Setting The Right Tone For User Experience Interviews

During a Usability test, noticed that sometimes users tend to put on their 'best performance’ when they're being watched? You're likely witnessing the Hawthorne effect in action! Happens with us as well. When working from home, during meetings, you're more attentive, nodding more, and sitting up straighter, not just because you're engaged, but because you're aware that your colleagues can see you. This subtle shift in your behaviour due to the awareness of being observed is a daily manifestation of the Observation bias or Hawthorne effect. In the context of UX studies, participants often alter their behaviour because they know they're being observed. They might persist through long loading times or navigate more patiently, not because that's their natural behaviour, but to meet what they perceive are the expectations of the researcher. This phenomenon can yield misleading data, painting a rosier picture of user satisfaction and interaction than is true. When it comes to UX research, this effect can skew results because participants may alter how they interact with a product under observation. Here are some strategies to mitigate this bias in UX research: 🤝 Building Rapport:  Setting a casual tone from the start can also help, engaging in small talk to ease participants into the testing environment and subtly guiding them without being overly friendly. 🎯 Design Realistic Scenarios: Create tasks that reflect typical use cases to ensure participants' actions are as natural as possible.    🗣 Ease Into Testing: Use casual conversation to make participants comfortable and clarify that the session is informal and observational. 💡Set Clear Expectations: Tell participants that their natural behavior is what's needed, and that there's no right or wrong way to navigate the tasks. ✅ Value Honesty Over Perfection: Reinforce that the study aims to find design flaws, not user flaws, and that honest feedback is crucial. 🛑 Remind Them It's Not a Test: If participants apologise for mistakes, remind them that they're helping identify areas for improvement, not being graded. So the next time you're observing a test session and the participant seems to channel their inner tech wizard, remember—it might just be the Hawthorne effect rather than a sudden surge in digital prowess. Unmasking this 'performance' is key to genuine insights, because in the end, we're designing for humans, not stage actors. #uxresearch #uxtips #uxcommunity #ux

In the first company we founded (and exited), we talked to thousands of users. Here at Pivot (YC S22), we just crossed our first 100. We are obsessed about speaking to users. But how do we talk to users effectively? Here are the top 4 tactics that have helped us gain valuable insights: 1/ Spend the first 5 minutes just talking about their lives. Don’t approach user conversations like a sales pitch. I know that it’s tempting to push the call towards your goals, or perhaps you are worried about wasting the other person’s time. But resist that urge! Instead, focus on genuinely getting to know them as if you’re making a new friend. First, this provides valuable context about who they are and what matters to them, helping you better make sense of their insights. Second, this deeper connection fosters genuine care for each user, which is key to building a successful company. 2/ Look for Lightbulb Moments. These rare moments provide unique insights that bring us closer to achieving Product Market Fit. For instance, Brian Chesky went down to Airbnb hosts just to realise that they needed help with photography, and Brian Armstrong phoned up all early Coinbase users just to learn from one guy the importance of a "Buy Bitcoin" button. By staying patient and attentive, a single comment from a user can spark a breakthrough idea. Even if 100 conversations don't yield Lightbulb Moments, the next one just might. It is our job to look out for them. 3/ “Huh! That’s interesting. Tell me more.” This is the go-to statement whenever a user shares something unexpected or unusual. Ask it, then pause and let them respond. While it may catch users off guard initially, it prompts them to reflect on their feelings, often resulting in a more detailed and nuanced explanation. This could just lead to a valuable Lightbulb Moment (as mentioned earlier). 4/ 5 consecutive “whys” when seeking an explanation. The 1st “why” might uncover something interesting, but it’s not until you get to the 5th “why” that you start to unearth their deepest motivations and underlying pain points. These are often things that the user themselves may not even be aware of. This technique helps us move past surface-level feedback to gain deeper insights, guiding our product development and UX from first principles. Ultimately, this helps us create something users truly want. The best founders continue to talk directly to their users even after they've reached $100M+ in ARR. It's crucial that we start making this our superpower today. I’d love to learn about other tactics that have worked for you as well, feel free to drop them in the comments below 👇

When I teach new researchers how to conduct interviews for the first time, I like to stick to 3 guiding principles. When first learning, it can be overwhelming for new researchers to remember a long list of do's/don'ts or specific phrasing, tricks, or techniques to use or avoid. Instead, I want new researchers to first practice active listening and empathy, offering neutral questions and responses, and staying aligned with the research goals. If we can get these 3 principles down, we're in a good place to work on further fine-tuning interviewing skills from that solid foundation. 1. Active Listening 💕 Focus on truly understanding the user’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and showing them that you are interested and care about what they're telling you. Give your participant your full attention, use body language to show you're listening (e.g., nodding, eye contact), and notice for signs in their body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. You can respond to users' responses paraphrasing what they said to check for understanding, thoughtful follow-up questions, or an empathic acknowledgement of their feelings and experiences. The ultimate goal here is to foster trust and show participants you value what they're sharing with you, which can lead to more authentic, insightful feedback. 2. Neutral Questioning and Responses ❓ When asking questions and responding to participant answers, maintain neutrality. Avoid leading or priming questions that encourage participants to answer in a certain way or block them from exploring different directions. Focus on neutral, open-ended questions that encourage continued conversation and sharing. Neutrality doesn't mean being cold, we're still going to actively listening and show interest. You can warmly respond to users' responses in ways that don't reward or punish certain responses. We're just trying to set up our interaction the best we can so that users don't feel encouraged or deterred from providing certain feedback or sharing certain experiences. 3. Focus on Goals 🥅 Know the goals of the research and keep them in focus during the interview. If you know what the goals of the research are, you'll be much better able to formulate follow-up questions and follow the stories of users to relevant places your stakeholders are interested in. You'll also be aware of when to redirect or refocus the conversation when it veers too far away from the goals of your research. When I was starting out and feeling a bit shaky and nervous about interviewing, knowing the research goals well really helped me reaffirm to myself that I'm doing my job to answer our research questions, even if an interview didn't go as planned or if my confidence wavered. ❓ What other guiding principles helped you when you were first learning how to conduct user interviews? ❓ If you're currently learning how to conduct user interviews, what gaps do you see? #UXResearch #UserInterviews #QualitativeResearch #LearningUXR

The first time I ran a user interview, I nearly threw up…but now I’ve led hundreds and I built a script that makes it 10x easier…… I still remember the first time I was asked to lead one. → My stomach dropped. → Anxiety kicked in. → And I had no idea what I was doing. I said yes anyway. Luckily, I’d watched a few senior designers do it before, so I had a general idea of what not to do. Since then, I’ve run hundreds of interviews, and picked up a few tricks that make the whole thing feel way less intimidating. Here are 10 things that helped me get better (and still help to this day): ✅ Prep like it’s a meeting with your boss. Know who you’re talking to, what your goals are, and double check your tech setup and prototypes. ✅ Use a loose script. Having a flexible guide keeps you on track and helps settle nerves. ✅ Don’t read it word-for-word. It’s not a telemarketing call. Use the script as a guide, not like a teleprompter. ✅ Follow the flow of the conversation. Circle back later. Tangents are often where the gold is. Let the conversation breathe. ✅ Tag-team when possible. Alternate with a teammate to reset between sessions, especially helpful for introverts. ✅ Listen more. Talk Less. Embrace the silence. The most insightful comments often come after a pause. ✅ Be relatable. Find common ground. Help them feel like they’re talking to a real human. ✅ Smile. Laugh. Loosen up. This isn’t a courtroom deposition or an interrogation Keep it friendly. ✅ Make them the smart one. I love to poke fun at myself, it lowers walls and opens people up. ✅ Say thank you, often. Show appreciation as you go. It builds trust and keeps the momentum going. User interviews aren’t just a research tool. They’re a business driver. Better insight = better product decisions = better outcomes. Want the exact script I use? 👉🏻 Drop a “Script” in the comments and I’ll DM it to you.