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User interview

User interviews are one of the most fundamental research methods we have and are often part of larger design processes in some shape or form.

How it works

User interviews are one of the most fundamental research methods we have and are often part of larger design processes in some shape or form.

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When you want to understand your end-users, you can either observe them or talk to them. Observing them gives you honest answers about what they do, but to really understand the underlying motivations that drive them, their expectations and their mental model of how things should work, you will need to talk to them.

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Interviewing is all about understanding the other person. Lead the conversation to the areas you are interested in, learn using open questions and active listening skills.

Understand

25-55 minutes

Product Owner, Business Analyst, UX Designer, Developer, Quality assurer

Before

1. Involve your team. When you run interviews, try to include more than one team member but no more than three. Running it alone can make it challenging to take notes, while inviting the entire team can be intimidating to the user. Regardless of how many you are, ask for consent in compliance with GDPR to record the interview so that all team members can watch the interview.

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2. Assign roles. One person asks the questions and does the talking, one person takes notes and one can make sure the recording works. The interviewer can take breaks between topics and ask other members if they have something they want to ask.

During

3. Show interest. Be genuinely interested in the topic and the person you are interviewing. This creates trust and people are more enthusiastic to elaborate on things on their own.

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4. Do not judge. You are there to learn about the other person, not correct them or engage in debates.

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5. Reflect constantly. Don’t assume that you understood everything. Go back and see if you got it right. Quite often you hear “Oh I didn’t mean it like that, let me give you another example…”.

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6. Clarify your doubts. The interview is the best moment to clarify things you are not sure about. If you are not sure what the other person meant when they said something – ask them. “When you were talking about invoices, you meant…?”. There is no use going back to the office with uncertainties.

After

7. Analyse your findings. Go through your notes with the team and fill in any gaps with help from recordings.

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8. Summarise, group and prioritise the findings, for instance by running a thematic analysis.

Tips

Use interview tips and tricks to get the most out of your user interviews.

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What’s a Rich Text element?

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Tool recommendations

Below you will find some tool recommendations, but please note that you are free to choose whatever tool you prefer. For some tools we have group wide licenses, in which case access can be requested via licenses@visma.com. Remember that you always need cost approval from your immediate manager.