Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Preview
Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video
Interview questions
3:26 with Tomer SharonWe'll go over a list of recommended interview questions.
Credit to Google Ventures’ Design Staff blog and Steve Portigal, Interviewing Users (Rosenfeld Media, 2013)
27 Powers of Persuasion by Chris St. Hilaire (Power of Silence).
The following is a list of recommended
interview questions.
0:01
Remember, your goal is to gather stories
about their recent past.
0:04
You're looking for insights into user
needs and pain points.
0:08
Sequence.
0:13
Walk me through your day.
0:15
Let's take yesterday, for example.
0:17
Be ready for interviewees to say something
such as, but today was not a typical day.
0:19
Don't worry about that.
0:24
No day is a typical day.
0:25
Ask them to walk you through yesterday,
anyway.
0:27
Examples, tell me about the notes you took
on a piece of paper yesterday.
0:30
Examples help your interviewee avoid
generalizing or averaging.
0:35
If he or she says something such as
there's a smart way and
0:40
a stupid way to take notes.
0:43
An example for both will clarify things.
0:45
Exhaustive list.
0:49
What are all the situations where you pull
out a piece of paper and
0:50
write something down?
0:54
Are there any others?
0:56
Try to exhaust a comprehensive list from
your interviewees.
0:58
Quantitative/inventory.
1:03
How many times did you take notes
yesterday?
1:05
Quantities do not matter for any
statistical calculations in interviews.
1:07
They do matter to give you an idea of what
your interviewee means.
1:12
For example, if the interviewee says, I
take a lot of notes, you might ask,
1:16
how many times did you take notes
yesterday?
1:21
To understand what the interviewee means
when he or she says a lot.
1:24
Ten times a day might be a lot for one
person or very few to another.
1:29
Suggestive opinion.
1:34
Some people have very negative feelings
about taking notes while driving a car.
1:36
What are your feelings about it?
1:42
This is an excellent example of a question
that asks about the interviewer's opinion.
1:44
Keep in mind opinions are less of interest
to you.
1:49
You ask questions that help you generate
stories about recent behavior.
1:53
This question might generate such a story.
1:58
Activities.
2:01
What do you typically do when you get
ready for a trip?
2:02
Exceptions.
2:07
Can you tell me about a time when you had
a problem taking notes with an app?
2:08
Exceptions can teach you a lot about
frustrations and
2:13
challenges interviewees experience.
2:16
Reenactment.
2:19
Could you please show me how you do that?
2:20
If an interviewee says something such as,
2:23
I always do it with this app on my phone,
ask them to show you.
2:25
Don't settle for
2:30
the story if they can easily demonstrate
what they're talking about.
2:31
In many cases, you will learn that the
story doesn't really match the behavior.
2:36
Failures.
2:41
What would be the worst case scenario?
2:42
Can you tell me about a time when this
didn't work?
2:45
This is an excellent way to attract
stories about pain points,
2:48
frustrations, and challenges.
2:52
Fill in the blank.
2:54
So in that situation, you, and then you
take a long pause.
2:56
The power of silence is unimaginable.
3:01
As humans, we feel silence must be filled
in.
3:04
It's a vacuum.
3:07
So just shut up, trust your question, and
wait for them to answer.
3:08
This is true for every question.
3:13
After you ask it, you will feel a need to
explain what you meant,
3:15
especially if the interviewee is quiet for
a few seconds.
3:19
Hold yourself and just shut up.
3:23
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign up