Post by AIENAI Academy

Most people have been taught to conduct interviews. Very few have been taught to listen in them. There is a difference that matters enormously in UX research. The standard training is procedural: prepare questions, build rapport, avoid leading, transcribe. That is necessary. It is not sufficient. The skill that separates useful research from polite conversation is the ability to follow the emotion rather than the topic. When a user says "it was fine," the topic is the product. The emotion is resignation. - Following the emotion means asking: "What would 'really useful' have looked like?" - Following the topic means moving to the next question. Three things that improve research interview quality immediately: 1. Ask about behaviour, not opinion. "What did you do when that happened?" will always produce better data than "What do you think about X?" Opinions are constructed on the spot to satisfy the interviewer. Behaviour is something that already happened. 2. Record, so you can actually listen. Taking notes while conducting an interview splits your attention at the exact moment the user is saying something important. Record, consent in hand, and transcribe afterwards. Your presence in the conversation is more valuable than any note you could write in it. 3. Let the silence exist. The pause after someone finishes speaking is not a gap to fill. It is often the moment where the most important thing arrives. Wait. Count to three internally. The percentage of meaningful disclosures that happen in that pause is high. At AIENAI Academy, interview technique is part of the curriculum for both our adult UX Coaching programme and our Teen UX programme. It is the skill that makes every other research method work. If you want to know more about how we teach it, or what the rest of the curriculum looks like, talk to us here → https://lnkd.in/gUXpRGQk #AIENAIAcademy #UXResearch #UserResearch #DesignThinking #ProductDesign #UXCommunity #ResearchOps #LearnUX