One of the most important aspects of building great products is understanding the end user—the person who will ultimately be engaging with an app, website, or other digital experience.
One of the tools we use to gain insight and build empathy with these end users is the consumer interview. They’re conducted in one-on-one settings with individuals who fall within the target demographic for a product, service, or business. These interviews can range from informal conversations to more rigorous sessions with a wide array of questions, depending on the research study objectives.
Consumer interviews enable us to get to know our client's users better by uncovering their motivations, behaviors, and interests when using or considering current or new products. They also allow us to learn how we can better engage with consumers on a more human level. This understanding results in an overall better product, strategy, and, most importantly, user satisfaction.
While consumer interviews are flexible and can be tailored to meet that needs of any team, there are core components that ensure success. We start with the following basics when planning them for our clients:
This step sets the stage for the information gathering to come—a great interview starts with knowing the goals and expectations of the process.
Section |
Definition |
Motivation (Why?) |
The context and reason for research. Could be inspired by previous research, could be inspired by market potential. Context could also be aspirational, such as, "Bet the garden, not the farm," or more results-oriented. |
Hypothesis (What?) |
A testable, informed belief: "We believe <product/feature/...> with <characteristic aspects> will <results/goals>" |
Audience |
Definition of who we will be testing with, informed by personas and representative of the end users. |
Recruitment |
Definition of how we will find our audience. |
Methodology |
Definition of how we will conduct our research to test our hypothesis. |
Goals |
Definition of success. Informed by benchmarks or business requirements. Utilization of goals avoids bias after research is completed. |
Additional Questions |
If the hypothesis contains multiple aspects, or there are additional clarifying questions to be answered, additional questions/hypothesis to answer are listed and defined. |
Links |
Links to the additional documents, often include measurement plans, interview guides, recruitments details, etc. |
Once you have a solid plan in place, it’s time to conduct the actual interviews. Tip: For one-on-one interviews, it’s recommended that you set the session length for 60 minutes; any more than that and the interviewee could lose focus.
After the interview has been completed, it’s time to review the takeaways and start thinking about how to apply the learnings.
The final steps in this process would be to form actionable recommendations based on the insights uncovered. Consider the following:
Conducting interviews can help uncover new insights and validate assumptions established before the research phase of product development begins. The basic outline above is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding end users. Check back often to learn more about how we build empathy, understand motivations, and seek to craft impactful product experiences for end users.