How to Interview Customers (and learn what they really need)

Learning customer interviews is critical if you want to jump to the next s-curve and outmanoeuvre your competition.

People willingly share?some of their closest-held beliefs and thoughts when done well, leading to greater insight.

When done poorly, people close off, telling you what they think you want to hear.

The thing is, there is a path to follow that will significantly improve your interviews and the insights that you generate.

Unfortunately, most people go in without understanding how to get the best out of an interview.

Smarter interviews lead to greater insights and innovative products, services and strategies.

Today, we'll cover:

• The anatomy of an ideal 3-step discovery interview.
• 4 interview tips for more significant insights.
• 2 questioning frameworks to build your interview confidence.

Let's get dive in!

?? The Anatomy of a Discovery Interview

Some best practices will help you earn the participant's trust and lead to more revealing information.

Step 1 - Building Rapport

Building rapport is the most critical part of the interview.?

People will only trust you or share their perspectives and experiences with rapport.

I use this 3 step process:

1) Introduce yourself.?Thank them for taking the time to meet with you and let them know who you are.

Naivety is important. So, if you are a product manager or business owner, leave that to one side and play the 'curious student' role.

2) Keep building rapport.?Be curious on your journey to and into the home so you can call upon a point of reference to talk about.

3) Introduce the project.?Outline the project, complete any paperwork and answer any initial questions.

Step 2 - Prompt, Probe and Observe

Stories help us to understand others.

By evoking stories from the interviewee,?you will get deeper meaning and connection?about how the person thinks about the world.

I use the PPO framework:

1) Prompt.?Have some prompting questions ready to get the conversation started.

Often, I'll start with the phrase "Tell me about when you ..." to gain context.

2) Probe.?When something interesting is shared, and you want the person to expand, try to probe further using "Tell me more about ..."

Often, this is when you get the person's attitudes, values and emotions emerging.

3) Observe.?Get people to demonstrate what they do. This could be physically showing you or drawing what they mean.

Things like habits, routines and shortcuts can come out during observations.

Step 3 - The Finale

When the interview is nearing conclusion, it is an excellent time to dig deeper into something that struck you and to gather their reflections.

I use this 3 part method:

1) Dig deeper.?You may want to focus on something, so try to have the person expand on the point by using "Talk me through what you were thinking at ..."

You are trying to uncover the raw tensions and emotions.

2) Reflection.?Ask the person to reflect on why they think something is how it is.

Reflection helps to understand more of their mindset and behaviours.

3) Thank and close.?Always remember to thank them for their time. Turn off any recording equipment, pack up and prepare to leave.

Sometimes people will give you one last gem as you leave, and the recorder is off.

Grab this downloadable pdf interview guide

?? 4 Interview Tips for Greater Insights

Interviewers should use open-ended questions that create space for people to share stories, thoughts and feelings.?

Use these four tips alongside open questions:

1) Start with general questions and then go deeper.?This will help the person to relax and enjoy the conversation before you go after the big question.

2) Embrace silence.?You'll likely need to speak and ask another question. But, if you resist that urge, the person has more time to reflect and form a deeper answer.

3) Avoid generalisation.?Ask the interviewee specific questions like "Tell me about the last time you ..."

4) Watch their body language and emotions.?Allow people to vent and get things off their chest, which might provide a key frustration. Make a note of any interesting reactions.

Interviews are a fundamental technique of user research and often used during the?design thinking 'discovering' phase).

?? 2 Questioning Frameworks

When I started interviewing I was very nervous and uncomfortable, which meant that I didn't get the insights needed.

These two frameworks will help give you confidence in an interview.

The 5WH Framework

Ask questions that explore and get to the heart of the issue.

Frame them around:

• What
• Why
• When
• Where
• Who
• How

The TEDW Framework

Get people to expand on the topic and uncover more depth using:

• "Tell me more ..."
• "Explain ..."
• "Describe ..."
• "Walk me through ..."

?? The Short of it

• Interviewing is a craft that takes time and practice to master
• Use the 'Anatomy of an Interview' to guide your discovery
• Use the 5WH and TEDW Frameworks for prompting question starters.

Credits to Dr. Christian Walsh and Nick Bowmast for teaching me how to do customer interviews. Nick's book Userpalooza is a must for design researchers.

FUN RESOURCES TO HELP YOU THRIVE

Here are?4 bonus tools and resources?that are useful and fun:

• ?? How to build a winning?AI strategy.
• ?? How confident companies?do less.
• ?? Did you know I once experimented with a podcast? You can find it in the?free resources.
• ?? Roger Martin's - A plan is not a strategy?video?(always a go-to).

That's all for today friends! ??

Feel free to reply to this email if you have any questions or newsletter requests.

Thanks for reading and I'll catch you next week. ??

Keep thriving,

Vaughan

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This article was originally published in September 2022 as a Future-state Thinking newsletter.?