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Research methodEstablished researchIntermediate

User Interviews

Structured conversations about what people actually did, which is far more reliable than what they say they will do.

Definition

An interview explores a participant's experiences, context and motivations. It is generative research: good for understanding problems, unreliable for predicting behaviour or evaluating solutions.

Established research. Originates in published research and has been replicated. The effect is real. Its size in your product still needs measuring.

On this page
  1. Definition
  2. Question rules
  3. In practice
  4. Sources
  5. Continue from here

Question rules

  • Ask about the past, not the future. 'Tell me about the last time you did this' beats 'Would you use this?'.
  • Ask for specifics. 'Walk me through what happened' beats 'What do you usually do?'.
  • Never describe your solution and ask for a reaction. That is a pitch, not research.
  • Follow the emotion. Frustration and workarounds mark real problems.
  • Ask about workarounds explicitly. A spreadsheet someone maintains manually is a requirements document.
  • Sit with silence. The second answer is usually the honest one.

In practice

The spreadsheet as a requirement

B2B discovery

Asking what people do outside the product frequently uncovers a manually maintained spreadsheet, which describes both an unmet need and the mental model it should follow.

Sources

Where a source establishes something narrower than the popular reading of it, the note says so.

  • Interviewing Users

    S. Portigal, Rosenfeld Media, 2013, revised 2023

Continue from here

Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.

Applies when you are designing

A Pricing PageAn AI ProductAn Enterprise WorkflowSettings

Principles behind this

The reasoning this solution is an application of.

Often used with

These usually appear in the same screen or the same decision.

Alternative approach

A different answer to the same problem, with a different cost.

  • SurveysResearch method

    Surveys scale what you already know how to ask. Interviews find out what to ask.

Practical example

A worked decision where this was the deciding factor.

Short definition

The one-paragraph version, for when that is all you need.

Related concept

Connected closely enough to change how you apply this.