Design Thinking is an effective mode of tackling challenging business and social problems of any kind. Today, it’s tough to find a company or industry that hasn’t used design thinking methods to improve their way of working and creating products, services, or experiences.

“Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process which seeks to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. The method consists of 5 phases — Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test and is most useful when you want to tackle problems that are ill-defined or unknown.” — Interaction Design Foundation

And, while many major companies like IBM and USAA have built in-house design thinking teams, not every group or organization is ready for that commitment or investment.

If you’re curious about getting exposure to design thinking so you can start working in more productive, innovative, and customer-centric ways, you might want to invest in Design Thinking training. (At Voltage Control, we design custom engagements for our clients who wish to learn about Design Thinking.)

If you’re considering investing in Design Thinking, you might be wondering: what will I get out of Design thinking training? Here are four benefits and outcomes from Design Thinking training:

1. You’ll Learn Top Job Skills for the Future

2. You’ll Be More Successful

3. You’ll Understand Your Users or Customers Better

4. You’ll Prototype More and Guess Less

Want to train your team in design thinking? Voltage Control offers private training tailored to the needs of your team. Please reach out to hello@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

Keep reading below to find out more about each of these benefits.

4 Reasons to Consider Design Thinking Training

1. You’ll Learn Top Job Skills for the Future

Design thinking skills, which prioritize collaboration, customer research, and iteration are some of the top abilities that people need for today’s (and tomorrow’s) workplace. The top skills for the 21st century have been described as the 4 Cs: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. These four skills are vital components of any design thinking training.

Not only that, but companies are actively seeking out employees who have these critical skills. In an article called “Is Design Thinking a Skill?”, Dr. Deborah Sliver, Karen Bemis, and Sue Weston cite a fascinating statistic: “Between 2016 and 2018 there was a 200% increase in jobs seeking design thinking compared with a 6% increase in all positions.”

Four of the top skills for the 21st century are: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

2. You’ll Be More Successful

Another reason to consider design thinking training is that there are undeniable business outcomes for companies that work in this way. Check out this stat: “When design principles are applied to strategy and innovation, the success rate for innovation dramatically improves. Design-led companies such as Apple, Pepsi, IBM, Nike, Procter & Gamble, and SAP have outperformed the S&P 500 over a 10-year period by an extraordinary 211% according to the 2015 Design Value Index created by the Design Management Institute and Motiv Strategies.” — Creativity at Work

Design-led companies such as Apple, Pepsi, IBM, Nike, Procter & Gamble, and SAP have outperformed the S&P 500 over a 10-year period by 211%. -Source: Design Value Index.

Here’s another compelling statistic: “Salesforce’s sales team…has embraced design thinking in its sales discovery process and has realized a 100% increase in revenue growth as a result.” These stats show that design thinking leads to the concrete outcomes and big pay-off that companies are always seeking.

3. You’ll Understand Your Users or Customers Better

Design thinking is a method that prioritizes empathy, above all. Having compassion for your clients, customers, or users is paramount; design thinking teaches that we should make decisions based on user needs, not what’s easy, cheap, technically-possible, or what the boss thinks is important. This attitude is what’s known as being user-centered or human-centered.

“The User-centered design (UCD) process outlines the phases throughout a design and development life-cycle all while focusing on gaining a deep understanding of who will be using the product.” — Usability.gov

Through design thinking training, you’ll learn how to start projects by understanding your users better. You’ll learn how to make business and design decisions from that vantage point. Fundamental to this is learning how to conduct user research and ethnographic research. You’ll learn how to talk to your users to understand their lives, needs, desires, and pain points.

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4. You’ll Prototype More and Guess Less

“For human-centered designers, Rapid Prototyping is an incredibly effective way to make ideas tangible, to learn through making, and to quickly get key feedback from the people you’re designing for.” — IDEO.org

Along with the importance of user research, design thinking training teaches you how powerful the practice of prototyping can be. The idea behind prototyping is that, instead of building a full product or app, you quickly draw up a simulation of your design — whether that’s a sketch or a prototype created using a prototyping tool like Figma, Sketch, or Framer.

Your prototype is something concrete and real that you can show to customers to get feedback so you can refine and iterate on your design to make it better. When you get into a prototyping mindset, you can move quickly and gain invaluable insights into your product.

These are four massive benefits that a team can get out of Design Thinking training. If you decide to engage, we think you’ll find that it’s an exciting, collaborative, and insightful way of working. If you want to know more, please get in touch with us!

Do you want expert help with Design Thinking Training? Let’s talk.

Voltage Control designs custom engagements for clients, including design thinking workshops, innovation sessions, and Design Sprints. Please reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com for a consultation.

We also host regular meetups, boot camps, summits, and virtual workshops–from Professional Virtual Facilitation Training to our annual Control the Room Facilitator Summit. To sign up or learn more.

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Last month, I ran a Design Sprint for a financial company and, while I’ve run quite a few sprints for them, this one was a bit different because of the sensitivity of the topic. We were exploring a product related to illness and injury, which meant that we needed to approach our user interviews with additional care and thought. Making participants feel comfortable is key to any user interview; however, these particular conversations reminded me that there are specific subjects that require more discretion and planning.

When you’re designing products or experiences around healthcare, medicine, mental health, end-of-life, or other potentially-sensitive issues, it’s essential to take a thoughtful, considered approach to how you talk to users to avoid creating additional anxiety or trauma. The researcher’s desire to get feedback and information has to be tempered by humble and deep respect for the person’s situation.

If you have the opportunity to work on one of these projects, I’d like to help you prepare. Based on my recent experience, I wanted to share some thoughts and tips in case you find yourself working on research that has you interviewing people on sensitive topics or issues.

Before the User Interviews

The first step is acknowledging that this set of interviews is going to require more thought (and thoughtfulness) than a conversation about, let’s say, a ride-share app or a new retail website. Details like when, where, and how your interviews take place become critical.

As you build your interview protocol, think about potential barriers or difficulties for your specific users. For example, if you are interviewing families who have a sick child to understand their healthcare needs, you might have to structure your interviews differently than you usually do. You’d want to consider having the visit take place at the person’s home versus an office space, so your participants don’t have to provide childcare. You might also be more flexible about the timing of the interviews so that it can happen at an ideal time for the family. Or, if you typically conduct interviews remotely or via video conference, you might need to think about doing in-person interviews to get richer, first-hand experience with your participants.

Another good idea when you are dealing with sensitive topics is to run test interviews before your first official interview. This lets you identify any issues with your interview structure or questions before you meet your actual participants. Ask a colleague, friend, or family member to run through the protocol with you.

As you go through your interview plan in this “test run,” you’ll get an idea if there are questions that might be insensitive, need to be worded differently, or where there are transitions that are too abrupt.

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It’s the case with all human-centered design, but even more essential when you’re researching sensitive topics — approach your interview with compassion, humility, and empathy.

It’s the case with all human-centered design, but even more essential when you’re researching sensitive topics — approach your interview with compassion, humility, and empathy. Remember that the conversation is not for your benefit, but to understand your end-users so you can design something that will improve their lives.

At the Start of the User Interview

Hopefully, you’ve secured a quiet, calm place where the interviews will take place. Anticipate your participant’s needs by having things like water and tissues ready for them. The more you can do to create a safe, supportive environment, the better.

Typically, user interviews begin with paperwork, a discussion of the overall project and goals, and the facilitator letting the participants know that their information will be kept confidential. In the case of sensitive user interviews that deal with topics like healthcare, you might need to allocate a little more time for this up-front conversation. Anticipate that you’ll spend more time answering questions and informing participants about how their information and story might be used after the interview.

Similarly, be conscious of how you start the interview. Take the time to build rapport with your interviewee before jumping into probing, intense, or potentially-emotional questions. Think about how you will naturally ramp up from more general topics to the more sensitive ones.

Lastly, at the start of your interview, be sure to let your interviewee know that you are aware that you are discussing a sensitive topic and that they are free to pause or stop the conversation at any time.

During the User Interviews

So, you’ve planned your interviews well and hopefully started the conversation off on the right foot and with an empathetic tone. Now, you’re in the interview itself. What do you do if your participant becomes emotional or upset? Be prepared with how you’re going to approach this moment.

In the interviews I mentioned above, I had to pause for several interviewees who became upset when we were talking. So, that’s the first thing I would recommend here — just pause. Hopefully, it goes without saying, but there is no need to plow through your interview guide and keep asking questions when the person in front of you is shaken, crying, or upset. Take a pause. Check-in with your participant. Let them know they can take a break or end early if they need to.

If the interviewee is still upset after you continue, don’t hesitate to cut the interview short and wrap it up. But, let them know that you can stay with them or that you can call someone else to be with them. Don’t leave anyone in a state of distress.

However, most of the time, when you take your time, let people take a breath, and approach your participants with empathy, respect, and kindness, you will be able to continue your interview.

Interviewing people about emotionally-charged topics during your Design Sprint requires more thought and planning, but the rewards are great. Through your conversations, you’re gathering invaluable, authentic information and insights about critical subject matter. After, you’ll be able to design products and experiences with specific people and their stories at the top of your mind.

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I’ve coached countless startups on how to conduct better prototype interviews. Many of my tips and tricks were highlighted in my post Mastering the 5 Act User Interview. There, I underscored the importance of a moderator guide. Now, I’m sharing the official Voltage Control Moderator Guide along with instructions on how to use it. I’ve found that startup founders and other novice researchers benefit greatly from having this guide printed out and with them as they facilitate interviews.

Download the template here, but please read on for detailed instructions of how and why to use it!

Let me start by giving a big THANK YOU to Michael Margolis. Michael is a UX Research Partner at Google Ventures. I had the honor of working with him when Google Ventures lead my startup’s series A. I had worked with many researchers in the past; however, it was immediately clear that there was something special about Michael. Not only was he an amazing researcher and highly skilled at teasing out the most important insights from users, but he was also adept at teaching others how to do it.

Michael distilled his method into a repeatable process called the Google Ventures Research Sprint, which like the Design Sprint, culminates in a 5 Act Interview with real users. If you are looking for extra inspiration, check out Micheal’s advice on how to write good context questions and tips on how to build out your prototype section.

Our moderator guide

The Voltage Control Moderator Guide is a Google doc that we use for every Design Sprint we run. Even our most seasoned interviewers find it useful because it forces them to outline their interview in a consistent manner and gives them a map to come back to if the conversation starts to meander. I personally find it helpful to make sure I don’t run out of time. I rely heavily on the timing of each section and use that to stay aware of my overall timing.

Project Details

The guide starts with a few details on the project to help us remember when we are looking back at old guides.

Questions

We rewrite our Sprint Questions and Prototype Questions as Yes/No questions and place them at the top of our guides. We do this so that we keep these top of mind as we are writing our guide and also as we moderate the interview to remind us how the team will be scoring the interview. Check out our official scorecard for more details on how to rewrite the questions and interview scoring.

Setup

Setup is about logistics and making sure your environment is configured properly. Setup will vary based on your style, tools used, and whether your interviews are in-person or remote. We recommend that you tweak this section to suit your needs.

Links

Copy over your meeting link (Zoom, GoToMeeting, Google Meet, etc) and your prototype link (Invision, XD, Keynote, etc) so you’ll have it at your fingertips.

Reminders

These reminders are especially helpful if you are new to interviewing or don’t do it often. Even if you are a seasoned pro, I recommend leaving them. It never hurts to be reminded and you never know when someone else might have to step in!

Reset Meeting

Because this guide is used for interviewing five users in one day, the reset meeting section includes tasks that need to be done prior to each interview session. It includes things like muting yourself, stopping your video, and stopping the recording.

Testers

The testers table is a quick reference for names/times as well as relevant details about the testers. Look through your context questions and see what you already know about the testers from your screener. Put these details in this table for a handy reference.

Hello & Welcome

A simple script to greet and put the tester at ease. Feel free to edit to match your voice and style.

Background and build rapport

Here we capture the context questions which help build rapport and also provide more context into how the user thinks about your problem space. These questions also help the tester transition from whatever they were previously dealing with or thinking about and into role-playing the scenario you are testing.

Introduce Prototype

A simple script to help transition the user into the prototype. Feel free to edit to match your voice and style.

Prototype

The prototype section documents the click flow of your prototype. While we recommend memorizing the prototype prior to the interview, this simple map is a life-saver if you get stuck. Also, it can serve as a checklist if the user is clicking around and you want to make sure that you cover the important pieces.

Debrief

The debrief is always my favorite part of the interview. It’s an opportunity for the tester to reflect on what they saw and get an understanding of the impression it made and how they might think about it after the interview. This section includes some of my favorite debrief questions. Feel free to add, remove, or change them!

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Cool Down

A simple script to wrap up and thank the participant. Feel free to edit to match your voice and style.

How to Use The Voltage Control Sprint Mod Guide

The official Voltage Control Sprint Moderator Guide will help you get the most out of your 5-Act user interviews. When testing with 5 users, it’s critical that you run the interviews properly. Our guide helps you stick to important details. The template is simple to use: once you open it, simply make a copy and rename it. Then follow the steps below to set it up for your interview.

Setting Up Your Moderator Guide

1. Click File/Make a copy to create your own version of the guide.
2. Enter the project name and date of interviews.
3. Paste in your Sprint questions and Prototype questions. The template has room for five of each, but simply edit to your needs. Note: I like to keep the S: and P: prefixes for Sprint and Prototype questions, so that I can copy and paste them directly into the scorecard. Learn more about questions and the scorecard here.
4. Paste in your meeting link.
5. Paste in your prototype link.
6. Add a description of your test.
7. Craft about 10 context questions. It’s helpful to have more than you need for the quick talkers or when some of the questions just don’t relate to a particular tester.
8. Edit the prototype section to include a click flow map of each prototype. Sometime we test multiple solutions or include a few competitors. In that case it’s important to include them all in this section. If you are only testing one prototype, just delete the extra click maps. To make a click flow map, first add names of each screen in the prototype. Under each name type in each active link followed by an arrow and the name of the page the link goes to. Review your sprint and prototype questions and make sure to make a note on pages that need extra attention.
9. Review all sections and adjust times as needed. You’ll want to make sure that you can complete the entire interview within 45 minutes to an hour depending on how you book your interviews. Adjust each section to ensure you can finish on time! Remember to do a trial run to see how long it takes to get through your prototype(s).
10. Review all sections and remove or change anything that may not apply to you or add things you think are missing. You’ll adapt and grow this list overtime until it tailor fits you.

PROTIP: Did you email your testers to remind them of their timeslot and share the meeting link?

Using the Moderator Guide

Day Before

1. Open your Moderator guide.
2. Print the guide.
3. Review setup and make sure everything is on track.
4. Re-read your questions.
5. Do a trial run through all steps; it’s especially important to walk through your prototype(s).
6. Setup the interview and observation rooms to address any potential connectively and AV issues.

PROTIP: If you are a doodler like me, have some scratch paper handy or print a copy of the guide per tester.

Day Of

1. Review setup and make sure everything is on track.
2. Re-read your questions & reminders.
3. Reset the meeting.
4. Start the interview.
5. Check off the tester in the tester table.
6. Follow each step of the interview.
7. Repeat steps 9 to 12.

I hope that our interview guide helps you as much as it has helped us. We no longer have worry about interviews going too long or not teasing out the most critical insights. Instead, we have a repeatable process that is focused and streamlined.

The post The Voltage Control Sprint Moderator Guide appeared first on Voltage Control.

The 5 Act Interview is a structured 1-on-1 interview format developed at Google Ventures as part of their Design Sprint workshop methodology.

At Voltage Control, I often moderate interviews on behalf of my clients. Some of our clients don’t have UX Researchers on staff, their teams aren’t experienced in this type of interviewing, or they are too overwhelmed with other work to help out. When not running the interviews, I’m often coaching my clients or startups that I mentor on how to get the most out of their interviews. These coaching sessions are full of tips and tricks from my experiences moderating nearly a thousand interviews and watching countless others. I hope this post helps you refine and improve your 5 Act interview.

Respect The Craft

Just because you didn’t go to school for something, it doesn’t mean you can’t be good at it. I did not go to school for UX research, but it’s a craft I’ve honed because I’m passionate about it.

Becoming a great researcher begins with a commitment to the continual improvement of your process. You should always be looking at your last interview—think about how it went and what you can do better next time. Focus on evolving and deepening your skills with each interview.

Be Friendly and Set Expectations

With only an hour to spend with each tester, you need to set things up for success quickly. Be friendly and set expectations to avoid fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Provide context about the project and discuss how the process works. Remind them why they were chosen and thank them for their perspective.

If relevant, let them know that team members will be observing from another room. Point out that while the team will be watching, you’ll be the only one interacting and talking with the tester. Get their permission to record the session.

Scrutinize the Screener

It can be easy to blame the recruiting when you hear feedback that is unsettling or that challenges some of your beliefs. Spend plenty of time on your screener and make sure that it is bulletproof.

Start with your Goal and Target in mind, and build a list of attributes that define the individuals you’d like to gather insights from. In addition to considering inclusive criteria, explore the things that would cause you to exclude someone from your study. When writing the screener, combine the inclusive and exclusive criteria in ways that obfuscate your desired test subject’s attributes. I even like to throw in extra questions or answers that will throw off applicants that are just trying to interview for the compensation.

I recommend sharing your Screener with your entire Sprint team before it goes out to get additional feedback.

Pro Tip: Use this worksheet from Google Ventures for writing a screener

Make a Mod Guide

A good interview starts with an interview guide, also known as the “mod guide.” Start by re-writing your Sprint questions as “Yes/No” questions such that the desired answer is “Yes.” This will help reduce confusion on the team with scoring the interviews. Collect questions from the team about the prototype, capture all their curiosities and concerns as “Yes/No” questions.

Additionally, write a series of “context” questions that dive into the tester’s prior experiences, opinions, desires, fears, and concerns. Include a prototype guide that maps out each page and lists the active hot spots. If there are specific concerns or things to explore, they can be placed on this map. Last, write a set of debriefing questions.

I also like include a reference section and a set of reminders. The reminders are there to remind me to turn off notifications, clear my desktop, prepare necessary links, etc. When I first started running interviews, I would add things to this reminders list as I tripped over things or bumped into issues while conducting an interview. Over time you’ll have a mod guide template that is tailored to your needs.

Pace Yourself

Pace out your interview so that you can make the most of your time with the user. Don’t go too quickly. Allow time for the user to explain themselves. Probe deeper if needed.

Plan out your schedule ahead of time. Decide how much time you want to spend on section or topic. Put this schedule in your mod guide and stick to it. Relying on this pre-defined schedule will help you keep the lower priority conversations from taking up the whole interview.

Context Questions

Take your time to build rapport, see what comes out, don’t move onto the prototype too quickly. The context questions are a great way to learn more about a user and how they think about or use your product.

Ask questions to understand the interviewee’s background as well as how they’ve used your product in the past. These insights can be helpful additions to existing research that has been done. They can also help to bucket the tester into a “Jobs To Be Done” category or other affinity groups you are using for your users.

These questions also allow you to put the user at ease before introducing the prototype. They provide a moment for the tester to transition into the more detailed work of responding to your prototype. This transition is vital for collecting honest and accurate insights.

Introducing the Prototype

Start with a simple explanation of prototypes. Explain that some things may not work and that’s ok. Tell them that there are no right or wrong answers and that they can’t hurt your feelings or flatter you.

Ask them to speak out loud. Point out things they love, things they hate, things that confuse them, or things that jump out for some reason or another. Remind them that you’ll be there to guide them and will encourage them to speak up when they get quiet.

Don’t Skip the Segue

Design Sprint prototypes always start with a segue. The first few screens of a prototype are dedicated to transitioning the user into the experience. Even though we’ve warmed them up with context questions and got their “head in the game,” we don’t want to drop them deep into a prototype without any context.

Typically we will start them off with a screen or visual that sets up our scenario. They may be looking at a Google search bar if we expect them to do a Google search, they may be looking at a fictional TechCrunch article or a mock ad on a popular website. We’ve even started with an email from their boss.

Even though we aren’t “testing” these initial screens of the prototype, it’s essential for the user to start here. This is their tunnel into the prototype and helps them deeply transition into the scenario.

Focus on Desirability

Often I see interviewers concentrating on usability. However, you’ll get much more significant insights if you focus on desirability. While your mod guide will have a list of tasks you’d like to complete, the interview shouldn’t be overly prescriptive about what the user is doing and/or how easy it is to do things. Instead, you are seeking to learn their level of excitement or intrigue for the solution concept. Listen carefully to the language they use and what peaks their interest and where they get bored.

Embrace Serendipity

Allow the user to choose their own adventure. You’ll learn some unexpected things that you wouldn’t have learned with a rigid approach. Instead of giving the user a set of tasks to complete, follow them through the experience and see where they go, in what order and why. If you missed some things along the way, back up and explore them. Ask them why they initially skipped over them.

Introduce Alternative Scenarios

Even when we’ve spent a lot of time upfront crafting the perfect scenarios, we can be confronted with new revelations during the interview. Either the user gets stuck or confused by the script, or the conversation reveals a new situation that might be useful to pursue. You can gather additional insights into how the user reacts to the solution by introducing these alternative scenarios.

I find this especially useful when the user is confused or gets tripped up on some details in the scenario. Sometimes they keep defaulting to something that is more familiar with them. In that case, it is helpful to introduce some nuance to the scenario to help them perceive it as a new and different situation. Other times the user will say something that prompts me to develop an entirely new scenario on the fly.

Flip the Yes/No

When moderating interviews, be conscious not to bias the tester by asking “Yes/No” questions. (Also, multiple choice questions are in fact “Yes/No” questions in disguise.) If you are anything like me, you probably still blurt out some leading questions by mistake. When this happens, just tack on something more “open.” When you hear that “Yes/No” question come out of your mouth, immediately follow it up with something that prompts them to expound on their answer.

If you can’t tack on before they answer or you didn’t even realize you did it until you hear them say “Yes,” you can just ask them “Why?” or “Could you expand on that for me?” It’s not ideal to prime them with that “Yes,” however, if you can get them talking, then you might just salvage the situation and get some really valuable insights which might negate that “Yes.”

Have you ever noticed that almost 100% of the time testers will say “Yes” when asked a “Y/N” question? Test subjects are prone to be agreeable, which can skew results. For this reason, I encourage founders and innovators to seek to disprove their beliefs. Instead of searching for confirmation, search for things that contradict your beliefs!

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Be Vague

Another way to avoid bias is to be vague in the language you use when asking uestions. Avoid saying specific words that appear in the UI such as “Buy Now” or “Pricing” or “Learning Center.” You want to know what users see naturally and how they interpret them. Instead, you want to be vague and provide general guidance to nudge them toward the object in question. Spend some time when crafting your mod guide to write some of these unbiased prompts.

You should also avoid asking if they would click on a button or even what they would click on. A more generic prompt like “What would you do next?” gives them much more freedom in how they might respond, which will provide you with a more truthful answer.

Here’s some of my favorites probing questions:

• What’s that there above search?
• Can you explain what that blue thing does?
• Can you explain that to me?
• What would you do next?
• Can you elaborate on that?
• What do you think about that? How does it make you feel?

Make Them Repeat It

When a user says something that is vague or confusing, it is tempting to say “Did you just say XYZ?” If it is unclear what they said, ask them to repeat it. (“I’m not sure I understood that” or “Could you repeat that?”)

While you could argue that this is an OK time to ask a “Y/N” question, it is preferred to ask them to repeat themselves.

Sometimes I do this for the benefit of my observers, to ensure that they got a clear understanding of the tester’s line of thinking. Other times, I do it because I have a hunch that there is more to what they are saying than is immediately apparent. For instance, I may think that an innocuous statement may actually be more profound than it seems on the surface, so I’ll dig in and make them go deeper to expose this broader implication.

Probe For Expectations

One of my favorite techniques is to slow the user down and have them explain their expectations and interpretations of things before clicking through to reveal subsequent parts of the prototype. Sometimes we design “waiting” screens just to slow down the user and give the interviewer an opportunity to talk with them before they jump to the next important screen.

Once I collect their observations and thoughts, I’ll ask them to proceed forward to the next screen. Then I’ll ask them how this matches their expectations. Sometimes, it clearly doesn’t match, but it may be better than they were expecting. We explore all of this together. Did this shock them? In a good way or did it bum them out?

Tease Out Details

Dig into your tester’s responses and comments, ask follow-on questions and dive deep into the details. Your goal is to pick up on the user’s nuances and preferences and then ask them further questions related to those. Think about different ways to ask “why?” Asking “why?” repeatedly is an effective way to dive deeper into the inquiry, but it can exhaust your tester. Instead, think of ways to dress up the language, or how to ask why using different words each time.

Explore the Unknown

If your prototype only hints at features but doesn’t show the details, you can still ask the user about what they expect from that feature. One of my favorite things to do is to ask the tester what they would expect to happen if they clicked on something.

For instance, imagine they try to click on a button that is not actively in the interface. The button was placed there for a reason, maybe the team had talked about how they would like to support personalized content, and this button would allow the user to set those preferences. When the user tries to click on that button, I might say: “What do you think this is? What do you expect to happen if you clicked on it?” This gives us perspective on how the user thinks about this part of the solution and if they consider it helpful.

Embrace the Unexpected

If some feedback surfaces that isn’t directly related to the prototype goals, you can still seize the moment to get more understanding of the user’s past experience with both your product and competitor products. Explore these areas and allow the user to go deeper into those areas as time permits. Sometimes these insights will provide unique and unexpected insights that can be profound and transformative.

Always Debrief

Before ending the session, debrief to get final insights, such as how they would explain the prototype in their own words and what they would change. This moment of reflection is a great way to capture their major objections and overall impressions. I especially like to hear the words they use to describe the solution as they are reflecting on what they saw.

Some of my favorite debrief questions:

• What surprised you about what you saw today?
• Who do you think would use something like this?
• In your own words, how would you describe it to a friend?
• What are the pros and cons of this prototype?
• How does it compare to things you’ve seen in the past?
• If you had a magic wand and could add, remove, or tweak anything about what you saw today, what would you change?
• How would you feel about using this in the future?
• What else should we know?

Scorecard

Skip the post-it notes; they are too messy to deal with at the end of a long day. Instead, make an online scorecard that everyone can fill out in real time. At Voltage Control, we use a shared Google Sheets file. The sheet has all the Sprint Questions listed out and also includes Prototype questions. They are all Y/N question, 1 per row and 1 column per tester. This workbook is duplicated per Sprint team member. Each team member will score each question for each interview. There is a section at the bottom of capturing big insights and quotes!

The following week, the recap goes much smoother as all of the notes and quotes are already in the same Google Sheets file. We review this doc together, discussing any disagreements and synthesizing all our findings into an action plan.

Hopefully, these thoughts will help you improve your 5 Act Interview. I would love to hear about your experiences applying these ideas, or if you have additional ideas or tweaks. Please comment below and we can all become better listeners together! If you found this post helpful, please clap. Clapping helps the content reach more people like you.

The post Mastering the 5 Act User Interview appeared first on Voltage Control.

When talking with potential customers about Design Sprints I always spend some time explaining how to properly conduct the interviews on Day 5. I still encounter quite a few entrepreneurs and proprietors who are not familiar with this style of user research and confuse it with focus groups or usability studies. Without proper context on how to prepare and conduct these interviews, the outcomes are flawed and not reliable. In an effort to help you dive into your first interviews, I’ve compiled a list of common mistakes and pitfalls.

Poor Recruiting

Recruiting 5 users in 2–3 days is often a challenge. First, be super careful that you are talking to the right people; take the time to prepare a proper screener. Ask yourself what fundamental research questions you need to answer, then work backwards to determine who you need to engage. Otherwise, you risk tainting the experiment by talking to people, then challenging the recruit. Be explicit up front.

Consider the following:

• Are you looking for a new or existing user?
• Are they people who fit your Sprint target?
• Whom should we exclude?

Ask yourself what fundamental research questions you need to answer, then work backwards to determine who you need to engage.

Insufficient Interview Preparation

Build an interview plan. Start with a reminders section of important logistical things that are often easy to forget when in the heat of the moment, i.e. clean up desktop, turn off notifications, turn on caffeine app, etc.

The most neglected part of an interview is the ice-breaker. The next section of your plan should include your chit chat and warm-up questions. Think of your interviews as a flow or story arc. How will you transition and slowly guide the conversation into the topic that is at hand, without them realizing it? It is often helpful to review the recruiting screener answers for specific details about each user. Using these user specific details can help you build rapport and put them at ease.

After the warm-up questions, include a section per prototype/site you are testing. These should include your Sprint questions and any additional questions you now have, after building the prototype. Remember to challenge your assumptions.

Not all the links in the prototype will work. Spend time to familiarize yourself with the prototype so that you can assist this user when they get confused or lost. This will ensure that the interview keeps moving fluidly. Sometimes I will mock interview one of the other Sprint participants or my wife so that the first interview of the day runs without a hitch.

If you are conducting an in person interview, remember the breath mints!

Not building Rapport

Building rapport is important. When your user arrives for the session, pay close attention to your tone and body language. Smile and do whatever you can to make sure they are comfortable and feel taken care of. It is tempting to jump straight into hard questions, but if you do, you’ll come across as a lawyer and your user won’t likely open up to you. If you are conducting an in-person interview, remember the breath mints!

Pitching Your Ideas

Founders are habituated to pitching their ideas. They are pitching to convince investors to fund them, employees to join them, other companies to partner with them, and customers to buy their product. This makes it really hard for founders to switch to a listening mode, as they are in a different mode. They are pushing, not pulling and aren’t truly open to the candidates feedback. It is critical that the interviewer not present or show things, but instead simply setup the environment and begin to observe and listen.

Taking Your Own Notes

When taking your own notes, you are distracted and will miss much of the nuance. With a dedicated notetaker, you can concentrate on subtle cues from the user and dig deeper to extract more insights from them. Likewise, your notetaker will take better notes, as they can concentrate on simply capturing all the details, without having to concern themselves with the conversation.

Don’t reject feedback simply because you don’t hear what you want to hear.

Confirmation Bias

Most people are afraid of being wrong. We are taught from a young age to always know the correct answer. Because it is uncomfortable to be wrong, our brains skillfully steer us away from discovering we are wrong. As a result, it is tempting to discount or explain away evidence that doesn’t match our assumptions. Don’t reject feedback simply because you don’t hear what you want to hear.

A simple way to avoid confirmation bias is to craft your interview questions such that they attempt to disprove your assumptions. Ask yourself, what are you afraid of hearing? Keeping referring back to Sprint questions. If you truly got pessimistic, then those questions should guide you away from confirmation bias.

Stakeholders Not Watching in Real-Time

When stakeholders don’t watch the interviews in real-time, it is impossible for them to empathize with the user. If they rely on a summary from the team or are simply reviewing a previously recorded session, they will inevitably rely on their prior assumptions and will be skeptical of anything that doesn’t align with their current opinions.

Rambunctious Observation Room

Interviews are often exciting, as they can lead to both cheerful and heartbroken moments. Similar to a sporting match, it is easy to fall into a mode of cheering and booing. When this happens it is extremely difficult for anyone in the room to take objective notes. These moments are usually followed by more nuanced reactions or comments which are usually lost in the chaos. If your team, like many, are susceptible to this behavior, consider having everyone use individual headphones. This reduces the temptation to speak out and when someone does, they are less distracting to the others in the room.

Jumping to Conclusions

It is important to remain objective throughout the entire day. Don’t extract meaning from what one individual user tells you. Instead, wait for the patterns that emerge after interviewing all 5 of the users. Also, remember that at the end of the day, you are susceptible to recency bias. Your memories of the last interview are more vivid than the first. Provide ample time to digest all of the interviews and adequately synthesize the learnings. I advise my clients to meet the following week to discuss their insights and key takeaways.

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