Introduction

Interviews are probably the most commonly used research method when building a product. You might have a product owner that wants to “just talk to a few customers" or a designer that runs a few interviews before designing. This can, however, make interviews seem almost too easy.

With the current trend around democratizing research, more and more stakeholders are being invited into or conducting interviews on their own. But reinforcing the idea that “anyone can interview” doesn’t make the ultimate goal of “anyone can conduct credible, meaningful, or valuable interviews” easier to reach. You have to dig deeper and educate your team on proper interview behaviors.

This Handbook aims to give you just enough strategy and tips to run more successful and more focused one-on-one interviews. The focus here is on semi-structured interviews, the most common interview type. However, the ideas can be scaled up or down for other types of interviews. It’s up to you, the researcher, to recognize what interview type is appropriate and plan your study accordingly.

Use this Handbook to recognize where your current interview approach or behaviors aren’t strong. Make a conscious effort to address your interview weaknesses and bring your team along for the ride. As you’ll read interviews can be challenging, tiring, and most importantly, incredibly rewarding when answering qualitative research questions. With practice and feedback, you can notice signals and patterns in what participants say, transforming a simple conversation into something richer and intimate.

Let's jump right in by looking at the basics of the interview research method.