Have a Plan

What do you want to learn?

Make sure that you are aligned with the client or project owner about the goals of the project. I will usually do stakeholder interviews right away to make sure that I have as much buy-in and guidance as possible. Also, stakeholder interviews usually help uncover useful secondary information.

Homework

For most projects I create a homework assignment to get respondents “primed” before we meet with them. Homework assignments can range from camera studies, to consumption journals, to collages.

The Discussion Guide

The protocol is the script for the interview, and possibly one of the most important documents in the project. The protocol should be based on project goals and crafted to create an interview that can be analyzed easily. I usually include a couple of activities in a typical interview, all geared toward gaining insight on the topic we are studying.

When writing a discussion guide

• Bowtie Shaped (broad-narrow-broad)
• Warm-up using the homework assignment
• Create clear sections for easy analysis
• Avoid close ended questions
• Avoid leading questions

Field notes

After I create the protocol, I use the flow of the protocol to create field notebooks for my team and clients. These books are a place for interview observers to take notes that are organized for the debrief. The books also help observers make sure that the moderator has covered all of the key areas.

Example discussion guide field notes book:

Debrief

Immediately following the interview the team should meet to review the notes they took. I usually create a digital form for capturing debrief insights. These forms can be used later to provide context during idea generation brainstorms.