We interview people in all sorts of different research activities such as card sorting, usability testing or contextual inquiries. What we should be focused on, more than anything else, is listening. Listening deeply helps us look at someone's experience through a lens of empathy and sheds new light on different opportunities to improve their experience. Listening to find empathy is a skill that anyone can learn with practice. Discover how to bring people's stories to the surface and uncover the right level of detail to develop keen insights. Whether you are a researcher, information architect or developer, you should always look for opportunities to interview your users. How you approach that interview can make all the difference in what you learn about that person's experience. About the Speaker: Brian Winters, the Director of Design Research at Manifest Digital, is accomplished in all facets of design research and development UX strategies. He is skilled at understanding the explicit and latent needs of users and evangelizing those needs to business stakeholders. Brian has strong leadership, communication and user advocacy skills. Brian’s specialties include: ethnography, design research, user studies, mental models, Morae user testing software, Site Catalyst, Unica, Balsamiq. Here’s how he describes his job: “I study how people use things like using web sites or devices. Then I try to redesign what people are using so it’s easier for them to accomplish their goals.”

1. Interviewing People
NOVEMBER 12, 2013
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2. What we’ll discuss
today
"Listening is a magnetic and
strange thing, a creative force.
The friends who listen to us are
the ones we move toward. When
we are listened to, it creates us,
makes us unfold and expand." -
The agenda
 Types
 The
of Research
Interview
 Interview
Tips &
Tricks
Karl A. Menninger
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3. We talk to people to gain a better
understanding of them, their context
and what they need to accomplish
their goals. The data we uncover
feeds into our design decisions and
uncovers new opportunities.
Their Experience

Stories

Emotion

Connections

It’s not just about painpoints, it’s about
insights

Shared Experience

Empathy

Reframes

Possibilities

Customer Advocates
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4. Types of research
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5. “The more you
can think and feel
like a customer
the better you can
imagine what
services to offer
them.”
Indi Young
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6. GENERATIVE
EVALUATIVE
Definition
Understanding of the mental
environments in which people evaluate
our products and services.
Assessing the efficiency and effectiveness
of the the solutions that help people
accomplish their goals.
Business
Questions
• Why do people not use our service?
• How do people use our products &
why?
• How do we leapfrog our competitors?
• How do I improve my navigation?
• What is our conversion rate?
• How do we get greater wallet-share?
Research
Types
• Customer Interviews
• Contextual Inquiry
• Ethnography
• Customer Diary
•
•
•
•
engagement
Usability Test
Search Analytics
Customer Feedback
Card Sorting
optimization
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7. Increase engagement
What is it that we are missing? How
can we find new opportunities to
engage customers and delight them?
Focuses on peoples’ experiences and not just what they
prefer in a product or service
Participant guides the conversation with simple prompts
from the moderator
Sets the stage for them to tell their stories
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8. Optimize current state
Can people figure it out, use all the
interactions, and finish their task in a
reasonable amount of time and
effort?
Uncovers where we can optimize the experience for
people
Typically a task-based, question and answer session,
especially for usability testing
Most common form of research and the easiest to do
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9. When we combine generative interview techniques with evaluative studies, we
can get more from each session. Gone are the days of in-person pass/fail
usability studies.
Generative
(engagement)
Follow the
conversation
Evaluative (optimization)
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10. The interview
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11. “Check
your
worldview
at the
Steve
Portigal
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12. Listen with purpose
Deep listening can bring forth the most
interesting parts of the stories people tell us
about their experiences.
THEM
THEM
YOU
Selective
Listening
YOU
A New
Perspective
Active
Listening
Empathic
Listening
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13. Set the stage for a rich exchange and you will find
unexpected insights
RAPPORT
Empathic listening
stories
Helps people feel comfortable
with you in conversation
Demonstrates you are really
listening to them
Provides rich detail and
emotions for an experience
Removes a laboratory or
research-feel to the interview
Merges your frame of reference
with the other person’s to
develop a brand new
perspective
Captivates the attention of
others
Illustrates motivations and goals
Powerful illustration of what
someone is going through
Builds some trust between two
people who are strangers
Allows emotions, rich detail
and other important ideas to
surface
Invites the stories people have
to tell about their experiences
Focuses the on people’s
experiences and not
preferences
Uncovers the Why
Longer shelf-life than a report
Easily shared
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14. Rapport
Skills & Tips
Eye-contact with a smile
Pre-interview introduction
Make small talk
Look for social cues
Open body language
"There's a big difference between
showing interest and really taking
interest.”
- Michael P. Nichols - The Lost Art of Listening
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15. Empathic listening
Skills & Tips
Be interested
Open body language or leaning in
Whole body listening, especially your
heart
Paraphrase
Ask Why
Remember details
Don’t analyze or judge
“So when you are listening to somebody,
completely, attentively, then you are listening
not only to the words, but also to the feeling of
what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not
part of it.”
- Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) spiritual philospher
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16. stories
Skills & Tips
Provide context or a scenario
Listen deeply
Silence
Dig for details
Ask story-leading questions
“Until you hear a story and can understand
that experience, you don’t know what you
are talking about. There has to be a
person’s story that you hear, where finally
you get a picture in your head of what it
would be like to be that person. Until that
moment you know nothing, and you deal
with the information you are given in a
flawed way.”
- Ira Glass, This American Life, speaking at GEL 2007
Flickr: Courtesy of imageining
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17. Interviewing
tips & Tricks
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18. It’s not just an
interview, it’s a
Listening safari.
Conversation

Discovering the unexpected

What is important to them?

What is said…..not said

Focus on people’s experiences

“Listening looks easy, but it’s
not simple. Every head is a
world.” ~Cuban Proverb

Every interview is unique

Explore motivations & goals

Silence

Dig for details
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19. Simple techniques to start
Whether you are talking to a research participant, or a client, you can use
some of these techniques to improve data gathering and understand where
someone Starters
is coming from.
Question
Do Not Lead
•
•
•
•
•
Who
What
When
Why
How
Leading questions usually start with one of these words;
• Do
• Could
• Should
• Would
Actually Care
Practice, Practice, Practice
It shows, so make people feel heard.
Interviewing (listening) is a skill like anything else. If you
don’t use it you lose it
Don’t Praise
Praise conditions the participant to look for
more praise. They want to please you.
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20. fin
@bwinters
brian.winters@manifestdigital.co
m
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