Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video
While there's no exact way to conduct a user interview, there are definite questions and styles you should avoid so you can encourage honest and helpful answers.
What to Avoid in a User Interview
- Don't intimidate. Standing while your interviewee is sitting is not a good idea. You're intimidating them.
- Don't ask sensitive, personal questions. They make your participants uncomfortable.
- Don't ask yes/no questions without asking why.
- Don't ask long questions. By the time you finish, they forget what you asked.
- Don't use jargon because they don't understand it.
- Don't talk too much.
- Don't explain your questions.
- Don't ignore body language. While they might say one thing, their body language might be saying something else.
- Don't ask for product feedback. You don't want feedback, you want to observe behavior.
- Don't ask to predict the future. We talked about that.
- Don't pitch your product. This is not a sales call. This is an interview.
- *Don't analyze the answers in your mind. * You'll have time for that later.
The following are things you should definitely avoid during user interviews. 0:00 Don't confuse your interviewee, mess up your data, and 0:04 result in invalid unreliable conclusions. 0:09 Don't intimidate. 0:12 Standing while your interviewee is sitting is not a good idea. 0:14 You're intimidating them. 0:18 Don't ask sensitive personal, questions, they make your participants uncomfortable. 0:20 Don't ask yes or no questions without asking why. 0:27 Don't ask long questions. 0:32 By the time you finish, they forgot what you asked. 0:35 Don't use jargon because they don't understand it. 0:39 Don't talk too much. 0:43 Don't explain your questions. 0:45 Don't ignore body language. 0:48 While they might say one thing, their body language might be saying something else. 0:50 Don't ask for a product feedback. 0:56 You don't want feedback, you wanna observe behavior. 0:59 Don't ask to predict the future. 1:04 We talked about that. 1:06 Don't pitch your product. 1:09 This is not a sales call, this is an interview. 1:10 Don't analyze the answers in your mind. 1:15 You'll have time for that later. 1:18 That's a lot to remember, but practice makes perfect. 1:21 In the next step, I'll walk you through a transcript of a user interview. 1:25
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign up