Curiosity Tank

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5 Tips to Build your Moderator Muscles

michele ronsen

Build your moderator muscles

You have your research participant in front of you. You have your guide over here that you're trying to follow-yet-jump-around-with, digging deeper and pulling on certain threads. You’ve got your clients in a Slack channel, and they're going at you: “Dig deeper on this.” “What do they mean by that?” “Do you think that's connected to this?” You’re combining technical skills, divining soft skills, leveraging every strategic skill: synthesis, pattern recognition.

You’re doing a lot in the moment.

Yes, UXR is a team sport, but when it’s you and the participant, you, as the researcher, are responsible for the outcome of these interviews. How do you make sure you’re ready to manage it all?

1. Make sure you’re repping the team

It may have been weeks (or more!) since you started planning, so before you start that first session, huddle with the team and reconfirm your core research questions and research goals are still everyone's goals. Did you change direction? Did something happen with your competition to make your goals not as important or not as relevant or not the priority? Make sure any new knowledge your stakeholders may have gained surfaces. Your collaboration with your stakeholders, and their inclusion in the process, will equal buy-in and research success.

2. Remember that self-care is stakeholder (and participant) care

Before we can be successful with others in our sessions, we need to take care of ourselves. It’s like putting on your oxygen mask before you can help others. Get a good night's sleep. Know your stuff; practice and pilot until you’re confident. This is the best chance you have of success. Don't try to wing it. Just trust me. Don’t wing it.

3. Take a moment to get into character

When you're live, when you're on stage, a good interviewer has to be a lot of things: accountable, agile, articulate, authentic, controlled, conversant, curious, empowered, empathetic, friendly, informative, improvisational, observant, patient … so much more.

It takes a little bit of time to get into that headspace, so you’re going to need to give yourself time to get into character, to get into your role. Make sure you have that time before every session, and a minimum of 30 minutes between sessions, to re-set. And don’t attempt more than three sessions in any one day until you are really experienced. Why? Because the cognitive load will wipe you out.

4. Check the bench for signals

Throughout your sessions, keep the stakeholders, note-takers, and others updated. Use these check-ins to build credibility, provoke questions, improve understanding, share progress and “snippets” or “research snacks” to begin the knowledge sharing and build excitement.

5. Review, practice, repeat

A great interview involves a lot; there's a reason few people excel in this area. Like any skill, it takes mental muscles and time, and practice. Working with a trusted coach or training partner goes a long way toward improvement. That’s why, in addition to practicing their interview skills, participants in my Ask Like A Pro workshop series learn how to analyze each other’s interview performance (and their own) and give constructive feedback. Download my moderator scorecard here to evaluate your own facilitation skills.

This week the Ask Like A Pro All-In students will recruit for their interviews. Check out their survey screeners here and see if you qualify!

Speak up, get involved, share the love

And that's a wrap!

We try to alternate between a theme and UX/UXR jobs, events, classes, articles, and other happenings every few weeks. Thank you for all of the feedback. Feedback is a gift and we continue to receive very actionable input on how to make Fuel Your Curiosity more meaningful to you.

What do you think? Lmk. We're constantly iterating and would still love to hear your input.

Stay curious,
- Michele and the Curiosity Tank team

P.S. Would your moderator muscles benefit from a group workout? We'd love to see you in our next live online Ask Like A Pro workshop series! Registration is open now for the Fall 2021 session, and seats are filling quickly. Register here before they're gone!