The Interview Guide
Consumer
Introduction and process
Guidance Duration: 5 minutes
The plan:
• Thank the respondent for participating
• Confirm length of interview
• Confirm purpose
• Confirm anonymity or specifics of sharing
• Confirm tape recording (or take efficient notes)
• Encourage candor and honesty
• Express real interest in what they have to say
Tip:
• During the introduction, gauge the respondent's demeanor and
natural openness. Is the person checking her watch? Is he smiling?
Does he seem distracted? This can help you make decisions about
what to focus on, and how much time to take.
Your <Detail your questions here>
questions
© Vivian Harris & Todd Birzer
Customer background
Guidance Duration: 5 minutes
The plan:
• Find out more about your respondent’s background as it relates to
your product area
Sample questions:
• Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
• How has the past year been? Has anything changed?
• Ask any other general customer background questions related to
your product area
Your <Detail your questions here>
questions
© Vivian Harris & Todd Birzer
Broad product discussion
Guidance Duration: 5 minutes
The plan:
• Understand (at a big picture level) how the customer sees the
category in which your product (or your ideas) resides
Sample questions:
• How do you use/interact with PRODUCT X?
• Who else interacts with PRODUCT X, and how?
• Who decides whether to buy (or subscribe to) PRODUCT X, is it
you?
• How (and where) do you buy (or subscribe to) PRODUCT X?
• Who leads the category/industry of PRODUCT X?
• What makes them a leader? What can we learn from them?
Your <Detail your questions here>
questions
© Vivian Harris & Todd Birzer
Product review or concept test
Guidance Duration: 40 minutes
The plan:
• Product review: Ask the respondent to rate your product based on
their current use, and discuss your product in-depth
• Ethnography: Conduct an ethnographic review
• Concept testing: Ask respondent to evaluate new product concepts
Sample questions for product review:
• How would you rate [current product] on 5-point scale, where 1 means
not at all useful and 5 means extremely useful?
• How is it useful / not useful? How could it be made more useful to you?
• How often do you use this product? Under what circumstances?
• If a friend asked you about this product, what would you tell them? How
would you describe it to them?
Your <Detail your product review questions here>
questions
© Vivian Harris & Todd Birzer
Product review or concept test (continued)
Guidance Duration: 40 minutes
Sample questions for ethnography
• Show me how you use this product. Walk me through the process
from start to finish. I'll listen and take a few notes, and then we
can talk after.
• After: How were you feeling through that process? To what extent
was that a typical way of using the product? If not typical: how was it
different?
• I saw you did X: can you tell me about that?
• I saw you did not do Y: can you tell me about that?
Your <Detail your ethnography questions here>
questions
© Vivian Harris & Todd Birzer
Product review or concept test (continued)
Guidance Duration: 40 minutes
Sample questions for concept testing:
• How do you feel about this concept?
• What's your gut reaction to this idea?
• [If several]: Sort these product ideas into rank order, with the one
you are most interested in in first place, then the next, and so on.
What puts X in first place? What makes it so compelling? How would
this product change the way you work?
Your <Detail your concept testing questions here>
questions
© Vivian Harris & Todd Birzer
Closing
Guidance Duration: 5 minutes
The plan:
• Ask if the customer has anything to add
• Ask the customer what message they would give to the design team
• [If appropriate:] Ask if the customer would be interested in being
involved in beta-testing a new product
• Let the customer know what your next steps are with the
information, and whether (or not) they should expect direct follow-
up
• Thank the customer for their time and feedback
Sample questions:
• Is there anything I haven't asked you about that I should have?
• If you were talking to our full product design team about PRODUCT
X, what would you tell them?
• What do they need to know about the customer experience?
• [If your user experience designer or engineering lead is not with
you]…
o Would you be willing to have a more in-depth conversation
with our UX (user experience) designer or one of our
engineers?
• What is the most important thing for us to focus on in the coming
year?
Your <Detail your questions here>
questions
© Vivian Harris & Todd Birzer
