Run your first user interview with care.

Choose one question that an interview can answer

An interview can help you understand experiences, language, workarounds, and constraints. It cannot establish how often a behaviour occurs across a population or prove that a proposed interface will be usable. Write the decision you need to inform, then choose a question about someone’s recent experience. If your real question is whether someone can complete a task in a prototype, plan a usability session instead of disguising a product demonstration as an interview.

Recruit adults with relevant experience rather than only people who like your idea. Explain why you are asking them and avoid pressure from personal or workplace relationships. For beginner practice, choose a low-risk topic; sensitive or vulnerable contexts need experienced oversight and additional safeguards.

Prepare consent before preparing clever questions

Explain the purpose, expected duration, topics, observers, and how notes will be used. Make participation optional and allow questions, skipped topics, and stopping without explanation. Seek separate permission for recording; declining a recording should not automatically prevent participation. Agree on who can access the material, when it will be deleted, and how withdrawal requests will be handled. Follow applicable organisational and local requirements rather than treating a borrowed form as legal protection.

Use participant codes in working notes and keep any necessary contact or consent records separately with restricted access. Do not upload identifiable recordings or transcripts into public boards, design files, or unapproved AI services. A pseudonym alone does not make detailed personal experiences anonymous. Collect less when you cannot protect more.

Write prompts that invite a sequence of events

Prepare a short opening, a recent-experience prompt, a few neutral follow-ups, and a closing question. Ask what happened before asking for an opinion. Avoid questions that contain your preferred answer, praise your concept, or ask someone to predict future purchases. Do not demand exact recall; let people distinguish what they remember from what they are unsure about. Use the guide as a support, not a script you must finish.

Moderate without rescuing or interrogating

For a planned half-hour conversation, reserve time for consent and context, leave most of the session for the recent experience, and protect a few minutes for closing. Pilot the guide with a colleague to find confusing wording, but do not count that rehearsal as research with the intended audience. During the session, pause after an answer. A moment of silence can give someone room to remember without your suggestion steering them.

Reflect back your understanding and invite correction. If a topic becomes uncomfortable, offer to skip it or stop. Do not probe for private details simply because they make the story richer. Before closing, ask what you missed and explain the agreed next steps for their data. Do not promise product changes you cannot authorise.

Separate the record from your interpretation

Review notes promptly and mark direct quotations, paraphrases, and your own interpretations differently. Add the context needed to understand a statement without collecting unnecessary identifying detail. Organise the material around your research question, including conflicting experiences and unanswered questions. If you only remember the gist, label it as a paraphrase; do not reconstruct a convincing quotation.

Write a bounded summary that explains who was recruited, the relevant context, and the limits of the method. One person’s account can suggest a question worth exploring, but it does not establish prevalence. Decide what further evidence would change your interpretation. Share only approved, minimised excerpts and follow the retention plan. A well-run first interview should leave you with clearer questions, not permission to claim certainty.