# Interviewing Guide

A complete guide to conducting effective user interviews — from preparation through debrief. Combines established interviewing techniques and methodologies.

## Why Interviewing?

A simple interview remains the most effective way to get inside another person's head and see the world as they do. It's a core research technique with many applications. Being a good interviewer requires basic social skills, some practice, and a modicum of self-awareness.

## Preparation

### Write an Interview Guide

Your guide should contain:

1. **Brief description and goal of study** (1-2 sentences)
2. **Basic factual/demographic questions** (role, experience, tools used)
3. **Icebreaker questions** (2-3 easy warmup questions)
4. **Focus questions** (the primary topics of the interview, 5-10 questions)
5. **Closing questions** ("Is there anything else you'd like to share?")

### Question Design Principles

**Ask about behavior, not opinions:**
- Bad: "Would you use a feature that does X?"
- Good: "Tell me about the last time you tried to do X."

**Ask open-ended questions:**
- Bad: "Was that easy or hard?"
- Good: "How would you describe that experience?"

**Ask about specifics, not generalizations:**
- Bad: "What do you usually do when...?"
- Good: "Walk me through what happened the last time..."

**Focus on past behavior (story-based interviewing):**
- Bad: "What would you do if...?"
- Good: "Tell me about a time when..."
- People don't accurately predict their future behavior. Past behavior is the best predictor.

### Story-Based Interview Questions

The most reliable interview data comes from stories about actual past behavior. Structure your interview around collecting specific stories:

**Story prompts:**
- "Tell me about the last time you [did relevant activity]."
- "Walk me through what happened from the beginning."
- "What happened next?"
- "Can you think of a specific example?"

**Deepening prompts:**
- "Tell me more about that."
- "What do you mean by [their word]?"
- "Why was that important to you?"
- "How did that make you feel?"
- "What were you hoping would happen?"
- "What did you try before that?"

**Avoid these question types:**
- Leading: "Don't you think..." / "Wouldn't it be better if..."
- Hypothetical: "What would you do if..."
- Binary: "Did you like it?" (yes/no)
- Double-barreled: "How did you find and purchase the product?" (two questions in one)

## Session Structure

### Introduction (5 minutes)
- Introduce yourself and your role
- Describe the purpose of the conversation
- Explain how information will be used and shared
- Get permission to record (audio/video)
- Ask if they have any questions before starting
- Brief small talk to build rapport

**Example opening:**
> "Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today. I'm [name], a [role] working on [project]. I'm here to learn about your experience with [topic]. There are no right or wrong answers — I'm genuinely interested in how you see things. Everything you share will be used to improve our product, and your name won't be attached to specific quotes unless you give permission. Do you mind if I record this so I can focus on our conversation instead of taking notes? Do you have any questions before we start?"

### Warmup (5 minutes)
- Ask easy, factual questions about their role and context
- Build comfort and establish conversational tone
- Example: "Tell me a bit about your role and what a typical day looks like."

### Core Interview (30-40 minutes)
- Follow your guide but be willing to deviate when interesting threads emerge
- Ask open-ended questions that encourage stories
- Use the "Tell me more about that" technique liberally
- Allow pauses — get comfortable with 5-10 seconds of silence
- Listen for:
  - **Goals:** What are they trying to achieve?
  - **Priorities:** What matters most to them?
  - **Tasks:** What steps do they take?
  - **Motivators:** What drives their behavior?
  - **Barriers:** What gets in their way?
  - **Habits:** What do they do repeatedly?
  - **Relationships:** Who else is involved?
  - **Tools:** What do they use?
  - **Environment:** What surrounds them?

### Conclusion (5 minutes)
- "Is there anything I didn't ask about that you think is important?"
- "Is there anything you'd like to ask me?"
- Thank them sincerely
- Explain next steps if applicable

## During the Interview

### Active Listening Techniques

- **Mirror:** Repeat the last few words they said as a question ("...and then it crashed?" → encourages them to continue)
- **Summarize:** "So if I understand correctly, you..." → validates understanding and invites correction
- **Acknowledge emotions:** "That sounds frustrating" → builds trust without leading
- **Comfortable silence:** After they finish speaking, wait 3-5 seconds. They'll often elaborate with the most valuable information.

### What to Capture

- Direct quotes (mark them clearly — these are gold)
- Specific behaviors described
- Workarounds and hacks
- Emotional reactions (frustration, delight, confusion)
- Exact vocabulary and terminology they use
- Things they DON'T mention that you expected them to
- Environmental factors

### Common Pitfalls

| Pitfall | What happens | How to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Leading the witness | You suggest the answer in the question | Ask "how" and "what" instead of "don't you think" |
| Talking too much | You fill silence with your own ideas | Count to 5 after they stop talking |
| Validating your solution | You show them your idea and ask "would you use this?" | Ask about their current behavior instead |
| Helping too quickly | You explain when they're confused | Let them struggle — the confusion is data |
| Taking sides | You agree or disagree with their opinions | Stay neutral: "That's interesting, tell me more" |
| Running through the script | You ask every question regardless of flow | Use the guide as a reference, not a checklist |

## Deep Listening for Empathy Development

Beyond standard interviewing, deep listening is a complementary technique for developing cognitive empathy — understanding another person's reasoning, reactions, and guiding principles. This approach, grounded in Indi Young's work, focuses on the problem space rather than the solution space.

### How Deep Listening Differs from Standard Interviewing

| Aspect | Standard Interview | Deep Listening Session |
|---|---|---|
| **Goal** | Collect data about behavior and needs | Develop understanding of reasoning and guiding principles |
| **Structure** | Interview guide with prepared questions | Non-directed conversation following the person's lead |
| **Scope** | Focused on a product or domain | Broader than your product — explores a purpose |
| **Output** | Observations, quotes, themes | Inner thinking, emotional reactions, guiding principles |
| **Preparation** | Detailed question script | Minimal — no prewritten questions will get you there |

### What to Listen For

Focus on three components during a deep listening session:

1. **Inner thinking** — The reasoning behind decisions and actions. Not what they did, but *why* they decided to do it. The whys and wherefores, decision-making and indecision, causation
2. **Emotional reactions** — Feelings that arise in response to events. These are signals, not data points — use them to dig deeper into reasoning
3. **Guiding principles** — Deeply held philosophies that steer behavior over time. These are the most valuable and hardest to surface. They explain patterns across many decisions

### Deep Listening Techniques

**Follow the peaks and valleys.** Pay attention to emotional high and low points. These reveal where the deepest reasoning and strongest reactions live.

**Neutralize your own reactions.** When something triggers agreement, disagreement, surprise, or an idea in you — notice it and let it pass. Your reactions pull attention away from the speaker. Practice recognizing and dissipating these distractions.

**Harness emotional empathy as a signal.** When you feel the same emotion as the speaker, use it as a cue to dig deeper into *their* reasoning — not as an invitation to share your own similar experience.

**Set aside your agenda.** Don't redirect toward your product, your features, or your hypotheses. Let the person lead. If they go somewhere unexpected, that's where insight lives.

**Exhibit understanding, not competence.** Shift from demonstrating your expertise to genuinely understanding their perspective. Curiosity about people is the key ingredient.

### After a Deep Listening Session

Spend at least 10 minutes per person reviewing what they said. You are guaranteed to misconstrue meanings if you don't. This is still developing empathy — not yet analyzing. Stay focused on one person at a time.

For each concept that contributes to empathy (reasoning, reaction, or guiding principle):
1. **Start with the verb** — what is the person trying to accomplish or work through?
2. **Write the rest** — capture the reasoning, the emotional reaction, or the guiding principle
3. **Edit until clean** — make it clear and concise, using the person's own words where possible

### When to Use Deep Listening vs. Standard Interviews

- **Standard interviews** → When you need actionable data about behavior, workflows, and pain points for a specific product
- **Deep listening** → When you need to understand the problem space before defining solutions, when building behavioral audience segments, or when your team is making assumptions about *why* users behave the way they do

Both techniques produce valuable research. Deep listening feeds the slower, person-focused cycle that balances the faster solution-focused cycle.

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## After the Interview

### Immediate Debrief (within 1 hour)

- Write down your top 3-5 observations while they're fresh
- Note anything surprising or that challenged your assumptions
- Flag quotes you want to reference later
- Rate the quality of the session (was the participant a good fit? Were questions effective?)

### Interview Snapshot

Create a quick-reference summary for each interview:

**Format:**
- **Participant:** [Name/ID, role, key demographics]
- **Date:** [Date]
- **Key stories collected:** [1-2 sentence summary of each story]
- **Opportunities identified:** [Needs, pain points, desires surfaced]
- **Memorable quotes:** [2-3 verbatim quotes]
- **Surprises:** [Anything unexpected]

### Synthesis

After completing all interviews in a round:

1. Gather all interview snapshots
2. Extract individual observations onto sticky notes (one per note, coded to participant)
3. Group observations into themes using affinity diagramming
4. Name each cluster with an insight statement
5. Map insights to the Opportunity Solution Tree (if using continuous discovery)
6. Identify patterns that suggest design opportunities

See `references/analysis-synthesis.md` for the full synthesis process.

## Interview Logistics

### Remote Interviews
- Test your video/audio setup before the session
- Have a backup plan (phone call) if technology fails
- Ask participant to share their screen if observing tool usage
- Record the session (with permission) using your video conferencing tool
- Mute notifications on both sides

### In-Person Interviews
- Arrive early to set up
- Minimize environmental distractions
- Position yourself at an angle (not directly facing — less confrontational)
- Bring backup recording equipment
- Have water available for participant

### Recruiting for Interviews
- See `templates/screener-template.md` for writing a participant screener
- Maintain an ongoing database of potential participants
- For continuous discovery: automate recruiting through in-product prompts
- Incentivize fairly ($50-100/hour for consumer, $150-300/hour for B2B/enterprise)
