Master User Interviews and Unlock Powerful Insights
When it comes to creating products that solve real problems you can’t go past a good customer interview. You want to get to product market fit quickly and get to a profitably growing product, right?
When it comes to creating products that solve real problems you can’t go past a good customer interview. Whether you’re a Product Manager or a Founder, you want to get to product market fit quickly and get to a profitably growing product, right?
Then get comfortable with talking to end users, customers and your potential user.
Time to de-risk the desirability assumptions. Do customers have a problem that your product idea will solve and is it painful enough for them to pay? Is there an adjacent problem that is more pressing? We won’t know until we ask them.
And there is a fine art to asking questions. Sure, you start with a script of your questions, but be prepared to go off script when a thread of an insight has been revealed and you need to understand more.
When conducted effectively, these interviews unveil invaluable insights that guide decision-making and product development.
After conducting hundreds of these customer discovery interviews, let me take you through a step-by-step approach and proven techniques to extract genuine insights from participants.
1. Set the Stage with Open-Ended Questions
When crafting your interview questions, prioritise open-ended inquiries over closed ones.
Instead of asking yes-or-no questions, opt for questions that encourage participants to share their experiences. For instance, instead of asking, "Do you like our checkout process?" try, "Can you walk me through your experience during checkout?"
Open-ended questions allow an opportunity for deeper insights into their experiences and pain points. Closed questions limit responses and may bias participants towards specific answers.
2. Focus on Specific Examples
To get accurate and detailed responses, focus on specific instances or examples rather than generalisations. You want them to talk through a recent experience, from memory.
Instead of “What do you normally eat for lunch?” where they may say they eat a salad (because they want to appear healthy), ask “What did you eat for lunch on Friday last week?”
Specific instances prompt participants to recall concrete experiences, minimising the risk of idealised or aspirational responses. This approach helps uncover genuine behaviours and preferences, rather than perceived ones.
3. Steer Clear of Leading Questions
We all have biases and preferences about things we ask. This needs to be kept in check. Our aim with customer discovery interviews is not to convince participants that our idea, our product, or our point of view is the right one. It’s to uncover what they think, do, say, feel and why.
Leading questions can inadvertently introduce bias into your findings by assuming the participant's perspective. For example, instead of asking, "How frustrating do you find our check out process?" or “Our products have more features than our competitors?” opt for a neutral inquiry like, "Can you talk me through your experience of our check out process?" or “How do you find the features and experience of our products? And how do you compare them to alternatives?”
Avoid assumptions and allow participants to express their opinions and experiences authentically. This approach ensures unbiased insights and a more accurate understanding of user perspectives. You can then continue the conversation and ask them deeper questions to understand where they’re coming from.
4. Keep Them Talking
Active listening and encouraging dialogue are essential for fruitful user interviews.
Encourage participants to elaborate on their responses by using prompts such as, "Can you say more about that?" or "What does that look like in practice?"
These prompts invite participants to delve deeper into their experiences and perspectives, revealing nuanced insights that may not surface initially.
Be prepared to deviate from your scripted questions and explore topics of interest as they arise during the interview.
5. Explore Their Current Experience
Understanding how users currently solve their problem, what steps they take, what alternative, substitute or competitor offering they use and what they like or don’t like about the experience, is key to uncover an insight that can be core to your product. Uncovering the job to be done may lead to innovative solutions.
Questions like, "What do you currently do to deal with XYZ?" or "How do you solve this problem today?" provide insights into existing workarounds, frustrations, and pain points.
Be patient as you draw out the current experience, steps they take today and how they feel about them.
Understanding how users currently navigate the problem landscape today helps you identify how big of a problem it is, how painful and the value of solving it may be - core to product development prioritisation.
6. Embrace Silence
Don't be afraid of silence during the interview process and rush through the process, filling in gaps for the participant. Silence allows for breakthroughs to come to the surface. Participants may volunteer a valuable insight that you may have not thought to directly ask about.
Avoid the temptation to fill the silence with additional questions, your own response or commentary. Remember, your goal is to extract genuine insights, and sometimes, the most valuable revelations emerge during moments of silence.
Leave the space and resist the urge to fill it.
7. End with an Open Invitation
Conclude the interview by inviting participants to share any additional thoughts or insights they may have.
A question like, "Is there anything else you want us to know?" provides participants with the opportunity to address topics that may not have been covered explicitly in the interview. This open-ended approach encourages participants to share unexpected insights or concerns, enriching your understanding of their needs and preferences.
You may also ask who else you should interview - and get the details of another potential user to interview.
Other considerations
When interviewing, listen carefully to the response as well as how it’s said (tone) as well as body language. I recommend interviewing in pairs so that one person leads the interview and asks the questions, while the second person scribes and writes notes down. Both can then watch for responses in what is said, how it’s said and the accompanying body language. When conducting these in person, interviewing in pairs means that both of you are able to work to gether so as not to miss anything. Interviewing via Zoom or Google Meet is ideal to capture a video recording, transcript and AI summary - meaning that if you missed anything, you can rewatch and go over the transcript too.
Confirmation Bias
Finally, it's essential to remain neutral and objective throughout the interview process. Confirmation bias, the tendency to seek out information that supports pre-existing beliefs, can skew research findings and lead to misguided conclusions.
Your mission is to uncover the truth, not validate preconceived notions.
Approach each interview with an open mind, and let the insights gleaned from participants guide your decision-making process.
Mastering the art of user interviews requires careful planning, active listening, and a commitment to unbiased inquiry. Employing the techniques outlined in the above guide to conduct interviews that unearth genuine insights, inform product development, and ultimately, deliver value to your users.
Need help with your customer discovery interviews and idea validation, drop me an email at irene@phronesisadvisory.com
Are you new to Product Management and want to learn from me?
I created a Course. For people new to Product Management.
Aligned it with the Learning Outcomes created by Product greats like Jeff Patton and others. Had it certified by the globally recognised ICAgile.
Choose to spend 2 days learning from me - either face to face or via Zoom - with ICAgile Certified Professional in Product Management (ICP-PDM).
And if you’re looking for a sneaky discount, send me an email at irene@phronesisadvisory.com