A face-to-face interview is hands down the easiest tool to use. If it’s not something you’ve done before it can be a challenge at first. However, the good news is that with regular practice of conducting interviews, you’ll become a proficient user interviewer in no time. To get the most out of each interview, good planning and preparation is vital. To start with, make sure the sample user base is reflective of the target audience. While each individual testimony is invaluable, it’s only by looking at them collectively that you’ll find common patterns begin to emerge. But, you also need to create conditions for users to provide unbiased answers. Avoid common traps such as asking people what they want or actively selling a product to them. That’s an interview just waiting to go wrong, which will result in biased and subjective views.

Whenever we conduct an interview, the user is not told the real purpose of the interview. While subconsciously they may be aware that they’re being asked to test a concept, we don’t want them to explicitly focus on the concept.

What we are really looking for are honest and unbiased insights. We don’t want people to say something they think we’d like to hear, or whether they just hate a particular product or service. That doesn’t tell us much. Even if a user is disappointed with your product or service, they can still sugarcoat their answers if they know the purpose of the interview. Even so, the opposite can be true, too! On one occasion, we interviewed a user recruited by our client. As they were told who we were and the purpose of the interview, they spent the entire session complaining about the product price and its value. As such, we were unable to gain any useful insights apart from the product, in their eyes, being expensive.

When conducting an interview, it’s always best to adopt a casual and conversational approach. Forget about you in the moment and be genuinely interested in the person you are interviewing.

Get to know them and understand them. Ask open ended questions and let the user do the talking. For instance, when was the last time you did X? Can you explain your last five X? Why did you make that particular choice? Unearth why users do what they do, and whether any aspects of their lives influence how they do it. That way, you’ll to discover any unmet needs and new opportunities.

While some common points may jump out at you in an interview others may pass you by. It can be a lot to take in, especially if running many user interviews over a few days. Thus, we always recommend that you keep some record of each session. Either video-record sessions, or take notes. In the case of the latter, ask a colleague to take notes while you maintain the conversation.