Conducting User Interviews

# Conducting User Interviews - All Guest Insights

*43 guests, 64 mentions*

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## Adriel Frederick
*Adriel Frederick*

> "Don't use the data alone to figure out who the marginal user is. It'll give you a clue where they are and what might be wrong, will give you some hints. It's not going to give you the answer. You have to go watch them to find the answer."

**Insight:** Observational research reveals 'orthogonal' problems that are invisible in data funnels.

**Tactical advice:**
- Watch users use the product in person to identify where their mental models (e.g., using nicknames vs. legal names) conflict with product design.
- Use data to identify *where* to look, but use interviews and observation to find the *why*.

*Timestamp: 00:51:30*


## Bangaly Kaba
*Bangaly Kaba*

> "We were literally on the ground in India every three months took a team of engineers with me. I'm talking like we're in Delhi in people's homes and Mumbai, and we went to go investigate what was going on, watch people make friends, watch them use people you may know."

**Insight:** Directly observing users in their own environment reveals cultural nuances and mental models that data cannot capture.

**Tactical advice:**
- Watch users perform core tasks to see where their mental model (e.g., searching by photos) differs from the product's design (e.g., searching by name).
- Identify non-Western paradigms in user behavior to localize product features effectively.

*Timestamp: 01:27:14*


## Bob Moesta
*Bob Moesta*

> "The first thing we do is we try to extract the story from the customer. And it doesn't have to be my product, it could be somebody else's product if I haven't built it yet. It's like, what are people going to fire when they hire me?"

**Insight:** Interviews should focus on the 'story' of why a user switched from an old solution to a new one.

**Tactical advice:**
- Interview people who have recently purchased or switched products to understand the 'causation' of their move.
- Ask about what the user will 'fire' in order to 'hire' your new product.

*Timestamp: 00:18:39*

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> "I only talk to people who have already tried to make the progress... I need to talk to people who did something and tried and though they might've failed, what made them try?"

**Insight:** Avoid interviewing people about what they 'might' do; only interview those who have taken action or attempted to solve a problem.

**Tactical advice:**
- Filter for interviewees who have already spent time or money trying to solve the problem.
- Ignore 'bitching' (complaining) and look for 'switching' (actual behavior change).

*Timestamp: 00:28:09*

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> "The other tip I have is to not have a discussion guide. It drives people crazy because everybody wants to ask the same set of questions, but the problem happens is when you ask the same set of questions, you actually don't follow the ones that actually have the most meaningful information in it"

**Insight:** Rigid discussion guides prevent interviewers from following the most valuable conversational threads.

**Tactical advice:**
- Use the 'Four Forces' (push, pull, anxiety, habit) as a mental framework instead of a script.
- Use 'bracketing' (offering two extremes) to help users articulate feelings they can't quite name.

*Timestamp: 00:30:18*


## Christine Itwaru
*Christine Itwaru*

> "Speaking as a former PM, I would not ever give up spending time with customers and watching their pain. That's how I fell in love with product was I saw my internal customer 12 years back now fighting with the keyboard, fighting with the mouse, and I was just like, 'Oh, my gosh. What's this guy doing?'"

**Insight:** Directly observing customer struggle is the foundational experience for building product empathy and identifying real problems.

**Tactical advice:**
- Watch customers use the product in their natural environment to see where they fight with the interface
- Prioritize direct observation over second-hand reports to understand