на русском · in english

In-depth interview is a communication in the form of questions and answers, the purpose of which is to obtain the information needed by the researcher. The key task is not just to ask, but to see the world through the eyes of others and feel what they feel. Below I will tell you about the advantages and disadvantages of open and closed questions, about popular techniques, about the stages of interviews and solving difficult situations.

Closed questions

Almost always asking closed-ended questions is bad. They assume a binary answer: yes or no.

Advantages:

• allow you to get specific information
• confirm or refute hypotheses
• nice change of subject

Disadvantages:

• we get little information
• there are no details and details
• we can impose our opinion

Open questions

These usually begin with the words: “why, why, how, describe, tell us what you think and so on.”

Advantages:

• allow the respondent to answer without restrictions
• give the respondent the opportunity to freely talk about their feelings and comment on events
• provoke a person to reflect, analyze their actions and thoughts that may not have occurred to them before

Disadvantages:

• may provoke a long confused response
• the respondent may go “wrong way”

A dirty trick, how to turn a closed question into an open one. Closed question + “Tell me...” = Open question.

The “Five Whys” technique

In order to find the cause of behavior, problems, inconsistencies, it is necessary to consistently ask the same question — “Why?”, and look for answers to this question. Each new question is added to the answers to the previous question.

Often the repetition of the same question causes discomfort. How to make it better:

1. Reformulate, for example, “What is the reason?” or “Because of what... is it happening?” or “Why is that?”.
2. Say that you will ask “Why?” because you want to get to the root cause.

Technique “What? Who? · Where? When? · How? Why?”

The technique works well if you need to understand who the people who will be the users of your product are. Find out what they are doing, what problems they are facing.

• What happened? What was the hardest part? What does a person do? Who else is involved? What’s wrong with the current solution?

Find out the context. Where it happens and when.

• Where did this happen? When was the last time this happened?

How they do it. How to solve problems already. Why is it so.

• How exactly did this happen? Why was it difficult? How did you manage? How often is it repeated? Has the solution to the problem changed over time and why?

Stage: Preparation

Preparation consists of six steps:

1. Understand the purpose of the interview.
2. Do desk research on the topic.
3. Make a plan: questions, situations, features.
4. Formulate hypotheses.
5. Think about what else might be useful for an interview.
6. Have 3 main questions.

Stage: Interview

Start

• Tell us who you are and why you are conducting this interview.
• Indicate the duration.
• There are no wrong answers. You are here to find out the real experience of a person.
• The first questions should be made introductory to relax the respondent.

The main part

• Talk about the respondent’s life, not about your idea.
• Ask about specific things that happened in the past, and not about views or opinions on the future.
• Talk less, listen more.
• Use the techniques of “Five Whys” and “What? Who! · Where? When? · How? Why?” to dig deeper.
• Show friendliness and interest. Be simpler.
• Speak in your native language
• Keep the question neutral. Don’t give your opinion. Don’t rate.
• Ask to compare.

Ending
Thank the respondent. Find out if the person wants to add something or ask you. Ask for the contacts of other people you can talk to. Agree on a potential sequel.

Difficult situations: the respondent is silent

Sometimes the respondent comes across silent. You should tell him about the value of the conversation. Tell me who you are and why this is all happening now. So to speak, to interest the respondent. Push the goal aside and establish personal contact.

Difficult situations: indecisive respondent

Sometimes the respondent does not give clear answers to each question. And yes and no, and so and so. Perhaps this is even very good. The respondent may have different experiences and it is worth digging deeper here. Ask about each option separately, why yes, why not. Ask for examples of all situations.

Difficult situations: talkative respondent

The respondent walks away after the question and gives completely useless information. Sometimes they can’t even be stopped, and the interview time is ticking. Here it is important to skillfully stop the respondent. For example, offer to discuss it later. It is also necessary to interrupt carefully, try to do it “on the inhale”.

на русском · in english

I consider the analysis of competitors within a specific feature as one of the ways to analyze and search for ideas. This is not about creating something bigger and not about the overall assessment of the market.

It is important to note that we already know the problem and the goal. We have a success criterion and an audience is defined. What’s next?

We describe the evaluation criteria

The criteria will be different for each feature. We describe briefly, but as concretely as possible:

1. How well the problem or task is solved. There may be several solutions. For example, adding a photo on the submission form or something else.
2. The first interaction with interface.
3. Keyboard shortcuts and interactivity.
4. Anything else that is important in the context of a particular feature...

Looking for competitors

As a rule, 3-4 direct competitors are already known. We include it in the list and divide it into platforms, if necessary. Each platform is a separate analysis.

Do not forget about indirect competitors. Newspaper, radio, apartment sale service, visa application form. They help to find the “new”, but they should be treated skeptically. A feature that works cool for them may not be needed by our audience at all.

Write to the table

We write down the criteria and add the “score” and “comment” field next to each one.

Template in Google Docs

The “score” is from 0 to 5. The better the competitor’s criterion is implemented, the higher the score.

“Comment” – What influenced the assessment? Why not 5? Optionally, you can add more screenshots for clarity.

Making conclusions

In the process of filling out the table, ideas will appear that solves the problem well, and what is not very good and how it can be improved. Based on the information received, we make hypotheses.

на русском · in English

Why do I need to understand the audience? To catch the right mental model when designing the interface, to show empathy, to make the most understandable product. And often it’s not very easy to do.

There is, for example, such a tool — persons or portraits of audiences. I don’t really believe in these ways. Why? First, most often, they are collected on the basis of superficial information. Secondly, the audience is dynamic and often very diverse. Yesterday’s personas may not be the reality of today.

And if everything is so bad, then what to do? I have a couple of thoughts on this.

1. Use the data

We go to analytics and try to identify our audience there based on banal characteristics:

• gender,
• age,
• place of residence,
• income.

If the data doesn’t work, take a survey or look at the statistics of your social networks.

You may notice that based on the data alone, it is already possible to split the audience into several portraits. Now we have a very superficial idea of who these people are and into which segments they are roughly divided. Let’s take the statistical middle of each segment and try to find out more about them.

2. Communicate with users weekly

In theory it sounds very scary and difficult, in practice it is very interesting and useful. And yes, I’m talking about weekly interviews. We already have an idea of the average audience. It remains to find them and talk.

What is there to talk about so often? It turns out that there is always a lot there: to check prototypes of current tasks, to talk about life, about the future, about problems, to discuss functions from the backlog. In a couple of months, you will have a good understanding of who your audience is. What segments it has and what segments it have:

• problems,
• motivations,
• context,
• expectations.

Where can I get users? Good question. Unloading the database and sending emails with an invitation to talk. Here is already your fantasy how to position it. Perhaps this is some kind of closed club of users close to the product or just an opportunity to get a T-shirt with the company logo.

An alternative to an interview or an additional source of information can be any kind of community or commentators in stores and social networks.

3. Complete portraits in the process of communication

Perhaps you need to fix the new information somehow. Therefore, it seems logical to take the portraits from the first paragraph and supplement them in the process.

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Example of portraits of the car sales ad board av.by after years of work.