What is interviewing?
Interviewing is asking people a series of questions and asking for their response.
Key elements of interviewing
1. Ask productive questions.
Steve Portigal offers the following palette of useful questions:
- Ask about sequence. “Describe a typical workday. What do you do when you first sit down at your station? - Then, what do you do next?”
- Ask about quantity. “How many files would you delete when that happens?”
- Ask for specific examples. “What is the last movie that you streamed?” – Compare this to “What movies do you stream?” The specific is easier to answer than the general and becomes a platform for follow up questions.
- Ask for the complete list. “What are all the different apps you have installed on your smartphone?” – This requires a series of follow up questions, e.g., “What else?” because few people will be able to generate an entire list of something with some prompting.
- Ask about relationships. “How do you work with new vendors?” – This general question is especially appropriate when you don’t even know enough to ask a specific question (e.g. in comparison to the earlier example about streaming movies). Better to start general than to be presumptive with a too-specific question.
- Ask about organizational structure. “Who does that department report to?”
Questions to probe on what's unsaid
- Ask for clarification. “When you refer to “that” you are talking about the newest server, right?”
- Ask about code words/native language. “Why do you call it the ‘Batcave?’”
- Ask about emotional cues. “Why do you laugh when you mention ‘Best Buy?’”
- Ask why. “I’ve tried to get my boss to adopt this format, but she just won’t do it-” “Why do you think she hasn’t?”
- Probe delicately. “You mentioned a difficult situation that changed your usage. Can you tell us what that situation was?”
- Probe without presuming. “Some people have very negative feelings about Twitter, while others don’t. What is your take?” – Rather than the direct “What do you think about Twitter?” or “Do you like Twitter?” this question introduces options that aren’t tied to the interviewer or the interviewee.
- Explain to an outsider. “Let’s say that I’ve just arrived here from another decade, how would you explain to me the difference between smartphones and tablets?”
- Teach another. “If you had to ask your son to operate your system, how would you explain it to him?”
2. Listen to what people say (the “rapport engine”).
- Ask your question and then stop.
- Maintain eye contact and open body language.
- Show you are listening.
- Ask follow-up questions.
- Reference earlier statements. “Earlier you said that…”
- Circle back when necessary. “I want to go back to what you said earlier.”
- Be careful about your body language (like nodding) and sounds (like “mmm-hmm”). You want to balance encouraging participants with seeming like you’re judging their statements.
- Be selective about when you talk about yourself or your opinions. Remember, this interview is about them, not you.
- Avoiding interrupting. Let there be a little bit of silence.
3. Manage the flow.
- Progress between phases:
- Warming up
- Establishing the basics
- Diving deeper
- Key questions
- Summing up
- Reflecting and verifying
- When you’re changing topic, say so.
- Let participants be winding and pick up disparate threads later.
- Let participants know what your goal or “arc” for the session is.
- Give people an out if they get uncomfortable.
- Give people an opportunity to ask their own questions as well. Those questions can be revealing.
4. Don't only ask questions.
Instead, ask people to:
- Complete tasks.
- Get reactions to a sketch, website or objects.
- Sequence cards or sticky notes that represent their experience.
- Write down a few key points.
- If you can watch them complete a task.
5. Look for patterns, not outliers
- Use as close to verbatim notes as you can.
- Focus on what you heard most frequently, not what was most interesting.
- Talk about the diversity of answers, not just the most memorable one.
- Come to conclusions, then analyze again.
- Don’t analyze alone.
- "Building empathy with stakeholder interviews" from 18F
- "Tips for capturing the best data from interviews" from 18F
- Portigal, S. (2013). Interviewing users: how to uncover compelling insights. Rosenfeld Media.
- "Five keys to interviewing" research community meeting