A User-Interview Trap: Asking Hypothetical Questions

User interviews The key point in the previous post was to talk less and listen more. You are not there to sell your idea or win a debate by persuading the other person. This post addresses the second trap: discussing hypothetical situations. Teams often ask users questions such as: “If we built this feature, would you want to use it? Would you want to pay for it?” That is the wrong approach. Instead, discuss concrete events from the user’s past. This provides more useful, substantive information for decisions about changes to your product and company. Here is another example from me: “Would you be interested if this product could cut your costs by 20% and improve efficiency by 15%?” That is a hypothetical question. Nobody will say they have no interest in cutting costs by 20% and improving efficiency by 15%. In reality, you are guiding users toward the answer you already imagined. That kind of user interview is essentially meaningless. Do not start from a predetermined position and try to steer users toward answers you have already imagined. --- Gather information about users and the path that brought them to this problem. Ask broader questions about their lives to understand the context of how they came to face it. Understand their motivations and why they ended up with this problem.