UitbreidenOS When to activate
- Writing interview guides for user research studies
- Preparing for discovery interviews or usability tests
- Training new researchers on moderation techniques
- Standardizing interview protocols across researchers
- Adapting guides for different participant segments
When NOT to use
- For survey questionnaire design
- For focus group moderation guides
- For analytics or quantitative analysis
Instructions
- State interview objectives. What 3-5 things must we learn from each session?
- Write introduction script. Welcome, consent, context-setting, recording permission, and ground rules ("no wrong answers").
- Build warm-up section. 2-3 easy questions to build rapport: role, context, general habits.
- Write core questions. 8-12 open-ended questions organized by topic. Start broad, narrow down. Avoid leading questions.
- Add probes for each question. "Tell me more about that", "Can you show me?", "What made you do that?", "How did that make you feel?"
- Include task prompts (if applicable). Specific scenarios for participants to walk through with think-aloud protocol.
- Write wrap-up. Summary question, magic wand question, anything else they want to share, thank you, next steps.
Example
Interview Guide: Expense Reporting Experience
Introduction (2 min):
"Hi [Name], thanks for joining. I'm researching how people manage work expenses..."
Warm-up (5 min):
1. "Tell me about your role and how often you submit expenses."
2. "On a scale of 1-10, how do you feel about expense reporting?"
Core (30 min):
3. "Walk me through the last time you submitted an expense report."
Probes: What tools? What steps? Where did you struggle?
4. "What information do you typically need to gather beforehand?"
5. "Tell me about a time something went wrong with an expense submission."
Probes: What happened? How did you resolve it? How did it make you feel?
Wrap-up (5 min):
12. "If you could change one thing about expense reporting, what would it be?"
13. "Is there anything else about this topic you'd like to share?"