First, the interview is a "premeditated chat"
"Interview", as its name implies, is a kind of behavior through oral conversation such as "talking" and "chatting". As a research method, it must also have a specific purpose and implementation process to ensure that visitors can collect useful information in this way. Before using it, you need to know the following functions:
1. Interview is just a tool to collect data, from which you can draw the hypothesis that A and B may be related, but remember not to construct the causal relationship between A and B easily, which may make your users' research path subjective and one-sided.
2. In the field of interview, the interviewer and the interviewee coexist, which can be face to face, video, voice and other forms; It can be one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-one
3. The interview process is a set of reciprocal interaction of "question-answer-feedback ……", but the whole rhythm is controlled by the interviewer.
4. Interviews are divided into structured interviews, semi-structured interviews and unstructured interviews according to the degree of openness from low to high. Generally speaking, the stronger the structure, the higher the standardization of the process; The lower the structure, the higher the comprehensive requirements for the interviewer's sensitivity, exploration ability and field control ability. Therefore, when choosing different interview types, we need to comprehensively consider various factors.
Compared with daily chat, the interview is "premeditated". After you have a correct understanding of the interview and normal expectations, let's take a look at what the interview should do.
Second, the interview process
In order to describe the whole process more clearly, we presuppose a background: considering the cost and efficiency, the product team decided to conduct a round of relevant research on parents' use of electronic devices in the families of children aged 3-6. At the same time, because the product is still in the initial planning stage, more information is needed, and it is planned to be implemented in the form of semi-structured interviews.
(1) preparation
1. Personnel preparation
(1) Interviewer
Interviewer is one of the key variables that affect the interview effect. We often say that "speaking is an art", and the interview is even more professional. TA needs to be familiar with the business first, so as to ensure that the whole interview is on the main line; At the same time, we should be familiar with the interviewed group as much as possible, so that it is easier for the interviewee to feel heard and understood during the interview. For example, the interview outline lists what cartoons children usually watch. It is not difficult to imagine how bad the interview would be if the interviewer had never heard of Super Flash and Peggy Pig.
In order to reduce the influence of the differences between interviewers on the follow-up analysis, the same interviewer can be used as the main interviewer. When multiple people need to participate, unified training is needed before the interview. In addition, if possible, it is suggested that there should be an interviewer and a recorder for each interview.
(2) Respondents
The choice of interviewees should first consider whether the key features match, which requires in-depth analysis of the interview content. Whether it is a research or a product, there must be some assumptions first, from which the key characteristics of the interviewee can be deduced. For example, in the preset interview content, parents' educational background, family's economic level, children's age division, children's gender and so on. They may all be variables that have a great influence on the results, so when choosing interviewees, these factors need to be considered, so that each interviewee can represent a class of people as much as possible.
When making an appointment with the interviewee, it is suggested to confirm it three times: first, send an interview invitation with the person closest to the interviewee to determine the appropriate time; In order to prevent the interviewee from forgetting or hesitating, reconfirm the time the day before the interview; On the day of the interview, the interviewer can briefly introduce himself by SMS (SMS or WeChat) and make an appointment for the last time.
2. Preparation of interview outline
For unstructured interviews, it is necessary to list the interview outline in advance according to the interview objectives. Although during the interview, the interviewer can flexibly arrange the order of content and the way of asking questions according to the respondents' answers, they all focus on this outline. The formulation of the outline is essentially the dismantling process of the interview objectives.
People who have seen Seven Overlords should be familiar with the skill of "solving problems". Many professional debaters show their unique thinking on a topic from the beginning of the topic, and then guide the audience to win the vote step by step.
The same is true of the interview outline. It is necessary to clarify the theme and objectives of the interview first, and then explore what kind of methods, what types of questions, how to organize the order, etc. So as to obtain the desired information.
(2) implementation
The implementation process can be divided into the following steps:
1. Opening ceremony: identify yourself, explain your goals, and explain your privacy and precautions.
Every interviewee has the right to know the background of the interview and the protection of privacy, which is the most basic respect for the interviewee. At the same time, explaining the relevant rights and interests and precautions before the official start of the interview can also avoid possible disputes in the future.
"(? ), hello, this is (). Thank you very much for your telephone interview with us today. The topic of today's interview is (? ), we will keep all the contents of your statement confidential, and the information obtained will only be used for internal product development. The whole interview probably needs (? ) minutes, there are several matters needing attention to communicate with you in advance: (? ) 。 If you have no other questions, our interview will officially begin. "
In addition, it is suggested that the interviewee should be informed in advance when the sound is played, the interview process is recorded and other interviewers or recorders are present.
2. Transition: Understand the basic information and guide the respondents to lay down their defenses.
The most important purpose of the transition is to create a relaxed atmosphere for the interview. At the same time, first-hand information is obtained through "pulling home". For example, parents' location, children's gender, children's age and so on. Although this information will be collected by other means before the interview, it may be different from the real information, so it is more reliable to confirm it during the interview.
In the transitional stage, the key to the interview problem is "no threshold, no distance" and the best effect of the interview is "comfort". No threshold means that the questions initiated are questions that parents can answer without investing too much cognitive resources; No distance means that the questions and methods asked are easy for the respondents to accept, and they are not alert. You can compare the following two interview methods:
-How old is your child this year? (5 years old) What class are you in kindergarten now? (middle class)
-Is your child in kindergarten? What class are you taking? (Middle class) Are you five years old this year? (Yes, just turned 5)
From the results, the information obtained by the two ways of questioning is the same, but as an interview in the transitional stage, the second way is more "comfortable". The age of children is a relatively personal issue, but whether children can go to kindergarten is a neutral issue. For parents, the latter threshold is lower. In the second way, the interviewer infers the child's age according to the previous answer, and then uses the inferred age to verify the parents, so that no matter right or wrong, the parents are only judging what the interviewer speculates and do not consciously expose the child's privacy.
3. Focus: Ask questions, talk and dig around the core issues.
Different from the problems in the transitional stage, the focused problems need to be "correct". The right here is not a judgment of right or wrong, but an appropriate judgment.
In the book Cognitive Surplus, the author mentioned a point: "A wrong answer is caused by a wrong question". For example, he said that at the beginning of 2 1 century, there were a lot of reports about the elderly using social tools. If the question is: "Will the elders accept these new technologies that confuse them?" The answer can only be no, and the correct question should be: "Will elders adopt new ways to communicate with friends and parents?" The difference between the two problems lies in the different concerns of the elderly in using social tools: the former only sees superficial phenomena and ignores the internal needs of using social tools.
Therefore, the problem of focusing needs to be gradual and essential. For example, it is useless to know whether parents support or oppose children's use of electronic devices. What's more important is the role that electronic devices play in different families, what functions parents support and what needs are met by using electronic devices, and what attributes parents object to have an impact on their lives.
Focus link, according to the interview objectives, there may be several main lines of questions. During the interview, in order to be more logical and code the results more clearly, I have the following suggestions:
(1) Each main line follows the funnel principle, starting from a wider range of issues and slowly focusing on specific, concrete issues. For example, if you care about what cartoons children watch on their mobile phones, you can ask "Do children usually use their mobile phones", "What do they do with their mobile phones" and then ask "What cartoons do they watch".
(2) There is a certain logic between the main lines. For example, you can divide the use of electronic equipment into living room, bedroom, car and so on according to the scene; It can also be divided into mobile phones, tablet computers, televisions, etc. According to the type of electronic equipment; It can also be divided into getting up in the morning, eating, playing games and sleeping according to time and life events. Each category can be a main line.
(3) Flexibility, flexibility and flexibility. Don't forcibly pull back the interviewee wandering between the main lines, but quickly judge whether the interviewee's "out of control" is due to personal expression problems or unreasonable predetermined "logic", respond flexibly and adjust quickly. When the interviewee is really far away from the topic, don't interrupt them stiffly, but let them feel that they are being listened to and respected as always, and then let the interviewee return to the topic with new questions.
summary
At the end of the interview, you can have a brief summary of the questions listed in the outline. First, let the respondent really feel "I said so much, you really listened"; The second is to summarize what the interviewees described or put forward, and also let them check whether their records are accurate again.
5. Closing the case: Thank you and explain the subsequent rights and interests.
Finally, we need to thank the respondents. If conditions permit, it is suggested to bring "unexpected surprises" to the respondents. For example, the interviewer mentioned to the interviewee at the beginning that you can experience the product for free when you attend the interview; Finally, we can mention again how to get free rights and interests, so that they can be closer to these rights and interests psychologically. In addition, in the interview, if parents mention a troublesome problem in educating their children, they can communicate with parents professionally at the end of the interview, or tell parents to consult experts in related fields and give professional advice for parents' reference.
There is a peak and tail rule in psychology, that is, people have the deepest memory of the peak and tail of the process. The emergence of peak experience requires the interviewer to sensitively capture a suitable opportunity according to the respondents' answers or emotions, and give feedback to parents to make them have a pleasant experience. For example, "the desire to talk is satisfied" is a pleasant experience; "A child's behavior is praised" is also a pleasant experience. Finally, the specific professional advice given for parents' doubts can be the ultimate experience. "I just said something casually, but you still took it to heart."
(3) Organize records
Phone calls don't mean the interview is over. The arrangement and coding of interview content is an arduous task.
When sorting out the interview records, we should be "original" and try to restore the interview process without personal subjective judgment.
Coding is to sum up valuable concepts and events from the original materials, code them, for example, event A is coded as 1, and then count the frequency of 1 among all respondents. Coding is an intermediate step in quantitative analysis of text data. When coding, it can be coded from top to bottom according to the existing research results or industry reports, or from bottom to top according to the interview content of the interviewee.
(4) Analysis
Analysis is to use the results of interviews to guide the process of product development. At this point, a complete interview is over.
Many times, we may also interview the interviewees twice according to the analysis results to get more information.
Third, some skills of telephone interview
In the telephone interview, there are many ways to get information through body movements and facial expressions because you only hear voices, but not people, which leads to problems that will not be encountered in face-to-face interviews. For example, because the interviewer can't see the expression of the interviewee's thinking, he is eager to ask questions in order not to be cold, which interrupts the interviewee's thinking; In the process of expression, the interviewee will repeatedly confirm that he can hear you because he can't see the interviewer's listening state ... these are all factors that will greatly reduce the interview effect. When you have a telephone interview, you might as well try the following skills:
1. "audible voice" and "invisible movements and expressions", don't miss any of them.
Keep silent for a while, and there may be surprises.
3. Don't be stingy with modal particles
Generally speaking, interview is a common user research method, especially in the early stage of research; Telephone interview is a relatively efficient method. However, any method is to solve the problem, so the key is to make clear what the problem is and then choose the appropriate solution.