What is an interview and how is it different from other research methods such as focus groups?
Interview is a great research method that allows you to find out what are your customer’s needs, goals and pains.
Interviews usually take place in a special kind of lab that allows recordings of the sessions or observing the participant by team members in the other room. The participant gets a series of questions that are created to find out how he thinks about a research problem in depth.
Thanks to this method we are able to find out what kind of problems does our costumer need to solve and helps us identify the ones we should focus on.
1. Set a research goal – write down what you want to achieve through the interview. Try to be as specific as possible. You can add a few secondary goals as well.
2. Set a date – find a date which will suit your team.
3. Recruit respondents – define the number and the type of respondents you want to recruit (their age, abilities, skills, level of education etc.). You can recruit them by yourself or use help from a recruiting agency. Make sure to let the respondents know about the date and place where the testing will be conducted.
4. Write a scenario – define topics you want to explore by setting a few questions and assumptions for each topic.
5. Conduct interview – bring your team members to the testing so they can see what are user’s thoughts about the topics. Don’t forget to record your sessions.
6. Analyze your sessions – find out what are the goals, needs and gains of your users.
7. Make a summary – point out the most important findings and insights and make sure the designers will include them in the product.
There are plenty of articles about interviews on our blog. If you are interested in this topic, make sure to visit it.
What is an interview and how is it different from other research methods such as focus groups?
What types of interview are there? Learn which one to use in which situations.
How to conduct an interview in the covid era? What tools are there and how it differs from offline research?
How many respondents should you recruit for an interview? Why this number and not less/more?
Before investing into a new solution, finding out what your users need, what are their goals and pains is a necessity. Thus you can ensure you are focusing on the right solution. Interview helps you identify the biggest opportunities you may aim at.
