@susanamercer
Going DeepUncovering Hidden Insights Through User Interviews
Susan MercerExperience Research Director
Mad*Pow
@susanamercer
Don’t play the notes on
the page…
play the music.
“
”
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Don’t read the notes on the page… have
a conversation.“”
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Consider the participant’s perspective.
Why does she want to
talk with me?
Do I know enough? Will
I sound stupid?
What will she think
about me?
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Social Desirability Bias
60% of people lied an average of 3
times in a 10 minute conversation
with someone they just met.
* Feldman, R.S., Forrest, J.A., and Happ, B. R. (2002) Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 24(2), 163-
170.
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@susanamercer
@susanamercer
@susanamercer
Getting to the Honest Truth
• Set the stage
• Be your curious self
• Listen and accept
• Ask questions in unique ways
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Set the Stage
• Be transparent
• Give them permission to be honest
• Ask for their help
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Be Your Curious Self
•Be genuinely curious
•Be human
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Listen and Accept
“People speak in paragraphs”
– Steve Portigal
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Ask Questions in Unique Ways
•Don’t put the participant on the defensive
•Use indirect questioning to get to tough
questions
• Not “Why didn’t you…”
• “What kept you from…”
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Recognition vs. Recall
•Our brains store information in
networks
•Use techniques to make it easy
for people to recall topics
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Methods to Try
•Open-Ended Exploration•Sentence Completion•Collaging•Laddering •Triading
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Open-Ended Exploration
•Start Broad
•Learn what they think is important
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Sentence Completion
•Focused, yet open-ended
•Good topic starter
•Clues to dive deeper
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Sentence Completion
• If I used this all day, I would…
•Using this app, makes me feel…
•Compared to other websites, this site is…
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Collaging
•Provide images & supplies
•Set focus topic
•Give them 15-20 mins
•Triggers recognition
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Story Telling About Pictures
•Have them tell their story
•Great way to uncover topics important
to them
•Use when you don’t know what
questions to ask
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The Power of the Story
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Triading
•Compare 3 things
•Uncover important
dimensions
•Tell the story
•Repeat
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Triading Example
•How are two of these different from the third?
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Triading Follow-Up
•Tell the story behind the differences
•Which is more important to them?
•A and B share a characteristic
•C is the only one that has a characteristic
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Laddering
• Iterative questions
•Laddering gets to values that people can’t
articulate well Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
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Laddering Example
• What is the most important feature on this pizza ordering app?
• Why are deals and coupons important to you?
• What is it about saving money that is important to you?
• Why is it important to save for their college funds?
• Deals and Coupons
• Because I like to save money, and not have my wife yell at me
• We are trying to save as much as we can for the kids’ college funds
• Education is expensive, but important. I want my kids to have better jobs than I do
Interviewer Participant
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Summary of MethodsWhat is important to participants
Uses Recall to access memories
Use Recognition to access memories
Assists articulation
Open Ended Exploration X X
Sentence Completion X X X
Collaging X X XTriading X XLaddering X X X
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Summary
•Encourage participants to be honest
•Build trust – be yourself
•Use soft questions for tough topics
•Be creative with techniques
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Have Fun!
Thank You
Susan Mercer
Experience Research Director
Mad*Pow
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