Scribd
Upload
124 views16 pages

Interview Guide by Board of Innovation

This document provides guidelines for conducting user interviews to understand extreme users' behaviors and challenges related to learning. The interviews involve: 1) introducing oneself and setting the purpose/outcome, which is to understand reasons for decisions and gather stories; 2) asking broad, open-ended questions to build rapport before focusing on the design challenge; 3) eliciting stories with open-ended questions to understand processes and tensions; 4) digging deeper to find contradictions, surprises; 5) thanking the interviewee for their time. The goal is to gather insights about tensions in users' experiences to inspire new learning solutions.

Uploaded by

Paulo Armi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
124 views16 pages

Interview Guide by Board of Innovation

This document provides guidelines for conducting user interviews to understand extreme users' behaviors and challenges related to learning. The interviews involve: 1) introducing oneself and setting the purpose/outcome, which is to understand reasons for decisions and gather stories; 2) asking broad, open-ended questions to build rapport before focusing on the design challenge; 3) eliciting stories with open-ended questions to understand processes and tensions; 4) digging deeper to find contradictions, surprises; 5) thanking the interviewee for their time. The goal is to gather insights about tensions in users' experiences to inspire new learning solutions.

Uploaded by

Paulo Armi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 16

User

research
interview
guide
Interview guide
TARGET AUDIENCE

Extreme users

DESIGN CHALLENGE

THINGS TO BRING

2
Overview
1 General guidelines & roles

2 Mindset

3 During user interview

Build rapport & gentle start



Building trust and breaking the ice


Evoke stories & go deep



Discovering the people you’re designing for

Ending

Wrapping up in good terms

4 After user interview

Document learnings

What tensions, contractions, and surpass have you
raised from the user interviews and the stories
behind it? 


Prepare fragment cards

3
General guidelines
Ask open ended questions rather than questions that lead to yes / no
answers.

Avoid asking leading questions e.g. do you think it is important to install


alarm?

Be prepared for the interview and prepare that the interview conversation
might require you to take side jumps.

Remember the tools are there to get the conversation started. If the tool or
question doesn’t resonate with the customer, you’re not getting a lot of
responses, move on to the next question or tool. The key is to get the
conversation flowing.

Challenge the assumptions you hold by directly asking the customer.

Make sure to write down exactly what the person says, not what you think
they might mean.

Be sure to observe the person’s behaviour, intonations, pauses and


interaction with the surrounding and see what you can learn from the
context. If granted permission from the customer, also take some
snapshots.

Roles

Interviewer: focus on the conversation and inquiring deeper into the


user’s answers to help them and you uncover reasons behind their
responses.

Observer: you’ll be wearing several hats during the interview: ensure the
conversation is recorded, take pictures during the conversation, and take
notes of the conversation, while making sure to time keep the interview.

4
Mindset

Active listening Defer judgement


Focus on what the customer Respect the worldview of
is sharing with you, rather your customer. Stay curious
than your opinion about what makes he/she hold the
their perspective, needs opinions instead.
and aspirations.

Focus on human values Trust the process


Focus on what he/she is Sometimes the
telling you. Be curious and conversation will require
attentive towards the clues you to take side-jumps. Be
to deepen the prepared for it and follow it
conversation. for some time as it might
take you to hidden insights.

5
The interview

1 Introduce yourself

“Hi, my name is … 

As explained during our previous conversations, we are currently conducting
research about learning behaviours. Thanks again for your time and
dedication”

2 Set the stage - Share the purpose and desired outcome

The purpose is to have an open conversation to better understand the


reasons and why you make certain decisions when it comes to learning.

The desired outcome is to have some concrete stories that will inspire us to
develop meaningful solutions.

Just to be clear: there are no right or wrong answers. We want to hear your
experience and opinions about things.

We don’t want to give you too much context, but we will give you more
information afterwards.

3 Ask broad questions about values, habits and the person’s life

Ease in the conversation by asking broad questions before asking more


specific questions related directly to your challenge.

What’s your name?

Which department are you from and what is your role there?

Walk me through your day to day life at work

6
4 Evoke stories with open ended questions

Ask questions that allow the interviewee to get into ‘story telling mode’


Tell me a story bout the last time you learn something new (i.e, skill,
hobby or interest)

Walk me through that process (i.e. how did you decide which platform to
learn from, who did you approach for advice)

What did you do with what you have learned?

Share with me the last time you have to learn something new at
work?

What was challenging for you?

5 Look for tensions, contradictions and surprises.

Dig deeper by asking 5 why’s or another story

Tentions, contradictions, suprises:

Why why why? - Tell me a story:

7
Tentions, contradictions, suprises:

Why why why? - Tell me a story:

8
Tentions, contradictions, suprises:

Why why why? - Tell me a story:

9
Tentions, contradictions, suprises:

Why why why? - Tell me a story:

10
Tentions, contradictions, suprises:

Why why why? - Tell me a story:

11
Tentions, contradictions, suprises:

Why why why? - Tell me a story:

12
Tentions, contradictions, suprises:

Why why why? - Tell me a story:

13
Tentions, contradictions, suprises:

Why why why? - Tell me a story:

14
6 The ending

Thank you so much for this conversation! We’ve taken good notes on your
valuable input which will be used to design the next generation experiences.

15
Team:

You might also like