Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Ideally, this is first in a series of tips for UXD practitioners. Today's topic: interviewing.

We recently had a lot of stakeholder interviews to complete for a client in a short period of time. Think 65 interviews in a little over 3 weeks. Our interviews were more about buyin and garnering political support than stakeholder requirements, but nonetheless they had to be completed. We took a divide-and-conquer approach. This meant we had first time interviewers conducting interviews. Below are a few tips we created for the team:

• Avoid asking leading questions
• Ask people about recent behavior instead of predicting their actions: people are bad predictors.
• Avoid an inquisition: rather, aim for an organic and natural conversation
• Avoid jumping to solutions or feature ideas
• Listen! Listen! Listen!
• Restate answers to make sure you have understanding
• Ask for clarification of terms or items that you are not familiar with
• If you are not getting clear responses, PROBE!
• Avoid making judgments and assumptions
• Ask questions you think you already know the answer to: answers will surprise you.
• Do domain research before interviews to avoid getting up to speed on the subject matter during an interview.
• Listen for the words they use.
• Avoid getting a list of likes and dislikes. Ask why individuals have their preferences?
• Solicit stories thru "tell me about..." prompts.

Stay tuned for UXD Tip #2 - Transcription Advice