Thread by @Altimor

1/ I used to not appreciate the difficulty of user research, but there’s a real craft to it, and a couple of best practices can dramatically increase the quality and quantity of insights you’re getting talking to users.

2/ First, as with everything, come prepared. Ask yourself: “what am I trying to learn?” From there, you derive “what am I going to ask?” (Those two sets of question end up looking very different)
This not only improves the signal you get, it increases your sensitivity to it

3/ Put your participant at ease. Build rapport. Smile, call them by their first name, offer them snacks and beverages, get them to talk a bit about themselves. Make eye contact without staring.

4/ I feel ambivalent about this one, but it’s a common practice to tell them you’re not the one building the product you’re presenting, even if you are, so they won’t hold back on tough feedback

5/ Have few people in the room — never more than 4 incl the user. One interviewer should ask 90%+ of the questions so it feels like a conversation and not an interrogatory. Another person should own note taking, so the interviewer can make eye contact and focus on the chat

6/ Do *not* interrupt them. I think it’s @sgblank who said ~“each minute you spend with a user is precious; when you spend that time talking instead of them, you’re paying by the word.”

7/ (of course there are some exceptions. I once had a chat with a user who couldn’t stop talking about his weed farm, when my questions were of course entirely unrelated to the cultivation of weed.)

8/ Not only should you not interrupt, you should remain silent even when they’re done talking. People are super awkward with silence, making them speak more so there is less of it. There should be enough silence between questions for you to definitely feel that awkwardness

9/ Encourage their answering with nods, “hmm hmm”s etc… *without* suggesting the answers you’d like to hear. Never say “omg this is exactly what we thought!” People tell people what they want to hear. But you can say “thanks this is so interesting”

10/ Ask open-ended questions (what / why / how…) instead of binary ones, and avoid leading questions. One effective form of open ended question is the incomplete answer, here too leveraging the silence, eg “and then you…”