Switch out of normal work mode and become a curious researcher.
Let go of what you think you know about your users. Inquire more deeply than usual into their experience of being them.
Use the linked resources to help you with each step.
A video calling tool like Zoom or MS Teams
Note taking tool like MS Word or Google Docs
You can do all of this solo but it helps to have someone to discuss interview questions with and someone to take notes during the interviews.
This reduces drop-out rates and helps people feel comfortable and more relaxed when they join the interview.
It also gives people an easier chance to say if they need to rearrange or cancel their interview.
Do this 24-48 hours in advance of their interview. Or do it at the start of the week. Friday is not a good day to do this.
"Running a good interview is less about following specific rules than it is about being a certain kind of person for the duration of the interview. The apprentice model is a good starting point for how to behave." - Contextual Design, Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt
Turn on your curious brain. Get ready to act like your participant is the master and you are the apprentice.
Smile 🙂 because it helps people relax.
Follow the script. Tell the participant you want to learn from them.
Ask your questions. Take your time. Allow them time to think about each question. Don’t be afraid of short silences.
Listen earnestly.
Make them feel heard. Engage, make frequent eye contact, nod, acknowledge their answers.
Move them on to the next question if they become repetitive or get side-tracked.
Prioritise the questions you marked as important if you run short on time. It’s ok if you don’t manage to ask all your less important questions.
Ask yourself what went well and what could have been better.
Remove or merge repetitive questions.
Tweak the question order if their flow didn’t work. Do this only a little.
Tweak the script where it needs it.
Repeat step 2.
Repeat step 3 if you need to review again.
Let your participants know that you appreciate their time and effort in helping you.
Recruit interview participants. Run user interviews. Document interview notes.
This guide is part of The Catalyst PUNS Guide. It follows on from Guide 1: How to plan your project.
Use it and Guides 3 and 4 for each user group you plan to create personas and user need statements for.
By the time you are done here you will have:
A set of post-it notes capturing the most important things you heard in each interview, organised on a wall or whiteboard. These could be real or virtual.
Learnt how to recruit participants, run user interviews and document your notes as post-its on a whiteboard
Start early. Recruit 6-7 so you can interview 5.
Start recruiting participants from your first user group as soon as you have decided who that first group is. Guide 1’s planning template helps you decide.
Your plan does not need to be completed for you to start recruiting. Starting early gives you more time to do this.
You will need these tools to do the work:
Form creation tool e.g. Google Forms
Social media
You can do some of this work on your own, but you will probably need help to find participants.
Decide on a 2-3 day period when you will carry out interviews. Make it at least two weeks in the future. This will give you time to manage any recruitment delays.
You should aim to carry out 5 interviews. This is enough people.
Sometimes people drop out or are unsuitable. So recruit 6-7 people. It's ok if you end up interviewing them all.
Write down a description of the people you want to recruit. Be clear on any categories they need to fit into. This will help you find the right people to interview.
Click ‘file to make a copy. Use it for parts 2.2 and 2.3 too.
This will make it easier for people to agree to an interview, whichever way they hear about them. You need to ask them for their name and contact details, and to confirm they consent.
There are two ways to do this.
Use Google Forms, Typeform or a similar tool. When you receive their form submission, arrange an interview time with them.
Use a free Calendly account. This will allow participants to send their details to you and simultaneously choose when to be interviewed.
Do this so that it’s easy for people to decide if they want to take part.
Here’s an example:
“We’re looking for [describe the specific type of people you want to talk to] to speak to about their experience of [service, issue, challenge, problem]. Calls will last 45 minutes and be confidential. [Details of any reward offered]. Sign up. Find out more.”
Add a link to your recruitment form to the text ‘Sign up’.
Add your email address, or a link to a document or webpage with more information, to the text ‘Find out more’.
Decide if you will be offering a reward or payment. Add this if you are.
Make it into a social media card for extra impact.
Do this as if you were promoting an event.
Email the request to people who might be suitable for interviewing.
Email it to colleagues to pass on to people who might be suitable.
Post it on your organisation’s social media.
Email it to people in other services who might be able to help recruit.
Do all of these at the same time. Don’t wait to see if one works before trying the other. If you get more people than you need then add them to a reserve list and politely contact them explaining that you would like to keep their details for future similar opportunities.
Email or call those who have booked. This gives them a chance to ask questions and feel comfortable. It will also reduce your drop-out rate.
Create questions that will help your users tell you what you want to know.
Note taking tool like Google Docs
You can do all of this solo but it helps to get feedback on your questions before using them.
Write down the questions you want to ask your participants. Think about how you might ask them in a way that they will understand. Use natural language. Make your questions open.
Plan a simple question first to help you and them warm up to the interview. The rest of your questions should help you answer your research questions.
Add sub-questions or prompts for each question. These will help participants to give you useful information.
Group questions by theme, in a logical order. Ask a more general question before a specific one.
Mark the most important questions you need to ask. That way you know which ones to prioritise if you run short of time.
Write down everything you need to let a participant know at the start and at the end of the interview. Use this checklist:
Who else is here, if you have someone taking notes
Why you are doing these interviews
How long the interview will last
That questions are optional and they can skip any they want
That they can switch off their camera if they want
That you will be making notes and what you will do with them
The script should include asking them if they are ok with that.
If you aren’t sure whether to include something in your script then add it in. It will help you remember to say it. You can always skip it if it isn’t needed.
Your script should end by thanking them for their time and asking them if they have any questions or anything else they’d like to add.
Turn your interview notes into an organised set of post-its for each participant.
Do this after each interview, while your experiences and perceptions are still fresh.
By the time you have finished documenting your notes in the ways described here you will be ready for Guide 3: Finding themes and insights in what you’ve heard.
A whiteboard and post-its. This could be online using a tool like Miro or Mural. Use the Miro template in Step 1.
You can do this on your own. It’s best if the same person analyses each interview.
You will use it to document your notes in a way that prepares you for Guide 3. Synthesis is a way of analysing and finding patterns in data. Insight statements are ways of writing what you’ve noticed in the data.
Use your word processing programme’s spellchecker. This will tidy up your notes before you analyse them.
You will be looking for three types of information:
Examples:
“Google is my best friend”
“It’s more a mindset than a competency thing. I never really know what digital means.”
“I'm very confident and capable of using digital tools.”
Examples:
Thinks critically about digital. Not a techy. Doesn't know how to build, but does know how to ask good questions.
Usually looks for a blog on a digital topic.
Digital skills and confidence is an issue
These are the most difficult to distinguish. You might only spot one or two per interview.
Examples:
Seems to fear not being ready to offer digital support and advice to other charities.
Positive attitude towards digital - seems to have carried them far
🔗🔗 Read ‘Documenting interviews’ in The most neglected part of the design process.
Look for information directly related to your research questions. Not everything will be. Leave out everything that isn’t relevant. This will help you focus on the most important information later.
Find your first piece of text. It could be a paragraph or a couple of sentences. Decide if it contains important information. If it doesn’t then move on.
If it does, then depending on what it is:
Copy direct quotes to a post-it.
Summarise observations on a post-it.
Carefully summarise any interpretations on a post-it
Use different coloured post-its for each type of information. This is what it looks like:
Use only one post-it per quote, summary or interpretation. Split sentences if you need to. This will help you later on.
🧙♂️ Tip: Add each observation or quote you copy as a comment to the note text you took it from. Like the image below 👇. This creates a record of what you have done with the notes, which can be helpful if you want to check back later.
You don’t need to do this for interpretations.
Do this after each interview, while your experiences and perceptions are still fresh.
This is an optional step. Doing it will improve the quality of your documentation but is not necessary for it to be good enough.
Ask a colleague to read through your notes and write down their observations and interpretations on post-its.
Integrate their post-its with yours. Remove any duplicates.
You have two choices:
Move forward to Guide 3: How to find themes and insights from user interviews, or
Stop here and analyse what you’ve heard using an alternative method.