Effective Customer Interviewing
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This document provides tips and guidance for effective customer interviewing. It outlines exercises for participants to practice interviewing skills in small groups where one person is the speaker, one the interviewer, and one the observer. The exercises focus on practicing open-ended questions, active listening, using silence and body language effectively, and gaining insights rather than just information. Reflection after each exercise allows participants to improve. The goal is to learn directly from customers rather than make assumptions, in order to deeply understand their needs and build products they want.
Effective Customer Interviewing
- 1. Effective Customer Interviewing Lean UX NYC 2013 Adrian Howard (@adrianh) quietstars.com
- 2. Hello!
- 3. Eh?
- 5. Tip: Drink!
- 6. ?
- 8. Stand up
- 10. A – B - C
- 11. A = Speaker B = Interviewer C = Observer
- 13. Interviewers: Chat with the speaker about their best restaurant experience.
- 14. Observers: Watch what happens. Write observations on post-it notes.
- 15. 2 minutes
- 16. Reflection
- 17. B = Speaker C = Interviewer A = Observer
- 19. Interviewers: Chat with the speaker about their best holiday experience.
- 21. Interviewers: After the first question – you cannot speak again. Shhhhh!
- 22. Observers: Watch what happens. Write observations on post-it notes.
- 23. 2 minutes
- 24. Reflection
- 25. The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting. - Fran Lebowitz
- 26. C = Speaker A = Interviewer B = Observer
- 28. Interviewers: Chat with the speaker about how they decorate & furnish their home.
- 29. Tip: Remember to use silence and body language.
- 31. Interviewers: After the first question you can only ask “Can you tell me more about X?”
- 32. Interviewers: (where X is something the speaker has previously mentioned).
- 33. Observers: Watch what happens. Write observations on post-it notes.
- 34. 4 minutes
- 35. Reflection
- 36. Tip: Reflect back what the speaker said.
- 37. Every clarification breeds new questions. - Arthur Bloch
- 38. Relax...
- 39. ?
- 43. Rapport
- 44. Why do we do interviews?
- 46. At the top of his lungs he screamed, “You don’t know a damn thing about what these customers need! You’ve never talked to anyone in this market, you don’t know who they are, you don’t know what they need, and you have no right to speak in any of these planning meetings.”
- 47. “I want you out of the building talking to customers; find out who they are, how they work, and what we need to do to sell them lots of these new computers.” Motioning to our VP of Sales, he ordered: “Go with him and get him in front of customers, and both of you don’t come back until you can tell us something we don’t know.”
- 50. Hassling people on the street
- 51. Tip: Bribes
- 52. Coffee shops
- 54. Go where your customers are
- 55. Sales
- 56. Marketing
- 57. Customer Support
- 58. Online
- 59. craigslist
- 60. Ethnio.net
- 63. 1) Learn what?
- 64. 2) From who?
- 65. Exercise time
- 66. Today you found a startup!
- 67. Exploring exciting new ways to create a great experience eating out
- 68. Helping people have the holiday of their dreams.
- 70. Build Topic Maps
- 71. Individually write down topics on post-it notes
- 72. 2m
- 73. Group and label them as a team
- 74. 5m
- 75. Interviewing
- 76. A = Speaker B = Interviewer C = Observer
- 78. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
- 79. 5m
- 80. Reflection
- 81. Interviewing
- 82. B = Speaker C = Interviewer A = Observer
- 83. Interviewers & Observers: Both note down speaker's key points.
- 85. What was the last book you read?
- 86. Can you tell me about the kind of books you read?
- 87. 5m
- 88. Reflection
- 89. Interviewing
- 90. C = Speaker A = Interviewer B = Observer
- 94. Can you tell me about the last time...
- 95. 5m
- 96. Reflection
- 97. Reflection
- 100. Further Reading
- 103. Coming soon
- 106. And if you're keen
- 107. Ch 7 of "Mental Models" by Indi Young Ch 10 of "User and Task Analysis for Interaction Design" Ch 9 & 10 of "User and Task Analysis for Interface Design" by JoAnn T. Hackos, Janice C. Redish Ch 6 of "Observing the User Experience" by Mike Kuniavsky, Elizabeth Goodman & Andrea Moed Ch 4 of "Contextual Design" by Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt
- 108. Bonus Exercise
- 109. How do we build a better conference experience