Interviewing (Listening to) People

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Interviewing People

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

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What we’ll discuss today

➳ Types of Research

The agenda

➳ The Interview

➳ Interview Tips & Tricks

"Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand." - Karl A. Menninger

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Why we interview

We talk to people to gain a better understanding of them, their context and what they need to accomplish their goals. The data we uncover feeds into our design decisions and uncovers new opportunities.

§  Their Experience

§  Stories

§  Emotion

§  Connections

§  Shared Experience

§  Empathy

§  Reframes

§  Possibilities

§  Customer Advocates

It’s not just about pain-points, it’s about insights

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Types of research

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Types of research

“The more you can think and feel like a customer the better you can imagine what services to offer them.”

Indi Young

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Types of research

Research types GENERATIVE EVALUATIVE

Definition Understanding of the mental environments in which people evaluate our products and services.

Assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of the the solutions that help people accomplish their goals.

Business Questions

• Why do people not use our service? • How do people use our products & why? • How do we leapfrog our competitors?

• How do I improve my navigation? • What is our conversion rate? • How do we get greater wallet-‐‑share?

Research Types

• Customer Interviews • Contextual Inquiry • Ethnography • Customer Diary

•  Usability Test •  Search Analytics •  Customer Feedback •  Card Sorting

engagement optimization

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Increase engagement

Types of research

What is it that we are missing? How can we find new opportunities to engage customers and delight them?

Generative

Focuses on peoples’ experiences and not just what they

prefer in a product or service

Participant guides the conversation with simple prompts

from the moderator

Sets the stage for them to tell their stories

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Optimize current state

Types of research

Can people figure it out, use all the interactions, and finish their task in a reasonable amount of time and effort?

evaluative

Uncovers where we can optimize the experience for people

Typically a task-based, question and answer session,

especially for usability testing

Most common form of research and the easiest to do

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Listening sessions

Merge techniques

Generative (engagement)

Evaluative (optimization)

Follow the conversation

When we combine generative interview techniques with evaluative studies, we can get more from each session. Gone are the days of in-person pass/fail usability studies.

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The interview

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The interview

“Check your worldview at the door.”

Steve Portigal

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Listen with purpose

The interview

Deep listening can bring forth the most interesting parts of the stories people tell us about their experiences.

Listen much?

Selective Listening

THEM

YOU

Active Listening

YOU

THEM

Empathic Listening

A New

Perspective

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Keys to insights

The interview

Set the stage for a rich exchange and you will find unexpected insights

RAPPORT

Helps people feel comfortable

with you in conversation

Removes a laboratory or

research-feel to the interview

Builds some trust between two

people who are strangers

Allows emotions, rich detail and

other important ideas to surface

Invites the stories people have to

tell about their experiences

Empathic listening

Demonstrates you are really

listening to them

Merges your frame of reference

with the other person’s to develop

a brand new perspective

Illustrates motivations and goals

Focuses the on people’s

experiences and not preferences

Uncovers the Why

stories

Provides rich detail and

emotions for an experience

Captivates the attention of others

Longer shelf-life than a report

Powerful illustration of what

someone is going through

Easily shared

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Skills & Tips

Eye-contact with a smile

Pre-interview introduction

Make small talk

Look for social cues

Open body language

Rapport

The interview

"There's a big difference between showing interest and really taking interest.” - Michael P. Nichols - The Lost Art of Listening

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Skills & Tips

Be interested

Open body language or leaning in

Whole body listening, especially your heart

Paraphrase

Ask Why

Remember details

Don’t analyze or judge

Empathic listening

The interview

“So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.” - Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) spiritual philospher

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Skills & Tips

Provide context or a scenario

Listen deeply

Silence

Dig for details

Ask story-leading questions

stories

The interview

Flickr: Courtesy of imageining

“Until you hear a story and can understand that experience, you don’t know what you are talking about. There has to be a person’s story that you hear, where finally you get a picture in your head of what it would be like to be that person. Until that moment you know nothing, and you deal with the information you are given in a flawed way.” - Ira Glass, This American Life, speaking at GEL 2007

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Interviewing tips & Tricks

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Be an Explorer

Interviewing Tips & Tricks

§  Conversation

§  Discovering the unexpected

§  What is important to them?

§  What is said…..not said

§  Focus on people’s experiences

§  Every interview is unique

§  Explore motivations & goals

§  Silence

§  Dig for details

It’s not just an interview, it’s a Listening safari.

“Listening looks easy, but it’s not

simple. Every head is a world.” ~Cuban Proverb

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Better Interviews

Interviewing Tips & Tricks

Simple techniques to start Whether you are talking to a research participant, or a client, you can use some of these techniques to improve data gathering and understand where someone is coming from.

Question Starters •  Who

•  What

•  When

•  Why

•  How

Actually Care It shows, so make people feel heard.

Don’t Praise Praise conditions the participant to look for

more praise. They want to please you.

Do Not Lead Leading questions usually start with one of these words;

•  Do

•  Could

•  Should

•  Would

Practice, Practice, Practice Interviewing (listening) is a skill like anything else. If you don’t

use it you lose it

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fin @bwinters

[email protected]

Interviewing (Listening to) People

Design

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