Chapter 3: Ask what happened, not what people want, lesson 7 of 7

Make your interview kit

The project for chapter 3. Plan one interview with a real person, run it, then mark up your own questions. Find the thread you missed, and what changed.

By Shirish Shikhrakar1 min read, 45 min of exercises

This is the real work of the chapter. You plan one interview, run it with a real person, then mark up your own questions. It uses everything from the last five lessons.

Pick someone who has done the thing you want to learn about, recently. A friend or a colleague is fine. Twenty minutes is enough.

Do the first two steps before the interview, and the last two straight after. Each step shows an example from Ryan’s interview with Dana. You can leave and come back, and it will still be here.

Make your kit, one step at a time

Your project

One page to plan a real interview, run it, and mark up your own questions afterwards. It saves in this browser as you type. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Step 1 of 4 Before the interview

What do you want to learn about? Name the product, the people or the problem. Example: How office managers get lunch for their team.

Stuck? Get help with this part

Think about this: What has your team been arguing about lately?

Write your research question. Ask what you need to learn, not what you want to build. Example: How do offices get lunch for a group today, and where does it go wrong?

Stuck? Get help with this part

Think about this: If you already have an idea, what do you need to know before you pick it?

Who will you talk to? Say what they did recently that makes them worth hearing. Example: Dana. She ordered lunch for her whole studio every day until August, then stopped.

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Think about this: Who has done the thing you're asking about, in the last few weeks?

Step 2 of 4 Your questions

What will you say first? Who you are, what you'll record, and that they can stop.

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Think about this: What would you want to hear, if a stranger asked to interview you?

Write five questions. Start each one from something that already happened. Example: Tell me about the last time you ordered lunch for the whole studio. What happened after the food came? What happened after that week?

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Think about this: Turn each "would you" into "what happened".

What one thing will you ask to see? Example: Her notebook of who owes her money.

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Think about this: What do they keep, write or open while they do it?

Step 3 of 4 After the interview

Go through the questions you really asked. What kind was each one, and what did it get? Example: Question 2 was leading, and got "It's fine." Question 4 asked about the last time, and got the whole August order.

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Think about this: Which of your questions got a story? Which got a yes?

What thread did they hand you that you didn't follow? Example: She said, "I've lost count of what I'm owed." I asked about the food instead.

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Think about this: Read your notes. Where did they say something big, and you moved on?

Which feeling words did they use, like hard, fine or annoying? Did you tie each one to something you could see? Example: She said the delivery was "not bad". I didn't ask how late it was.

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Think about this: Find one feeling word in your notes. What could you have asked to see?

Step 4 of 4 What changed

What did you learn that you didn't expect? Example: The studio next door stopped ordering together too.

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Think about this: What would you tell a friend about this interview?

What do you still need to find out? Write each one as a question. Example: Why did the studio next door stop?

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Think about this: What did they mention that you'd ask about next time?

Your interview kit

What it's about
Research question
Who and why
What you'll say first
Five questions about the past
Show me
Your questions, marked up
The thread you missed
Words inside the box
What surprised you
What I still need to find out

Before you copy it, check it. Tick each one that is true. Your research question asks what you need to learn, not what to build. Each question asks about a real time in the past. There's no "would you", no rating and no pitch. You asked to see something, not only to hear about it. You wrote what you'll say for consent before you started. You marked every question you asked by its kind.

Written by

Shirish Shikhrakar

Shirish is a Google-certified UX designer and UX engineer based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He started as a software developer, moved into product design for Silicon Valley startups, and has taught UX foundations to hundreds of designers since 2019.