{"id":6336,"date":"2019-12-10t18:10:38","date_gmt":"2019-12-10t18:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/?p=6336"},"modified":"2019-12-10t18:10:38","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10t18:10:38","slug":"conduct-a-good-user-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/blog\/conduct-a-good-user-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"no, you don\u2019t have to be a ux researcher to conduct a (good) user interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

small startup with no ux researcher on staff? here\u2019s why user interviews are worth doing anyway – and tips on how to get started.<\/em><\/p>\n

spend enough time in startup land and you\u2019ll stumble upon one of the holy commandments of saas (software as a service) businesses: thou shalt talk to your users early and often<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

that means not just doing usability testing (putting a mockup or a new feature in front of users to see how they interact with it), but also picking up the phone to learn about users and potential customers before you build, mock, or even brainstorm.<\/p>\n

unfortunately, implementing a consistent user research practice is like building a regular fitness routine: we all know we should<\/em> do it because it\u2019ll be good for our short- and long-term (business) health, it\u2019ll give us iterative and actionable feedback that will help us improve more quickly, and it has a tendency to spread positive ripple effects to other areas of our lives (and our companies). <\/p>\n

and yet, too many startups do the equivalent of driving past the gym every morning by putting user research on the back burner for an ever-distant \u201csomeday.\u201d if you\u2019re at a small startup like ours, the justification is often a lack of resources \u2014 with a tiny team (that already wears multiple hats)<\/em> and limited capital (that takes a lot of sweat equity to raise)<\/em>, user research can understandably feel like a \u201cnice to have\u201d luxury, one meant to be saved for the day when your company finally makes it and can afford to hire a snazzy ux researcher.<\/p>\n

well, we\u2019re here to channel our best richard simmons-esque level of encouragement and let you know that the benefits of asking your customers for feedback are well worth the work, even and especially if you\u2019re on a team that lacks a dedicated ux researcher. here\u2019s how we\u2019ve approached user interviews at magoosh from the very start, how they\u2019ve helped our business grow, and tips and advice for getting started. <\/p>\n

three benefits we\u2019ve gained from conducting user interviews with our students<\/h2>\n

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\nimage credit: thinglass (licensed via shutterstock)<\/em> <\/p>\n

we\u2019ve conducted user interviews in some iteration for nearly every quarter over the past ten years. there are three main motivations\u2014and resulting benefits\u2014behind our prolific user research habit:<\/p>\n

reason\/benefit #1 – offer better products<\/h3>\n

as a relatively young startup with a global student population, achieving product-market fit has been crucial to our growth and success. <\/p>\n

it\u2019s allowed us to make it to profitability on just one seed round of funding, grow our product line from our staple gre offering<\/a> to products helping students prep for over nine standardized tests, and invest in expanding our team<\/a>, fostering great company culture along the way. <\/p>\n

throughout our now decade-long journey, our growth has been catalyzed by product feedback from our users, from our recent addition of text-message reminders to our act and sat products, to our 2010 decision to switch from user-generated to expert-written content. today, though our products can always continue to be improved, we\u2019re stoked to see our net promoter (nps) scores overall on the rise, and our student numbers continuing to climb from eight million served. <\/p>\n

reason\/benefit #2 – check our assumptions<\/h3>\n

we\u2019ll be the first to admit that, even amidst the fiercely proud-nerd culture of magoosh, there\u2019s still so much we don\u2019t know! <\/p>\n

when we first entered the sat market, we assumed parents would be the louder voices we\u2019d need to listen to. a round of user interviews later, we realized the story was actually much more nuanced: many students were studying on their own, with little or no parent involvement.<\/p>\n

it\u2019s in the spirit of one of our core company values<\/a>, learning > knowing, that we acknowledge our blind spots and seek to listen to our students in the hopes of learning what they can teach us or broaden our perspective around. <\/p>\n

reason\/benefit #3 – deepen empathy for our customers<\/h3>\n

the world of education is rapidly changing, and even as lifelong learners, it can be incredibly hard to keep up. <\/p>\n

this is especially true as the college admissions landscape becomes more complex and less accessible to students and, in line with our mission, user interviews have afforded us a personal, humanizing means of empathizing with our customers and their wildly diverse lived experiences. we would never have known what it\u2019s like to prepare for the toefl in iran if we didn\u2019t talk with people doing exactly that.<\/p>\n

when – and how – to start conducting user interviews<\/h2>\n

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\nimage credit: notto yeez (licensed via shutterstock) <\/em><\/p>\n

when should you conduct user interviews?<\/h3>\n

it\u2019s important to learn to differentiate between when a user interview is the best path for learning, and when it might actually be a distraction. generally, user interviews are better for focused learning over open exploration, such as talking through challenges and problems with your users. the more specific the info you\u2019re trying to get, the better a user interview can help you inform next steps.<\/p>\n

some points to consider:<\/p>\n

should it be a user call?<\/strong>
\nwhether you are trying to identify a problem, get more information about a known problem, or see if a solution will work, you should consider whether user calls are the best tool to get what you\u2019re looking for. does the information you want already exist somewhere, or are there better methods (like a survey) to collect it? user calls may or may not be the route you want to go.<\/p>\n

define your purpose<\/strong>
\nare you conducting \u201cdiscovery calls\u201d to try and understand problem spaces, or have you defined a problem space and want to do a deeper dive into how users may be solving this problem already? this will additionally inform who you reach out to and the questions you ask.<\/p>\n

what does success look like?<\/strong>
\nuser interviews are a means, not an end. if the sum of your user calls leads you to the next stage of your work, and that work is successful, then the calls were a success. <\/p>\n

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how to recruit (the right) participants for user interviews<\/h2>\n

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\nimage credit: ollyy (licensed via shutterstock)<\/em><\/p>\n

so you\u2019ve gotten clear on the information you\u2019re trying to learn and decided that user interviews are indeed the best route. now, who in your customer pool should you reach out to?<\/p>\n