in user responses. By using a rainbow spreadsheet, you’ll be able to visually mark users with similar responses, and quickly identify common responses in user interviews.
Get a free rainbow chart template, along with more UX research videos and training in the free Growth-Driven Design Certification course.
And ultimately, that’s the goal of all your user research. You’ll look for patterns and common themes rather than focus on the outliers or those users who do things differently than most.
