TOMER SHARON: Hi, my
name is Tomer Sharon, and I'm a Google Search
User Experience Researcher and the author of
"Lean User Research." I'm here to help you ask
your customers, users, and potential customers
better questions and get even better answers. "Converse like a talk show
host, think like a writer, understand subtext
like a psychiatrist, and have an ear
like a musician." This beautiful thing was said
about interviewing people. An interview is
gathering information through direct dialogue. Before you start an
interview, though, ask yourself why
before you get into the how to phrase the questions. Think about the
reason you're there. What is it that you're
trying to learn? A key aspect of
interviewing people is getting familiar
with the phenomenon that is called rationalization. Rationalization is
when people, when asked about a certain situation
that happened in the past, they tend to change
reality a little bit to be perceived as
good people, to be perceived as smart people. The example I have for
this is if I have ask you, would you throw a banana peel on
the floor if nobody's looking? You would probably say
no, I don't do that. I'm not that kind of a person. But given the opportunity
that no one is looking, two weeks from now,
you might do that. And it's not because
you're a bad person. It's not because you don't
believe in what you say or you're trying to lie to me. You rationalize. You want to be perceived
as a good person, as a helpful person. When you interview people,
when you ask people questions, look for the story. This is the most important
thing in an interview. Ask about stories, about
things that happen. Ask about behavior. For example, so
in that situation, you keep quiet and
see what people say. Better yet, if possible,
ask to observe behavior. If you're asking
how they read email, how they check their email,
ask them to show you that. Show me how you do that. Ask about perceptions. Not because you're
interested in them, but because they
will help you, again, to pull out these stories. For example, what is the
difference between X and Y? Not a very interesting
question, but it might cause them to
remember something about something
interesting that happened. The most important
thing in an interview is something that doesn't look
like the most important thing-- follow-up questions. These will tell you, give
you, a lot of insight into what really happened. Why do you roll your
eyes when you say that? What do you mean? Why do you call your
phone "my third arm"? These are extremely helpful
in understanding behavior. A few don'ts. Don't ask people
about the future. Three questions
product developers tend to ask their interviewees are,
would you use the product? Would you pay for it? And how much you'd pay for it. These are all very,
very bad questions. Why? Because they ask people
to predict the future. The problem is,
people have no idea. The even bigger
problem is that they think they do have an
idea, and they answer. Another don't is about
leading the witness. Don't insert your opinion into
the questions you're asking, and then biasing
your interviewees into understanding
what you're looking for and then give you the
answers that you want, maybe. Don't intimidate. If you stand over the shoulder
of someone who's sitting and then ask them
a question, that is an intimidating
body language. Don't do that. That will affect how they
answer your question. Don't explain the question. Shut up and see what happens. When you ask a question,
sometimes there's silence from the other side. Maybe the person is thinking. Maybe the person is trying
to remember something. Maybe they don't
understand the question. Keep quiet. Your intuition would be
to explain the question. Don't do that. Just wait a few seconds
and see what happens. People will fill in the gap. And finally, don't
ask for feedback. This is another
very popular thing product developers
do during interviews. They describe the product
or show off the product and then ask for feedback. If you have the product,
ask people to use it. Even if you have a mock of
it, ask people to use it. Use a pencil and use it. To sum it up, here
is a little exercise about leading questions. I'm going to show
you a few questions, and let's talk about whether
they're leading or not. First one. "Would you rather use
the current version or this new, improved one?" The word "improved"
is a way for you to insert your opinion and
biasing people into the answer that you're looking for. "How does this compare to
the way Netflix works now?" Now you're biasing people with
their opinions about Netflix. Good, bad-- you're biasing
them into an answer that is not neutral. Try and ask about the
thing without comparing it to anything else. "What did you think about that?" When you ask that,
you are forcing people to think about
something they might not have thought about
if you didn't ask. Don't do that. "Would you click
here to log in?" It's exactly as saying,
click here to login. This is an extremely
biased question. "What's wrong with this?" Again, inserting your
thought that this is wrong, and then expecting people
to cooperate and say that it's wrong. Here are three
resources I recommend for learning more about
how to ask questions-- a book, an article, and a video. The book is called "Interviewing
Users," by Steve Portigal. The article is "16
Interviewing Tips," by Michael Margolis
from Google Ventures. And the video is "What
people Are Really Doing," by IIT's
Institute of Design. Here's a quick recap. Look for the story. Ask about behavior. Better yet, ask to
observe behavior. Ask follow-up questions,
extremely important. Don't ask about the future. Don't lead the witness. And don't ask for feedback. But do ask great questions. Thank you.
