Module 1 · Understanding the user Lesson 1 of 15
Interviewing without leading the witness
Ask about what people DID, not what they would do. "How did you last apply for a job?" beats "Would you use this app?" every time.
The concept
A user interview is there to find out what people DO, not to confirm what you already believe. Ask about the last time they did the thing — "walk me through the last time you applied for a job" — and you get a story with obstacles in it, which is what a design can be built on.
Ban the three questions that produce nothing: "would you use this?", "do you like it?" and anything starting with "wouldn't it be better if". People are generous and will say yes to all three. Ask what they did, what they tried first, what went wrong, and what they did instead.
Ask about the LAST time, never about opinions:
"Walk me through the last time you applied for a job online."
"What did you try first? What happened next?"
"What did you do instead when that did not work?"
Never ask: "Would you use this?" / "Do you like it?" /
"Wouldn't it be better if...?"
Aim: the visitor talks 80% of the time. Write down THEIR words.Common mistakes
The mistake is talking more than the person you are interviewing. Aim for the visitor to speak eighty per cent of the time, write down their words rather than your interpretation of them, and resist solving anything during the call. Five honest interviews beat fifty responses to a survey you designed to prove a point.
Worked example
Asked "Would you use a job app?", everyone says yes. Asked "Walk me through the last job you applied for", you learn they gave up on the second round of a form on a phone.
Your practice task
Interview three people about how they last searched for a job and let them talk for ten minutes each without interrupting.
Do this before moving on. Reading a solution teaches the shape of it; typing it teaches you.
Key takeaway
A user interview is there to find out what people DO, not to confirm what you already believe.
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