Enhancing and Restoring Safety & Quality Cultures - Dave Litwiller - May 2024...
Customer Development Interviewing Tips
1. Lisbon
Customer Development Interview
Tips & Tricks
(Get what you need when you get out of the building)
Ian Collingwood
@johnnyforeigner
ian@uxdna.co.uk
2. Eric & Steve say...
“Get out of the building!”
@johnnyforeigner
3. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
@johnnyforeigner
4. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner
5. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner
6. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Generative
Evaluative
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner
7. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Depth Interviews
Contextual Inquiry
Surveys Ethnography
Generative Interviews Diary Studies
Participatory Design (Co-creation)
Mental Models
Web Analytics
Multi-variant Testing Usability Testing
Remote Card Sorting Moderated Card Sorting
Evaluative Clicktale / CrazyEgg (et al) Wizard of Oz Testing
Treejack (et al) Desirability Toolkit
Chalkmark / 5-Second Test (et al) R.I.T.
Usertesting.com (et al)
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner
8. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Depth Interviews
Contextual Inquiry
Surveys Ethnography
Generative Interviews Diary Studies
Participatory Design (Co-creation)
Mental Models
Web Analytics
Multi-variant Testing Usability Testing
Remote Card Sorting Moderated Card Sorting
Evaluative Clicktale / CrazyEgg (et al) Wizard of Oz Testing
Treejack (et al) Desirability Toolkit
Chalkmark / 5-Second Test (et al) R.I.T.
Usertesting.com (et al)
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner
9. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Depth Interviews
Contextual Inquiry
Surveys Ethnography
Generative Interviews Diary Studies
Participatory Design (Co-creation)
Mental Models
Web Analytics
Multi-variant Testing Usability Testing
Remote Card Sorting Moderated Card Sorting
Evaluative Clicktale / CrazyEgg (et al) Wizard of Oz Testing
Treejack (et al) Desirability Toolkit
Chalkmark / 5-Second Test (et al) R.I.T.
Usertesting.com (et al)
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner
10. UX people are good at getting out of
the building
Quantitative Qualitative
Depth Interviews
Contextual Inquiry
Surveys Ethnography
Generative Interviews Diary Studies
Participatory Design (Co-creation)
Mental Models
Web Analytics
Multi-variant Testing Usability Testing
Remote Card Sorting Moderated Card Sorting
Evaluative Clicktale / CrazyEgg (et al) Wizard of Oz Testing
Treejack (et al) Desirability Toolkit
Chalkmark / 5-Second Test (et al) R.I.T.
Usertesting.com (et al)
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman Janice Fraser, Nate Bolt, Christian Rohrer
@johnnyforeigner
21. Sketch & Demographics Behaviours
Barbara Avila Is coming to the UK to study for more than 3 months
Sao Paulo, Brazil, Has never travelled abroad alone
22 years old Does not speak perfect English
Female Has not lived away from home
High educational achievement so far Does not already have a connection with anyone in the UK
Speaks some English but not high level Frequently uses internet as primary source of information
Parental income is middle-high Knows where & when they will be studying abroad
Internet native Receives all or most of their living money from parents
Stories Needs/Goals
To find out what it’s going to be like living abroad
To reassure her parents and loved ones that she will be safe
To focus on settling in to student life, not worrying about
practicalities of daily life in a foreign country
To know that she has someone meeting her when she
arrives and somewhere nice to stay when she gets there
To feel relaxed, safe and excited about her trip
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman & Janice Fraser @johnnyforeigner
22. Sketch & Demographics Behaviours
Barbara Avila Is coming to the UK to study for more than 3 months
Sao Paulo, Brazil, Has never travelled abroad alone
22 years old Does not speak perfect English
IS IS
ES ES
Female Has not lived away from home
TH TH
High educational achievement so far Does not already have a connection with anyone in the UK
Speaks some English but not high level Frequently uses internet as primary source of information
PO
Parental income is middle-high PO
Knows where & when they will be studying abroad
Internet native
HY HY
Receives all or most of their living money from parents
Stories Needs/Goals
To find out what it’s going to be like living abroad
To reassure her parents and loved ones that she will be safe
IS
To focus on settling in to student life, not worrying about
ES
practicalities of daily life in a foreign country
TH
To know that she has someone meeting her when she
PO
arrives and somewhere nice to stay when she gets there
H Y
To feel relaxed, safe and excited about her trip
Adapted from material by Johanna Kollman & Janice Fraser @johnnyforeigner
25. Finding participants
Physical locations: go where the behaviours happen
- Types of store
- Sports centre
- Railway station
- Events
- Offices
- Cafes
@johnnyforeigner
27. Finding participants:
Digital locations:
- Forums
- Facebook groups
- Facebook product pages
- LinkedIn groups
- Twitter hashtags (beware of being marked as
spam)
- Game chat rooms/social gaming
@johnnyforeigner
29. Finding participants:
Always be recruiting:
- At parties
- In the street
- At work
- At the gym... etc
Most of all, use “snowball recruiting.”
i.e. The question you ALWAYS ask is: “do you know
anyone else we can speak to.”
@johnnyforeigner
31. Screening participants
- Must fit your customer profile
- Be contactable (face-to-face or phone/
Skype)
- Be willing to spend 1-2 hours talking to
you
- Have recent, direct experience of the
problem your product will solve
@johnnyforeigner
33. The approach:
- Physical locations
- Smile!
- Choose your moment
- Respect their time
- Explain quickly what you want
- Make it clear you are not selling
anything
- Offer to buy them a coffee
@johnnyforeigner
35. The approach:
- Digital locations
- Be polite
- Spend time getting the “vibe”
- Provide a response channel
(questionnaire/landing page)
@johnnyforeigner
38. Choosing a place
to visit Working out Budgeting
who will be
coming with me
Searching for flights
Guide books
Visas and
paperwork
Topic map: Going on holiday @johnnyforeigner
41. Getting started
After the initial introduction, ask...
“Have you ever had ______ problem?”
- If not, close the interview
@johnnyforeigner
42. Focus on specific instances, not generalisations
- Good: “Tell me about the last time...”
- Bad: “What do you usually...”
Keep them talking
- “Tell me more about...”
- “What do you mean by...”
- “Help me to understand better...”
Summarise in their own words & check
understanding
@johnnyforeigner
43. Try not to lead the participant
Ask “open” questions
- Good questions often start with
- Who, What, When, Where, How
- Not so good questions often start with
- Did, Have, Is, Are, Were, Will
- Look for stories (context, need, action)
@johnnyforeigner
44. Don’t interrupt, but guide back onto topic
Don’t offer solutions
- Do ask “What would be your ideal
solution?”
Don’t pitch your product
- Don’t even mention it!
Don’t ask about hypothetical situations
- “Do you think you would...?”
- “Would you...?”
@johnnyforeigner
46. If possible, bring someone to take notes.
- But write your own notes too.
If you are alone, record audio if possible.
- But still make plenty of notes!
Bring a notepad & at least 2 spare pens.
- Check that they work!
@johnnyforeigner
47. If you do record audio or video:
- Ask permission before you start
- If possible ask them to sign a release form
giving explicit permission.
- Explain what recordings are for and how
they will be used, stored & deleted.
- Accept that you might not be able to
record, especially when interviewing
business customers.
- It’s OK. Be ready to take notes just in case.
@johnnyforeigner
48. If you do record audio or video:
- Make sure you are familiar with the
device/app you are using
- Check you have plenty of disk space
- Bring spare batteries, charger &
extension lead
- Make a test recording (and listen to it!)
just before you go in to the interview to
check it’s working and set the levels
@johnnyforeigner
50. As soon as you walk out the door:
- Write down the 3 most important things
you heard in the interview
- If using a note taker, do this before
discussing the interview with them
As soon as possible:
- Review your full interview notes
- Be sure to do this on the same day
@johnnyforeigner
51. Find a room with a large table or smooth
walls
- Have lots of Post-it notes
- Go through notes and recordings
- Write one note per finding
- Don’t filter or analyse at this point
@johnnyforeigner
52. Once you have been through the whole
interview, review your Post-it notes
Cluster & Categorise each note
- What it means
- Why it matters
- Does this confirm or refute any hypothesis?
- Frequency & repetition
- At the end, try to build “Stories” that define
that user and their needs and behaviours
@johnnyforeigner
53. What if you’re completely wrong?
- Have you picked the wrong people to talk
to?
- Are you targeting the wrong target
segment?
- Are you choosing the wrong problem to
solve?
@johnnyforeigner
All of these methods are aimed at one thing: \nHelping you to understand your customer and what they need\n\nWhich one you choose will depend on where you are in the product development process and what you’re trying to learn\n\nToday we’re mainly going to look at conducting in-depth interviews, because the techniques you’ll learn will help with almost all the other qualitative techniques.\n
All of these methods are aimed at one thing: \nHelping you to understand your customer and what they need\n\nWhich one you choose will depend on where you are in the product development process and what you’re trying to learn\n\nToday we’re mainly going to look at conducting in-depth interviews, because the techniques you’ll learn will help with almost all the other qualitative techniques.\n
All of these methods are aimed at one thing: \nHelping you to understand your customer and what they need\n\nWhich one you choose will depend on where you are in the product development process and what you’re trying to learn\n\nToday we’re mainly going to look at conducting in-depth interviews, because the techniques you’ll learn will help with almost all the other qualitative techniques.\n
All of these methods are aimed at one thing: \nHelping you to understand your customer and what they need\n\nWhich one you choose will depend on where you are in the product development process and what you’re trying to learn\n\nToday we’re mainly going to look at conducting in-depth interviews, because the techniques you’ll learn will help with almost all the other qualitative techniques.\n
All of these methods are aimed at one thing: \nHelping you to understand your customer and what they need\n\nWhich one you choose will depend on where you are in the product development process and what you’re trying to learn\n\nToday we’re mainly going to look at conducting in-depth interviews, because the techniques you’ll learn will help with almost all the other qualitative techniques.\n
All of these methods are aimed at one thing: \nHelping you to understand your customer and what they need\n\nWhich one you choose will depend on where you are in the product development process and what you’re trying to learn\n\nToday we’re mainly going to look at conducting in-depth interviews, because the techniques you’ll learn will help with almost all the other qualitative techniques.\n
All of these methods are aimed at one thing: \nHelping you to understand your customer and what they need\n\nWhich one you choose will depend on where you are in the product development process and what you’re trying to learn\n\nToday we’re mainly going to look at conducting in-depth interviews, because the techniques you’ll learn will help with almost all the other qualitative techniques.\n
All of these methods are aimed at one thing: \nHelping you to understand your customer and what they need\n\nWhich one you choose will depend on where you are in the product development process and what you’re trying to learn\n\nToday we’re mainly going to look at conducting in-depth interviews, because the techniques you’ll learn will help with almost all the other qualitative techniques.\n
All of these methods are aimed at one thing: \nHelping you to understand your customer and what they need\n\nWhich one you choose will depend on where you are in the product development process and what you’re trying to learn\n\nToday we’re mainly going to look at conducting in-depth interviews, because the techniques you’ll learn will help with almost all the other qualitative techniques.\n
All of these methods are aimed at one thing: \nHelping you to understand your customer and what they need\n\nWhich one you choose will depend on where you are in the product development process and what you’re trying to learn\n\nToday we’re mainly going to look at conducting in-depth interviews, because the techniques you’ll learn will help with almost all the other qualitative techniques.\n
Hardest part of any startup business is working out who your customers will be \n\nHardest part of any research project is deciding who to talk to. \n\nYou want to talk to people who you think will be your customers. \n
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Demographics are a common starting point. \n\nDemographics often don’t predict behaviour:\n\neg: females aged 16-21, living in London, ABC1 - What type of music are they into? \n\nDemographics are a bit like a dating profile. You’d want to meet the person before you could say you know them.\n\nSo what is better than this?\nHow can we get a more complete picture?\nWhat other dimensions can help us?\n\n\n
\nA good way to look at segmentation is through behaviour. \nCompanies are starting to wake up to this - eg behavioural targeting. \nSupermarket loyalty cards are a way to create segments or clusters based on what people buy. \n- People who buy baby nappies are likely to also likely to buy baby food. \n- People who buy organic cotton nappies are also likely to buy organic baby food. \n\nIn many ways, behaviours are a better predictor than demographics \n\n\n
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Demographics & Behaviours are a useful way to segment people... but they aren’t the whole picture. \n\nPeople don’t buy products because they fit into a particular demographic profile (I don’t buy baby food because I’m over 40 and live in East London and have an income over £40K).\n\nI don’t buy products because I exhibit certain behaviours. (I don’t buy baby food because I buy nappies)\n\nPeople buy products because they have needs that the product can solve. \n\nSo: I buy baby food because I have a baby that I need to keep alive.\n\nSo that’s Needs.\n\n\n
And as well as needs, people also have Goals. \n\nGoals are the underlying desires that frame what solutions people will accept when choosing products. \nIt can be an emotional response or a practical one.\n\nExample: I choose to buy Organic baby food. But I don’t buy organic baby food because I need to - I buy it because I want to feel that I’m doing the best for my child. It makes me feel like I’m being a good Dad.\n\nSo: Adding needs/goals gives us another way to understand our users\n\nDon’t get too hung up on the difference between Needs & Goals. I always find they blend together a bit.\n\n\n
EXERCISE: In teams, write down what you think would be the main needs and goals of a typical customer/user. \n
Put it all together...\n\nPersona = A way of summarising who your product is for. They help you focus on the person you are designing for. (And therefore who you will need to interview)\n\nYou can have more than one persona, but don’t have too many or you will lose focus.\n\nThey can also help you understand who it is NOT for. The “Anti-persona”\n\n\n
Remember: Everything at this point is an ASSUMPTION.\n\nDoing the exercise makes it clear what you don’t know! \n\nThis is a persona based on assumptions. They are hypotheses - so I’d call it a “proto-persona”\n\nThe idea is to get you thinking about who you need to talk to, where you might find them and what you will need to ask them. \n
Remember: Everything at this point is an ASSUMPTION.\n\nDoing the exercise makes it clear what you don’t know! \n\nThis is a persona based on assumptions. They are hypotheses - so I’d call it a “proto-persona”\n\nThe idea is to get you thinking about who you need to talk to, where you might find them and what you will need to ask them. \n
Remember: Everything at this point is an ASSUMPTION.\n\nDoing the exercise makes it clear what you don’t know! \n\nThis is a persona based on assumptions. They are hypotheses - so I’d call it a “proto-persona”\n\nThe idea is to get you thinking about who you need to talk to, where you might find them and what you will need to ask them. \n
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Screening:\nUse the behaviours & demographics in your persona as screening criteria. \n\nWrite out a specification (& questionnaire) - include basic stuff like regular internet use, income, gender, age, if relevant.\n\n\n
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If you want to get the best information from people you need to make them feel comfortable. \n\nInterviews & interrogations make people uncomfortable.\n\nMake your interview feel as natural as possible.\n\nLet it flow across topics, like a normal conversation, whilst still being sure to cover everything you need to know.\n\n\n
A useful tool is a topic map.\n\nIt’s a sheet with a set of themes or areas that you’d like to cover in the interview\nThink of it as a set of prompts you can glance at, not set questions\n
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Although you want a natural feeling interview, you must also be careful not to influence what you hear by the way you ask questions or respond to answers.\n\nPeople are surprisingly easy to influence in a conversation \n\nTo avoid this, its good to explicitly write down what your assumptions and prejudices are about each interview before you do it. \n\nThis helps you go in with your eyes open and keep you alert to your own expectations\n\n\n
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I use my phone:\nMiMic\nHighlight\nPearnote\n
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Of the 3 things you remember, the first will usually be the last thing you heard. The other two will be useful and important.\n