9 tips for interviewing participants
Here are 9 tips I shared in our Ask Like A Pro user research workshop focused on interviewing participants and authoring discussion guides. We did a really fun “show me” activity and piloted a portion of the student’s discussion guides as well.
Make sure every question in your guide aligns with the research goals and does so proportionally. Check how many of your questions support which goal, or no goal, and revise accordingly.
Author your discussion guide questions in your individual conversational tone. You should feel comfortable asking the questions in a natural way. Do not force yourself to use anyone else’s language/verbiage. It won’t flow properly. There are several ways to ask the same question.
Set up your Zoom sessions NOT to record participant names so you do not have to remove them later (for PII purposes) when creating video highlight reels. This will save a tremendous amount of time and reduce risk of privacy and confidential issues!
Name your Zoom sessions with a smart naming convention from the start. (E.g. P1 - Monday, 9 am, Existing User.) This will allow you to quickly find the recording you are looking for and save you a lot of time later on.
Shore up as much in the planning process as possible. Remember, people and the art of interviewing, are living, breathing things. To me, it’s equal parts Art, Science, and Improv. While we can control a lot, we cannot control everything so do whatever possible to set yourself, your stakeholders and your participants up for success can BEFORE you say HELLO in your sessions ;)
Use the first 5 or so minutes of your sessions to gauge the participant's comfort level and engagement with the study topic and you (the facilitator). Pay attention to body language and other nonverbal cues too. Are they verbose or reclusive, well lit or not, centered within the camera frame or need to adjust, etc? Respond and address these issues QUICKLY.
Never schedule anything immediately before your sessions or back-to-back sessions. Give yourself time to get into your facilitator character and review your participant dossiers. Always schedule at least a 30-minute buffer in between sessions to accommodate for late starts, verbose participants, technology issues, debriefing, and your own food and bio brakes.
Always have your guide available to view “offline” and/or printed out in case you lose access to it, your internet connection, or otherwise.
Pilot EVERYTHING. Pilot your full guide, technology, timing, question sequence and clarity, note-taking strategy, recording setup, tasks and scenarios, links, to become more familiar and confident in your study topic, and more. I still pilot before EVERY single study!
I'm incredibly proud of this cohort. Their engagement, progress, stakeholder collaboration, and professional maturity are thrilling to watch! It's a gift to guide them thru this process!
I hope you find these tips helpful ;)
