Speak to Users Without Going Nuts: 5 Essential Interview Tips

I think we all feel some kind of polarization in our everyday lives, usually we tend to pick a side and be against the other. It's a simple, black and white view. Think of those endless debates—Apple vs Android, cats vs dogs, and so on.

Product teams face a similar divide in their approach to user feedback: some validate every detail, while others forge ahead on instinct. I truly believe that striking a balance is key, as leaning too far to one side can limit results and prevent potential from being fully realized.

User feedback is my super tool regardless where I work: in marketing or in product as now. In fact, it’s useful everywhere if you work with people and create products or provide services (I’ll refer to both as 'products').

What is user feedback?

User feedback includes both qualitative and quantitative data from customers about what they like, dislike, or wish to improve. The goal of gathering this feedback is to make the product more efficient and enjoyable to use

How to collect user feedback?

The range of sources is really impressive. You can use surveys and polls, collect in-product or live chat opinions, check reviews and ratings on different platforms, read discussions on Reddit or Quora, analyze support tickets, run tests (A/B, multivariate, usability) or conduct user interviews.

I would like to focus on the last one—user interviews. It’s the most challenging as it requires you to show up face to face with your customers and lead the conversation to gain insights that will benefit your product. Let’s dive in!

5 tips in achieving zen in user interviews

Preparation is essential. I won’t go into it, but I’ll share a personal story about how not to go mad here. Once, I prepared a script with 55 questions—yes, fifty-five! One interview lasted 70 minutes! Can you imagine? It was exhausting, for both the respondent and me. In the end, all I got was a high-level understanding of the problem, which wasn’t really helpful.

Tip 1: Keep your conversations short and sweet

I know, every question seems important, but 10-15 questions are quite enough; you can come up with clarifying ones on the go.

In fact, with surveys it’s the same. The more questions you wanna cover, the less people will complete it and complete thoughtfully.

The next thing. Do you like to prove your beliefs are right? Yes, I also do. How did I easily do it during user interviews? I unconsciously asked closed questions and shared my own examples when respondents seemed stuck. I thought I was helping, but actually it turned out to be a disservice. I was ruining the results.

I kept validating what I wanted to hear, not what I needed to know. I was happy until the solution came to the real market.

Tip 2: Listen actively and be engaged

Think of yourself as a therapist for your users. Ask open questions and listen, give your respondents time to come up with the answer. This way, you’re not just hearing answers - you’re understanding their true pains and needs.

I am very impatient. I often wish I could get results yesterday. It’s a tricky thing. That’s why I want to speed up the process. You can do it the right way by organizing the process so it goes smoothly, or as I did.

I scheduled three interviews in a row and postponed taking notes until the next day. Yes, it was the same exhausting session with the 55-question list! Do you think I remembered the next day what we were talking about? For sure nothing. And I had to watch full recordings.

But this example hadn’t taught me right away. Time passed and one day I decided to adopt the best practice ever.

Tip 3: Take notes right away

Not during—if you're the only interviewer—and certainly not the next day. Do it right away. Everything is still fresh in your mind, and you haven’t had the chance to mix in your own interpretations yet. Even if you cover not many questions, you’re at risk of skipping the small but important details. You’ll thank yourself later if you do your homework right after every single interview.

The next story happened seven years ago when I just started working with SaaS. It was a niche B2B product. Our team thought we did a great job. We used feedback—it was great—but it came from our Product Manager’s ex-colleagues to develop the product. They were even within our target audience but they couldn’t criticize our ideas so not to ruin friendly relationships.

We ended up with a really complex product that required very detailed personal onboarding.

This approach sent our acquisition costs to the clouds.

Tip 4: Seek feedback from unbiased people

If you want honest opinion and true insights, seek strangers who fit your target audience. They will be the most unbiased. Sometimes, they may also avoid offending you or might tell you what they think you want to hear. But the chances of this are much lower.

And if you’re researching existing customers, try to connect with those who didn’t do what you expected them to do. Didn’t sign up, didn’t provide information, you got it. It’s a lot harder to reach out to them, but it’s totally worth it.

And the last thing I wanna speak about is sharing raw results with the team.

Tip 5: Share publicly only the final insights

It is natural that you want to share ASAP. Even if you warn that it's just a spoiler and we shouldn’t make any assumptions. Our perception just doesn't work that way. Sharing preliminary results can lead team members to focus on data that confirms their existing beliefs or assumptions based on unrepresentative data, and ignoring data that might contradict them in the future.

But what to do with the need to share? Speak with those involved in the interviewing process.

Let’s recap my 5 tips in achieving zen in user feedback.

1. Keep it short and sweet.
2. Listen actively and be engaged.
3. Take notes right after, it’s crucial.
4. Seek feedback from unbiased people.
5. Share publicly only the final insights.

Conclusions

And one more thing… We all make mistakes. It shouldn’t stop you from speaking and listening to your users. The results you’ll see once you start will inspire you to keep going.

One of my friends once told me this phrase. I'm sure she doesn't even remember it, but I do. It's become my motto when I'm doubting. Hope it will inspire you to try as well:

By trying, you create a 50/50 chance of success. Without, your chances drop to zero.

And the really last thing, I swear! Don’t shift responsibility for the smallest decisions to users. I believe in you, you yourself can decide the color of this button.