Conducting User Interviews
Scope
Covers
- Planning an interview study that supports a specific product decision
- Recruiting the right participants (including early adopters when appropriate)
- Running interviews that capture specific stories and behaviors (not opinions)
- Synthesizing interviews into actionable insights, opportunities, and next steps
- Creating a lightweight “customer panel” habit for fast follow-ups
When to use
- “Create a discussion guide for discovery interviews.”
- “Recruit and run 8 user interviews about onboarding / activation.”
- “We need to understand why users switched (or churned) — run switch interviews.”
- “Help me synthesize interviews into insights + opportunities.”
- “I’m a PM and need to run customer conversations next week.”
When NOT to use
- You primarily need quantitative evidence (survey/experiment/analytics) or statistical confidence
- You’re doing usability testing with task-based evaluation as the main output (different protocol)
- You’re working with high-risk populations or sensitive topics (medical, legal, minors) without appropriate approvals/training
- You have no decision to support (you’ll produce anecdotes without impact)
Inputs
Minimum required
- Product + target user/customer segment (who, context of use)
- The decision the interviews should inform (e.g., positioning, onboarding redesign, roadmap bet)
- Interview type: discovery / JTBD switch / churn / concept test (or “recommend”)
- Target participants (role, behaviors, situation, recency) + “who NOT to interview”
- Constraints: number of interviews, time box, language/region, recording allowed, incentives (if any)
Missing-info strategy
- Ask up to 5 questions from references/INTAKE.md.
- If answers aren’t available, proceed with explicit assumptions and label unknowns.
Outputs (deliverables)
Produce a User Interview Pack in Markdown (in-chat; or as files if requested):
- Context snapshot (goal, decision, hypotheses, constraints)
- Recruiting plan (channels, outreach copy, scheduling logistics) + screener
- Interview guide (script + question bank + probes) + consent/recording plan
- Note-taking template + tagging scheme
- Synthesis report (themes, evidence, opportunities, recommendations, confidence)
- Follow-up plan (thank-you, keep-in-touch, “customer panel” list/cadence)
- Risks / Open questions / Next steps (always included)
Templates: references/TEMPLATES.md
Workflow (8 steps)
1) Frame the decision and choose interview type
- Inputs: Context + references/INTAKE.md.
- Actions: Define the decision, what you need to learn (unknowns), and pick the interview type (discovery vs switch vs churn vs concept).
- Outputs: Context snapshot + study intent.
- Checks: You can answer: “What will we do differently after these interviews?”
2) Define participant criteria (who/when/why) and sampling plan
- Inputs: Target segment, product context, constraints.
- Actions: Specify inclusion/exclusion criteria; prioritize recency (recent switch/churn/attempt) when relevant; decide sample mix (e.g., 6 core + 2 edge cases).
- Outputs: Participant profile + sampling plan.
- Checks: Criteria are behavior/situation-based (not demographic proxies).
3) Create recruiting plan + screener + outreach copy
- Inputs: Participant profile; available channels (CRM, support, community, ads, LinkedIn).
- Actions: Draft outreach messages, a screener, and scheduling logistics. Expect high drop-off; plan volume accordingly.
- Outputs: Recruiting plan + screener + outreach copy.
- Checks: Screener screens for the *story* you need (recency, context, alternatives), not “interest in our product.”
4) Draft the interview guide (story-first)
- Inputs: Interview type + hypotheses/unknowns.
- Actions: Build a guide that elicits specific stories (“last time…”) and avoids leading questions. Include probes, pivots, and time boxes. Add consent/recording script.
- Outputs: Interview guide + consent/recording plan.
- Checks: At least 70% of questions ask about past behavior and concrete examples.
5) Run interviews + capture clean notes (PM/Design present)
- Inputs: Guide, logistics, notes template.
- Actions: Run the session, follow the story, and capture verbatims. If possible, have PM + design observe live (or listen to recordings) to avoid secondhand dilution.
- Outputs: Completed notes per interview + key quotes + immediate highlights.
- Checks: Each interview yields 2–5 “story moments” (trigger → struggle → workaround → outcome).
6) Debrief immediately and normalize evidence
- Inputs: Interview notes, recordings/transcripts (if any).
- Actions: Do a 10–15 min debrief right after each interview: surprises, hypotheses updates, follow-ups. Tag notes consistently.
- Outputs: Debrief bullets + tagged notes.
- Checks: Unclear claims are marked as “needs follow-up” instead of treated as facts.
7) Synthesize across interviews into themes and opportunities
- Inputs: Tagged notes across interviews.
- Actions: Cluster by outcomes/struggles; capture contradictions; quantify lightly (counts) without over-claiming. Translate insights into opportunities and recommendations with confidence levels.
- Outputs: Synthesis report + opportunity list.
- Checks: Every major insight has at least 2 supporting interviews (or is labeled “single anecdote”).
8) Share, decide, follow up, and run the quality gate
- Inputs: Draft pack.
- Actions: Produce a shareable readout, propose next steps, and create a lightweight customer panel habit (5–10 engaged users). Run references/CHECKLISTS.md and score with references/RUBRIC.md.
- Outputs: Final User Interview Pack + Risks/Open questions/Next steps.
- Checks: Stakeholders can restate (a) key learning, (b) decision implication, (c) what happens next.
Quality gate (required)
- Use references/CHECKLISTS.md and references/RUBRIC.md.
- Always include: Risks, Open questions, Next steps.
Examples
Example 1 (Discovery): “I’m redesigning onboarding for a B2B product. Create a recruiting plan + discussion guide for 8 discovery interviews with new trial users.” Expected: participant criteria, outreach + screener, discovery guide, notes template, synthesis plan, and a ready-to-run pack.
Example 2 (Switch/JTBD): “We lose deals to spreadsheets. Run switch interviews to learn what triggers teams to move off spreadsheets and what they try instead.” Expected: switch interview guide (timeline + forces), recruiting criteria emphasizing recency, and a synthesis structure that outputs ‘push/pull/anxieties/habits’.
Boundary example: “Ask users what features they want and build whatever they say.” Response: redirect to story-based interviewing; clarify decision context; avoid feature-request interviews without behavioral grounding.