The fact-finding interview
Running an interview with a client or a user: the three forms, the guide, the five stages, the funnel, the types of questions and the mistakes to avoid.
- 26 cards
- 4 topics
- Free
The outline, topic by topic
Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
- Concepts
- Questions
- Sort and link
- Scenarios
A few cards from the deck
Semi-structured interview: what is it?
Show the answer
An interview run from prepared themes and questions, in a flexible order, with the interviewee free to answer in their own words.
It keeps the freedom of speech of an unstructured interview while making sure no mandatory theme is forgotten: it is the most common form for gathering a need.
To get someone to describe a process you do not know, which question is best worded?
- "How does a registration go, from start to finish?"
- "Is the registration long for you?"
- "Do you do all the registrations in the shared spreadsheet?"
- "How many registrations do you handle per day at the start of term?"
Show the answer
"How does a registration go, from start to finish?"
Only "How does a registration go…" is open and broad. The others are closed or numeric: they belong later in the funnel, not for discovering a process.
The five stages of an interview are: …, opening, questioning, concluding and feeding back.
Show the answer
The five stages of an interview are: preparing, opening, questioning, concluding and feeding back.
Preparation (goal, guide, reading the context) comes before the meeting; feedback follows it, with the report sent back for validation.
Interview guide: what is it?
Show the answer
A document prepared before the meeting that lists the themes to cover, the main questions and the possible follow-ups.
It is not a questionnaire read aloud: it is a safety net, followed in whatever order the conversation dictates.
In an interview with a registrar's secretary, you interrupt her twice to finish her sentence, then ask "This form is quite long, isn't it?". What should you fix first?
- Switch to a directive interview with closed questions to save time
- Keep the question and add a figure to make it more objective
- Stop cutting in and rephrase as an open question: "How does filling in the form go?"
- Announce the length of the interview, since time seems short
Show the answer
Stop cutting in and rephrase as an open question: "How does filling in the form go?"
Interrupting deprives the interviewee of what they were about to say; the leading question dictates their answer. Both mistakes skew the findings, whatever the form of interview.