A user interview is a meeting where the design team asks questions to the potential users of the intended solution. These are usually one on one meetings that are 30 minutes to an hour long.
The purpose of the questions is to understand the group of users that the interviewee represents. Not just what they want to see in a report, but what they need in order to make effective business decisions. User interviews are a great way to uncover user needs, current pain points, motivations etc. The problem with traditional requirements gathering is that you get a list of metrics but you don't know why those metrics are important to a user or what they do with those metrics. User interviews help uncover not just the what but also the why, when and how.
User interviews are the first phase of any project and should be conducted on all projects.
During the session, a designer should lead the conversation and ask questions, and another resource should take comprehensive notes for later discussion. Ensure that the user being interviewed feels comfortable. This could be done by letting the user know that this is not an interrogation session but just a means for the design team to understand the user's goals, current activities, tasks etc. Remember to steer the conversation in the right direction if the user goes off topic during the interview. Always thank the user for their time at the end of the session. Also, remind the user to bring any existing material they use if you would like to have them walk through it during the interview. For example, you could set up an interview such that in the second half the user walks through how they use current excel reports to get their job done.
After the session, the designer should send out a follow-up email to the interviewees to:
- Thank them for their time and for providing valuable information
- Provide a few key takeaways and mention the notes will be further organized
- Let them know what the next steps are at a high level and how their input will be utilized
- Mention we will reach out if we have new questions
- What is your role in the organization?
- What are your responsibilities?
- What is your business goal?
- What are your success criteria?
- What are the differences between your role and other personas? (if multiple personas share similar goals)
- In order to achieve your business goal, what key activities do you have to perform on a regular basis? Such as meet with the team, review reports, or perhaps use an existing app.
- What is the process of a particular activity?
- Could you demonstrate the process?
- What are the possible outcomes (actions or decisions) of the process?
- What are the triggers for such actions or decisions?
- What are the pain points of the current process/solution?