R&D Toolkit
  1. Overview
      2. Overview
    1. Introduction
      2.
      1. Recent Updates
        2.
    2. Tools
      3.
      1. Research
        2.
      2. Delivery
        3.
    3. Resources
      4.
      1. R&D
        2.
      2. Websites
        3.
      3. Project Tracking
        4.
      4. Further Resources
        5.
  2. Research
      3. Research Tools
    1. Problem
      2.
      1. Discovery
        2.
      2. Prioritisation
        3.
      3. Project Scoping
        4.
      4. Framing
        5.
    2. Empathise
      3.
      1. Investigate
        2.
      2. User Interview
        3.
      3. User Insights
        4.
      4. Data
        5.
    3. Mapping
      4.
      1. Research Mapping
        2.
      2. User Mapping
        3.
      3. Organisation Mapping
        4.
    4. Synthesis
      5.
      1. Problem Reframing
        2.
      2. Define
        3.
      3. Feature Prioritisation
        4.
  3. Design
      4. Design Tools
    1. Ideation
      2.
      1. Warm Up
        2.
      2. Sketching
        3.
      3. Storyboarding
        4.
      4. Design Studio
        5.
  4. Delivery
      5. Delivery Tools
    1. Agile
      2.
    2. Scrum
      3.
      1. Overview
        2.
      2. Team
        3.
      3. Events
        4.
      4. Artifacts
        5.
      5. Glossary
        6.

marc.tools

A Product R&D Toolkit

Welcome. I'm Marc and this is a Toolkit to create things.
Research Tools    Empathise
User Interview

Closely related to a Journalist type interview, User Interviews are a way of collecting empirical user data to help inform Product and Design decisions - they are particularly popular in Lean and Agile environments.

By speaking directly to the User, or prospective User, insights can be extracted in a structured way that can test previous assumptions, and later be used to inform the solution.

Section Tools
Recruiting
Screener Survey
Interview Structure
Question Structure
The Interview
  
Empathise    User Interview
Tool Info
Category User Interview
Updated 10/08/20
Templates   PDF     Miro
Creator N/A

Taking the information from a Proto-Persona and a User Research Canvas, we can begin to plan out the types of users we want to recruit for our User Research process.

There are a number of methods of finding participants for the User Interview process and creative thinking is highly valued at this stage. Using various internal and external channels will help cast the net wide, and improve the chances of finding the target users.

Don't forget Snowball Recruiting and ask participants to refer others they think might be relevant!

Further Resources
  The Secret to Successfully Recruiting Quality Test Participants
  How to get the right users into your product testing sessions
  Ethnio - Intercept Real People for User Research
  User Testing - Real-time feedback. From real customers. Wherever you work.
  People for Research - Connecting People to Improve User Experiences
  User Zoom - Insights for Every Stage of the Product Development Lifecycle
  
Empathise    User Interview
Tool Info
Category User Interview
Updated 20/08/20
Templates   PDF     Miro
Creator Statistical Society of London

After the types of users have been identified, and recruitment channels identified, a Screener Survey can be created to be distributed through these channels to target those users.

As this is a crucial stage, qualifying potential participants will help keep the focus on the specific problem rather than risking collecting irrelevant data. It will also save resource from interviewing the wrong people.

As the log is at the beginning of the process it is pre-research, and therefore will contain a lot of assumptions.

This can be achieved by creating validation questions to be included in the survey, i.e. if a user answers some pre-identified questions a certain way, then they would be ideal to be interviewed.

The other benefit of a screen survey is it allows for collecting quantitative data - this data can be used to help establish main competitors for example, or demographics.

Further Resources
  How to Write Screener Surveys to Capture the Right Participants
  Screener Surveys
  Writing the perfect participant screener
  Finding Research Participants
  Recruiting your Target Audience for UX Testing with Screener Questions
  The Importance of Screeners for User Research Recruitment
  Google Forms
  Typeform
  Survey Monkey
  
Empathise    User Interview
Tool Info
Category Empathise
Updated 20/08/20
Templates   PDF     Miro
Creator N/A

Preparing for the interview is one of the most important steps of the process, it's vital that we are set up for success - the time and resource required in this part of the process are quite high, and will dictate the direction of the project and ultimately what is created.

By using a well formulated Interview structure, it can help cover all bases and maintains focus on the core mission.

Further Resources
  How to Conduct User Interviews
  User Interviews: How, When, and Why to Conduct Them
  • Don't design what individual people say they want, listen to multiple people and then identify commonality and trends.
  • Get constant feedback on direction, otherwise you risk diverging away from the problem and not creating the right solution.
  • People are experts in their problem, but not the solution.
  • Remove personal bias, preference and opinion - you are not creating the solution for yourself.
  • Without evidence of why you are creating what you are, then it is not UX design, but simple UI design.
  • The participant is a person, so try to put yourself in their shoes.
  
Empathise    User Interview
Tool Info
Category Empathise
Updated 20/08/20
Templates   PDF     Miro
Creator Stephanie Walter

Whilst every interview will be different, a similar Question structure can be used that helps tilt the interview towards achieving the right research goals, insights and talking points.

This structure will help prompt the types of questions to pre-prepare, and with experience will also help improvisation during the Interview. It will also enforce good habits, like asking unbiased open ended questions, and help avoid bad habits like compound questions and leading questions.

This structure will also help reinforce that the questions are a guide, rather than a script - again, reinforcing that improvisation and contributing to a more relaxed conversation, leading to better insights and more truthfulness.

Further Resources
  Asking the right questions during user research, interviews and testing ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  UX Design 101: Asking the right questions — Planning & facilitating user interviews
  98 Questions UX Designers Must Ask
  A Cheatsheet for User Interview and Follow Ups Questions
  
Empathise    User Interview
Tool Info
Category User Interview
Updated 20/08/20
Templates   PDF     Miro
Creator N/A

We've recruited, screened, structured and scheduled our interview and created the questions.

Now it's time for the interview and capturing the data the participant is providing us with. We can use a simple template that can either be used during the interview, or post interview as a means of summarising points related to answers along with specific quotes and plotting them using sticky notes.

The best of these points and insights can be used in the Synthesising phase. Some of these takeaways might be;

  • Memorable or meaningful findings - could be unique or interesting.
  • Something to reference quickly.
  • Easily and efficiently communicated to the team to build empathy.