59 User Interview Questions + When to Use Them
💡 USER INTERVIEW TIPS:
Copy and adapt these questions as needed, based on your study goals and participant types
Try out your script with a test audience before sitting down with participants..
Start your script with a broad introduction to get participants comfortable and then narrow down into more specific topics.
Don’t ask leading or loaded questions:
ASK: What do you think about this product feature?
DO NOT ASK: What do you like about this product feature?
After the person responds, make sure to reflect back what you heard to them.
Be patient with silence—your participant may be thinking about how to best express their thoughts.,
Discovery Interview Questions
Getting-to-know-you questions
Learning goals: To broadly understand who your participants are as people—their motivations, interests, pain points, and the patterns of their daily lives.
Tell me about your role at work.
Tell me about the team you work on.
What does a typical day at work look like for you?
What did you do last weekend?
Tell me about your relationship with [activity/problem].
What’s the hardest part of being a [persona attribute]?
What are your hobbies? Tell me about the last time you did something for a hobby.
What are some of the apps and websites you use most often?
Digging in questions
Learning goals: To understand who your participants are as users or potential users. Dig into their experiences, attitudes, and desires as they relate to the problem you’re looking to solve.
What tasks take up the most time in your day?
When was the last time you did [activity]?
How often do you do [activity]?
Can you describe to me how you do [task]?
What is the difference between [X task] and [Y task]?
What's the hardest part about [activity]?
How do you currently address that pain point?
Tell me about how you currently solve [problem].
Have you created any workarounds to solve [problem]?
How much time do you currently spend on [activity]?
How does [X task] impact [Y task]?
How much time or money have you spent solving for [problem]?
Product/market fit questions
Learning goals: To uncover and understand demand for a product or service.
Tell me about your experience with [activity]
What tools have you used to solve [problem]?
What tools or items do you use to do [activity]?
How did you hear about the tools you use to currently solve [problem]?
Have you used any other tools in the past to solve [problem]?
What's your team's current budget for [activity]?
How much do or would you pay to have [activity] done for you?
How do you currently solve [problem]? Walk me through each step of the process.
What's your current process for completing [task]?
What could be easier about [task]?
Evaluative Interview Questions
Usability testing questions
Learning goals: To collect in-depth qualitative feedback on a user’s experience with a product or service in order to evaluate usability and inform design decisions.
Please describe your experience with [tool].
What do you think of this product/prototype?
How do you envision using this product in relation to [problem]?
Can you complete [activity] using this product or prototype?
What are your first thoughts as you look at this product or prototype?
What do you think this product or prototype will do?
If you were looking for [information] where would you expect to find it?
How easy or difficult was this product to navigate?
When you log on, what’s the first thing you do? Is there another way to complete this task?
What parts of the product do you use the most? Why?
What parts of the product do you use the least? Why?
What one thing are you most excited about with the product?
Why will you continue to use this product? What will stop you from using this product in the future?
Tell me about similar products you’ve used.
Does anything within this product seem out of place or unnecessary to you?
Was there anything missing from your experience with this product?
What, if anything, surprised you about this experience?
Do you know anyone who this product would be useful for? Describe them.
Continuous Interview Questions
Customer interview questions
Learning goals: To understand how customers are using your product, uncover pain points not evident in analytics data, and stay on top of evolving customer needs.
When was the last time you used our product? Tell me about your experience.
Tell me about how you and/or your team uses our product.
What's are your biggest frustrations with our product?
Why did you choose our product over a competitor?
Where does our product fit into your day to day activities?
Walk me through your typical workflow with our product.
How did you find our product?
Is there anything that would make your experience with our product more enjoyable?
Is there anything that our product enables you to do that you couldn't before?
Have you considered using a competitor instead of our product? Why or why not?
Does our product help you reach the KPIs you're held to at work? How so?
What do you wish our product could do that it can't today?
Originally seen on UserInterviews.com.
reviewed, vetted and shared by Kate Powell
