#14: Discovering Discovery

How to better understand the people you seek to serve

May 26, 2021

Pass It On is a bi-weekly newsletter bringing the tech and non-profit sectors closer together through knowledge sharing, written and edited by Lauren Crichton.

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"In a startup, no facts exist inside the building, only opinions." — Steve Blank

When no facts exist inside the building (whether your building is a startup, a charity, or non-profit), you need to leave that building to find them. That's why Scott Colfer spoke at length about the Discovery process in our last Q&A. Just because we think our idea is valuable and relevant doesn't mean it is. So before we commit our time and money to bringing that idea to life, we should figure out whether it's the right idea in the first place.

One great way of validating the assumptions behind our ideas is by talking to our users*. There's no better way of building empathy, and the more often we do it—and do it well—the more meaningful it becomes.

Today's knowledge share is your ultimate toolkit for nailing user interviews 🛠️

**User* is an imperfect term, but I’ve chosen it for this issue since it applies in both a commercial and non-profit setting.

How many interviews do I need to conduct?

🕵️‍♀️ Enough to spot emerging patterns

At least five, preferably ten. Qualitative research isn't about statistically significant results; it's about uncovering themes and using them to guide decisions.

Who should I be interviewing?

🙃 The people whose problems you want to solve

It could be a subset of the people you serve today or those you think you'd like to help in the future. Either way, try to narrow your focus as much as possible—otherwise, you'll have too many variables at play and will struggle to draw meaningful conclusions.

And don't rely on demographics. What are the common behaviours, barriers, and motivations you assume these people have?

How do I get users to agree to an interview?

💌 Set clear expectations

Whether you're emailing or calling, be sure to:

Hint at what you're trying to understand (but don't give it all away)
Share why you think they can help you
Reinforce what's in it for them
State how long the interview will be. (In my experience, 30 mins is usually enough.)

📅 Make it easy for people to participate

Avoid the awkward diary dance with free scheduling tools like Calendly.

How do I conduct a good interview?

👥 Find an interview buddy

If you can spare an extra pair of hands, I highly recommend pairing up for interviews so that one person asks the questions and the other takes notes. Advantages include:

Allows the interviewer to focus on the conversation
Spreads user empathy more widely among the team
Helps more people learn how to conduct good interviews

📝 Take detailed, unfiltered notes

You don't know what's important at this stage, so try and capture as much of what your interviewee says in the way that they say it—i.e., write in their voice. Capitalise, italicise and underline where you can to emphasise emotion.

🔕 Silence all potential interruptions

Remember to switch off all those phone/laptop notifications before you start!

🎙️ Ask permission to record

You don't have to record interviews, especially if you have a dedicated note-taker. However, if you decide you want the backup, remember to ask permission at the start. Voice-memos work well if your video conferencing doesn't offer recording.

♊ Mirror your audience

If you're hosting a video call and the interviewee has switched off their camera, you should do the same. Where possible, though, encourage interviewees to turn on their cameras so you can see their expressions. We don't always say what we mean: seeing a person's body language matters.

🔁 Play back what you hear

"I'd like to make sure I'm 100% clear on this. You're saying [X, Y, Z]. Did I get any of that wrong?"

Be an active listener. The interviewee will appreciate it, and you'll be 100% clear on what they said.

🕑 Watch the clock

"We're coming towards the end of our session. Do you have a hard stop at 15:30, or are you able to stay for a couple more questions?"

This question (a) shows you're respectful of your interviewee's time and (b) helps you prioritise your final questions if they can stay on.

👂 Listen, listen, listen

It's tempting to fill the silence, but you need to give the other person space to talk. When they finish answering a question, don't respond immediately: you'll be surprised by how often your interviewee will continue speaking unprompted.

🙏 Be a gracious host

Reassure that all comments and reflections are of interest
Stress how helpful the session is for you
Invite them to ask questions

What questions should I be asking?

🤔 Whatever helps you (in)validate your assumptions

At this stage, you want to phrase questions that help you understand:

How your users are behaving
What frustrations they're experiencing and how much it's affecting them
How they make decisions
What constraints they have

💬 Remember to choose wisely

For a 30-minute interview, plan for 5 questions and use any remaining time to prompt based on what they say. You'll need at least 5 minutes to welcome the person and wrap up at the end.

How do I ask good questions?

Ask about actual behaviour, not hypotheticals

People want to please, so aspirational questions are a recipe for unreliable answers.

❌ "How likely would you be to use X?" "How often does X occur?"

✅ "Tell me about the last time you used something like X." "In the past month, how many times has X occurred?"

Focus on the problem, not the solution

To do this, you usually need to abstract your questions up a level.

❌ "How do you book a food delivery online?"

✅ "How do you typically feed your family?"

Avoid leading and loaded questions at all costs

They create bias and provide little to no value to your research.

❌ "Would you like it if we offered a broader range of after-school activities?"

✅ "Tell me what you know about our after-school activities"

Prompt with open-ended questions

You want to understand your interviewee's context and the reasons behind the things they say. Keep questions like these in your back pocket:

"What makes you say that?"
"Could you help me understand your thinking there?"
"You just mentioned we/our. Would you mind clarifying who that is?"
"How else have you tried to solve this problem?"

What do I do after the interviews?

⚗️ Build empathy as a team and synthesise your findings

If you're working in a team, invite everybody to a group session. Give each team member an interview transcript and ask them to note down the following:

Once everyone's jotted down their notes (one point per post-it!), start looking for patterns. When you see a sentiment appear in at least two interviews, highlight it as a theme.

To conduct these sessions remotely, try collaboration tools like Miro or MURAL. (Non-profits can request free access to MURAL here.)

⏭️ Reflect, share, and decide what to do next

With your themes identified, ask yourselves:

Can we (in)validate any of our original assumptions about our users and what matters to them? If yes, what does this mean for us?
What opportunities emerge from these themes? Which should we prioritise exploring?

Remember to summarise your learnings so you can share them with others, including your participants if appropriate. These free learning cards from Strategyzer are a helpful prompt.

There you have it! A more detailed issue than usual but I'm trying to experiment with different formats. Let me know how you found it by replying to this email or:

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