Overview

This course provides a structured approach to conducting user interviews that align with both business goals and user needs. You will learn to plan, execute, and analyze interviews with an emphasis on actionable insights. This process will enhance your ability to engage users meaningfully and translate their feedback into impactful decisions. The course equips you with practical tools and techniques to plan interviews, ask the right questions, and extract valuable insights. You will also gain expertise in presenting findings that influence business outcomes and improve user-centered design. What sets this course apart is its blend of foundational knowledge and real-world application. It combines theory with practice, ensuring that you can apply the skills directly to your work in user research and product development. Ideal for UX researchers, designers, and product managers, this course requires no formal research training but will benefit those with some familiarity with user-centered practices. Copyright © 2023 Steve Portigal. All rights reserved. Originally published by Rosenfeld Media, LLC. This course edition is published by Packt Publishing under license from Rosenfeld Media LLC. No part of this material may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission from the author or the publisher.

Syllabus

Interviewing Addresses a Business Need

In this section we look at the basics of user interviews. We explore why and how we should approach it, look at why every company will benefit from doing it, and consider the high-levels of planning interview-based research.

Research Logistics

In this section we will master ResearchOps basics by defining inclusive sampling, streamlining recruitment and scheduling, and crafting phased interview guides that deliver reliable, scalable user insights.

Contextual Methods - More Than Just Asking Questions

In this section we will transform interviews into contextual research by integrating observation, participatory techniques and tool-based exercises while clarifying method versus methodology and structuring people-object-environment guides.

The Successful Fieldwork Experience

In this section we will design lean field teams, mitigate researcher bias, and orchestrate sequential interview stages, ensuring reliable participant insights across onsite and remote UX research contexts.

Best Practices for Interviewing

In this section we will apply bias-neutral frameworks, practice selective self-disclosure to build rapport, and interpret body-language and eye-contact cues to conduct insightful in-person or remote user interviews.

The Intricacies of Asking Questions

In this section we will learn to balance a flexible interview guide with strategic silence, backchannel awareness, timing, varied question types and participant language to uncover authentic worldviews and minimize bias.

Better Interviews

In this section we will troubleshoot reticent or verbose participant behaviors, adapt semi-structured interview techniques to complex socio-cultural variables, and institute reflective practice-critique, comparison, storytelling-for continuously improving qualitative UX research rigor.

Documenting The Interview

In this section we will confront live note-taking speed limits, integrate audio recording, uphold eye contact, and delegate documentation to ensure complete, reliable interview data and stronger participant rapport.

Making Sense of Your Data

In this section we will tag interview transcripts, collaboratively cluster findings, then distill evidence based insights into topline reports that guide user experience strategy and user centered product decisions.

Making an Impact with Your Research

In this section we will learn to create a living user experience findings log, rank issues by severity and effort, and deliver persuasive stories that push research discoveries into everyday product decisions.