The product manager is short of people this week and asks if you could run one of the customer interviews. Forty five minutes on a video call with someone who uses the scheduling feature every day. There is a list of topics, a recording link and a note that says just get them talking. You have never done this before, and you are not sure what getting them talking means.
The good news is that most of the skill is restraint. A user interview is not a chance to explain your product. It is a chance to find out how someone actually works, which is often quite different from how the team imagines it.
Ask about the past, not the future. Not would you use a feature that did this, but tell me about the last time you had to reschedule a whole week. People are poor at predicting what they would do, and much better at describing what they did. A real story has details you could never have guessed.
Keep your questions open and short. What happened next? Why was that? What did you do then? Then stop talking. The silence after a question feels long to you and is just thinking time for them. The most useful sentences usually come after a pause.
Do not defend the product. When they describe something awkward, you will want to explain that it works that way for a reason. Write it down instead. Your job today is to understand their experience, not correct it.
Ask them to show you, if they are willing. Watching someone share their screen and do the task reveals workarounds they would never mention, because to them it is simply how the job is done.
Leave five minutes at the end for one question. Is there anything I should have asked and did not? It often brings out the thing they most wanted to say.
Afterwards, write your notes within the hour, while you still remember the exact words. Separate what they said from what you think it means. The team will want both, and they should not be mixed up.
– Asael Shinder
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