1.
1
Interviewing
Users
Steve
Portigal
@steveportigal

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Interviewing Users 2
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Resources, presentations and to purchase
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/interviewing-users/
Interviewing Users

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Interviewing Users 4
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A diverse compilation of war stories that range from
comically bizarre to astonishingly tragic, tied together
with valuable lessons
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/user-research-war-
stories/
Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries

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Interviewing Users 5
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Interviews with in-house user research leaders
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dollars-to-
donuts/id956673263
Dollars to Donuts

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Problem Framing 1:30 – 1:50
Research Practices 1:50 – 2:20
Contextual Methods 2:20 – 2:40
Interviewing Best Practices 2:40 – 3:00
Break 3:00 – 3:15
Interviewing Best Practices 3:15 – 3:45
Interviewing Activity/Debrief 3:45 – 4:30
Today

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Problem Framing

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Click to edit Master title styleWhat do I mean by “research?”
Ethnography
Ethnographic interviews
Video ethnography
Depth-interviews
Contextual research
Home visits
Site visits
Experience modeling
Design research
User research
User-centered design
One-on-ones
Camera studies
User safaris

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Interviewing Users 9
Click to edit Master title styleWhat do I mean by “research?”
Ethnography
Ethnographic interviews
Video ethnography
Depth-interviews
Contextual research
Home visits
Site visits
Experience modeling
Design research
User research
User-centered design
One-on-ones
Camera studies
User safaris

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Click to edit Master title styleBeyond our terminology, what are we doing?
Examine people in their own context
• What are they doing?
• What does it mean?
Infer (interpret/synthesize/etc.)
• Find the connections
• The researcher is the “apparatus”
Apply to business or design problems
• Use products, services, packaging, design to tell the right story
• More possible types of solutions than we started out with

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What to
make or do
Refine&
prototype
Launch
Iterate & improve
Interview users throughout the development cycle
Take a fresh
look at people Use existing ideas
as hypotheses
Explore new
ideas

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Click to edit Master title styleThe Business Question
What new products and
services can you offer to
help partners increase social
network stickiness (and thus
revenues)?
What entertainment activities
should you support to tap
into a growing middle-class
in China?

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Click to edit Master title styleThe Research Question
What are the motivations,
successes, and frustrations
for current and prospective
users of our partners’ social
media sites?
How is family life changing in
middle-class China? What
are the critical digital and
analog technologies that are
being embraced?

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Click to edit Master title styleThe Research Methodology
The methods we’ll use….
The methods we’ll use….

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Click to edit Master title stylePain points: default research/business question?!
While we always uncover so-called pain points, the bigger
opportunity may come from understanding why – how did
we get here?

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Click to edit Master title styleIt may not really be that painful
Satisficing (coined by Herbert Simon in 1956) refers to our
acceptance of good-enough solutions
These can drive engineers and designers crazy…but the
real problem isn’t always what it appears to be

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Click to edit Master title styleQuick Exercise
While we always uncover so-called pain points, the bigger
opportunity may come from understanding why – how did
we get here?
In groups of 2 or 3…
1.Pick a project you’re working on
2.Write up the business and
research questions

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Research Practices

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Click to edit Master title styleFinding the right participants (recruiting)
Often an afterthought in project planning
• But the right customers are crucial to get the right insights
• This takes time to plan and to execute
Pointless interviews waste time and challenge the credibility of the work
• Person doesn’t really want to talk to you
• They don’t have the desired relationship with the product/brand
Epic FAILS will happen anyway
Identify
• What type of people you want to find (criteria, screener)
• How you will find those people

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Interviewing Users 20
Click to edit Master title styleRecruiting criteria: Relationship to category
What is their relationship to the
product/service/brand/activity?
• Typical user
• Non-user
• Extreme user
• Peripheral user
• Expert user
• Subject-matter expert
• Wannabe user
• Should-be user
• Future user
• Past user
• Hater
• Loyal to competitor
Triangulate through multiple
perspectives
By creating contrast, you
reveal key influencing
factors that you wouldn’t
otherwise see

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Click to edit Master title styleRecruiting criteria: Type of user
There may be more – or different – “users”
Think about the whole system: the chooser,
the influencer, the user, and anyone who is
impacted by those roles
Challenge assumptions about who the
organization is implicitly/explicitly designing for
• Is that everyone?
• Do they even exist?
Surface a broader sense – even prior to
research – about who is affected by the
product and who is being designed for
Is your “typical customer” real or aspirational?

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Interviewing Users 22
Click to edit Master title styleRecruiting criteria: Demographics
Gender
Age
Life stage/lifestyle
• Married
• Stage of family
• Retirement
• Not in the middle of a major life-change
(unless that’s of interest)
Dwelling
• Suburban/urban/rural
• Apartment/living alone/
roommates/single family home
Race
• Reflect the population
• Reflect the user base
Occupation
• From outside the industries in question
Income
• Can afford the product in question
Demographic factors are
typically secondary when
defining the sample

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Click to edit Master title styleThe screener
Screeners are very formal,
linear documents
• Typically used by market research
recruiting agencies
Screeners have two
purposes…
• Does the person fits your criteria?
• Convince them to participate
…and three main sections
• Introduction
• Checking off criteria
• Invitation to participate

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Click to edit Master title styleCreative recruiting
Outside of the traditional method of working with a
recruiter, there are other approaches
• Friends and family/Social networks
• Snowball recruiting (participants find more participants)
• Craigslist
• Intercepts
• Etc.
Pros and cons
• Cheap but time-consuming
• Quick but harder to control and manage
• Likely to find “pure” participants but they might be too close to you

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Click to edit Master title styleIncentive
Enthusiastic thank-you rather than
compensation
• Recruiter will advise on best amount, depending on
what you are asking for
• For a fee, they will handle sending a check, but I prefer
the immediate gratification of an envelope of cash
• Include a thank-you note and even swag
In B2B settings, be creative about who and
how to incent
• You may negotiate this on a per-site basis

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Click to edit Master title styleThe interview guide (or field guide)
A detailed plan of what will happen in the interview
• Questions, timing, activities, tasks, logistics, etc.
Transforms questions-we-want-answers-to into
questions-we-will-ask
Share with team to align on issues of concern
• Especially with multiple teams in the field
Helps you previsualize the flow of the session
• Include questions as well as other methods that you’ll use
Prepping an interview guide means that you may not need
to use the interview guide
• This is counter-intuitive
• It does come in handy during freeze-up moments – scan it over to see
what else you want to cover

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Click to edit Master title styleFour sections to the field guide
1. Introduction and Participant Background
• Logistics, timing, objectives
2. The Main Body
• Subsections for each area you plan to explore (e.g., configuration,
learning about new features, etc.)
3. Projection/Dream Questions
• Be audacious and ask about predictions for the future or ideal
experiences
4. Wrap Up
• Logistics, ask about anything they want to tell you that you didn’t ask
about

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Click to edit Master title styleDetailed field guide

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Click to edit Master title styleInclude other methods
Tasks “Can you draw me a map of your computer network?”
Participation “Can you show me how I should make a Whopper?”
Demonstration
“Show us how you update your playlists.”
Ask for a demonstration of playlist updating
Role-playing
“I’ll be the customer and you be the receptionist, and you
show me how they should respond.”
Role play the ideal interaction between customer
and receptionist
Observations Look in server room, access key locker, and other
secure locations

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Click to edit Master title styleDocumentation: photos
Plan to take lots of photos
They will reveal things you
don’t remember noticing
Essential for storytelling
Make sure you have
permission before you
start snapping

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Click to edit Master title styleDocumentation: audio, video, notes
Essential to capture exactly what is said
Difficult (impossible) to maintain eye contact, manage
interview, and write down everything
• Potentially a role for a second interviewer
Taking notes – not as the definitive record – can help you
process, notice, think about follow-ups, etc.
• I strongly recommend privileging being in-the-moment (e.g., eye
contact, listening) over trying to capture everything yourself

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Click to edit Master title styleA release is a good idea
It clarifies the rights of the interviewee and your
organization
• Consent – participation is voluntary
• Incentive – what the participant gets but they are not an employee
• Model release – how images and video will be used
• Non-disclosure – in case you disclose anything in-progress
These are legal documents
• Will your legal department help you prepare it?
• Can you influence them to create consumer-friendly, light-weight versions
• Give participants their own copy at the outset of the interview

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Contextual Methods

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Click to edit Master title styleAsk people how they would solve a problem
Participatory design
Doesn’t mean we implement the
requested solution literally
“I wish it had a handle”
Many ways to solve the underlying
need (“I need to move it around”)
Designers work with this data to
generate alternatives
Engage people in the non-literal
through games and role-playing
Uncover underlying principles and
explore areas of opportunity that don’t
yet exist

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Click to edit Master title styleShow people a solution
Consider the difference between
testing and exploring
Avoid “Do you like this?”
Don’t show your best guess at a solution;
instead identify provocative examples to
surface hidden desires and expectations
Make sure you are asking the right
questions
What does this solution enable? What
problems does it solve?
Especially for new products, needed before
getting into specifics of your implementation
Image from Roberto and Worth1000.com

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Click to edit Master title styleUse a range of methods
Logging
Before the interview, participant takes regular digital photos
or fills out a booklet documenting their activities
Homework
Before the interview, participant saves up all their junk mail
for two weeks to prompt our discussion
Workbook to capture beliefs, priorities, etc.
Stimuli
In the interview, review wireframes, prototypes, simulations,
storyboards
Exercises
What’s in your wallet? What’s in your fridge?
Sketch your idealized solution
Draw a map of where you listen to music; draw a map that
associates emotional and subjective factors

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Click to edit Master title styleMapping

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Click to edit Master title styleStoryboards

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Click to edit Master title styleCasual Card Sort

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Click to edit Master title styleObserving
Notice what… people,
places
Notice how… processes,
sequences, interactions
Suspend your point of view
Avoid conclusions
Allow confusion
Do it “out loud”
Steve, practicing his “noticing.” You can tell
because he looks like he may be a little
confused.

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Click to edit Master title styleCultural context

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Click to edit Master title styleDifferent Methods Work Together
Music Application Usage
16%
20%
28%
35%
55%
7%
17%
23%
33%
55%
7%
18%
18%
38%
55%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Winamp
MusicMatch Jukebox
iTunes
RealPlayer
Windows Media Player
<30 (n=297) 30s (n=408) 40+ (n=341)

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Interviewing Users 43
Click to edit Master title styleDifferent Methods Work Together
Music Application Usage
16%
20%
28%
35%
55%
7%
17%
23%
33%
55%
7%
18%
18%
38%
55%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Winamp
MusicMatch Jukebox
iTunes
RealPlayer
Windows Media Player
<30 (n=297) 30s (n=408) 40+ (n=341)

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Click to edit Master title styleDifferent Methods Work Together

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Click to edit Master title styleDifferent Methods Work Together

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Click to edit Master title styleChristian Rohrer has the definitive model
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/which-ux-research-methods/

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Interviewing Best Practices

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Click to edit Master title styleFieldwork principles
1. Check your worldview at the door
2. Embrace how other people see the world
3. Build rapport
4. Listen

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Click to edit Master title styleCheck your worldview at the door
Before you start doing interviews, do a
team-wide brain dump of all your
assumptions and expectations
• Get closely-held beliefs out of your heads
• You needn’t go back to verify your assumptions;
goal is to make assumptions explicit
Make the interview about the interview
• As a transitional ritual, agree explicitly that you are
going to Learn about Paul rather than Identify
NextGen Opportunities for Roadmap

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Click to edit Master title styleEmbrace how other people see the world
Go to where your users are rather than asking them
to come to you
Nip distractions in the bud
• Eat, and find a bathroom beforehand
• Leave plenty of time so you aren’t rushed when
you arrive
Be ready to ask questions you (think you) know the
answers to
• Think about: “When are your taxes due?”
• What do you know? What are you afraid they’ll
say? What might you learn?

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Click to edit Master title styleBuild rapport
Be selective about social graces
• Just enough small talk
• Accept what you’re offered
Be selective about talking about yourself
• Reveal personal information to give them
permission to share
• Otherwise, think “OMG! Me too!” without saying it
Work towards the tipping point
• From question-answer to question-story
• You won’t know when it’s coming; be patient

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Click to edit Master title styleListen
You can demonstrate that you are listening by asking
questions!
• Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up
• “Earlier, you told us that…”
• “I want to go back to something else you said…”
Signal your transitions: “Great, now I’d like to move onto a
totally different topic”
This level of listening is not how we normally talk to each
other
• Remember that you are interviewing, not having a conversation
• This is really hard

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Click to edit Master title styleListening body language
Yes! Not so much.

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Click to edit Master title styleSilence defeats awkwardness
After you ask your question,
be silent
• Don’t put the answers in the
question
After they’ve answered you,
be silent

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Click to edit Master title styleUse natural language
Talk like your
subject talks!

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Click to edit Master title styleIf you want to fix something, wait until the end
It’s frustrating to watch users
struggle with your product
• Remember, you are there to
learn from them
You will lose the interview if
you start taking their
questions
When it’s time to go, show or
tell them only what will help
them

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Click to edit Master title styleBreak (15 minutes)

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Problem Framing 1:30 – 1:50
Research Practices 1:50 – 2:20
Contextual Methods 2:20 – 2:40
Interviewing Best Practices 2:40 – 3:00
Break 3:00 – 3:15
Interviewing Best Practices 3:15 – 3:45
Interviewing Activity/Debrief 3:45 – 4:30
Today

59.
Interviewing Users 59
Click to edit Master title styleWhy so many types of questions?
Real interviews aren’t as simple as
asking a question, getting an answer,
and then moving onto the next
question in your list.
You are unlikely to get to the actual
answer without asking a few different
questions a few different ways.
You need a range of tools and
techniques. And you need to feel
when you haven’t got to the real
answer yet so you can keep going
.

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Click to edit Master title stylePrepare for exploding questions
Coping techniques
• Wait until these issues
come up organically,
without you having to ask
• Make notes on your field
guide about what you
want to loop back to so
you don’t forget
• Triage based on what’s
most pressing for your
topic
• Triage based on what
makes the best follow-up,
to demonstrate listening –
e.g., emotional cues

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Click to edit Master title styleGetting better at interviewing
Practice with hallway or other
serendipitous micro-interviews
Write surveys and participant
screeners to practice crafting
questions out of the moment
How do you get
to Carnegie
Hall?
Practice,
man,
practice!

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Click to edit Master title styleParticipant screeners as asking practice
A good way to practice both framing a question and the
empathic exercise of thinking through the respondent’s
user experience with that question

63.
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Click to edit Master title styleWrite and take surveys
Develop your own critical eye (and interviewer’s voice) by
looking for bad examples and identifying just what’s wrong
with them

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Click to edit Master title styleWe learn from mistakes and mishaps
Collect and share
war stories with
other interviewers
www.portigal.com/category/series
/warstories/

65.
Interviewing Users 65
Click to edit Master title styleInterviewing Exercise
Imagine you are at a startup looking for opportunities in
home meal preparation
• Quickly put together a question guide (10 minutes)
Get in groups of 2
Alternate interviewing each other, 8 minutes each
• Remember, let yourself follow-up!
• Stay in the exercise!
Group debrief

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Portigal Consulting
www.portigal.com
@steveportigal
steve@portigal.com
+1-415-894-2001
Thank you!