5 Different Research Interview Question Types

When we are asking questions in research interviews we need to follow a two-step process. The first step is to uncover the actions that the person is performing (the “what”). Once we understand how they are behaving we need to uncover the motivations leading to these actions (the “why”).

Understanding Actions

Opinion-Based Questions

When people start interviewing, the default question type that they ask is opinion based questions. These can fall into a few different categories:

1. Preferences
   Questions that gauge the person’s taste or favourite features
   What do you like most about [a product, service, etc.]?

2. Intentions & Future Plans
   Questions that uncover the person’s expected or planned actions.

   What do you plan to purchase next?

3. Reasons & Justifications
   Questions that explore the motivations or logic behind the person’s choices.
   Why did you choose to buy this product?

4. Perceptions & Attitudes
   Questions that assess the person’s opinion towards a specific change or trend.
   How do you feel about the latest feature update?

These feel like they are effective questions because we think we are uncovering how people think about products and their buying criteria. But unfortunately, we can’t trust the data that comes from these questions.

Memory-Based Questions

Memory based questions are a step up from opinion questions as they are trying to understand how people think based on their past behaviour instead of opinions.

1. Past Behaviors
   Questions that focus on understanding the person’s previous actions or decisions.
   What was the last piece of clothing that you purchased?

2. Past Spending & Usage
   These questions aim to quantify the person’s past expenditures.

   How much did you spend on groceries last month?

3. Frequency & Recency
   These questions establish patterns or habits over a time frame.
   How often do you shop online?

The challenge with memory questions is that our memory is not very reliable. And we are great at coming up with a neat story about why we took a particular action, even if it isn’t true.

Evidence-Based Questions

The next step up our ladder of evidence is to move from memory questions to evidence based questions.

1. Work Artifacts
   Tangible outputs and documentation that demonstrate how work is actually done
   "Can you show me your team's guidelines?"
   "I see you've created several custom templates - could you explain how these fit into your workflow?"

2. System Evidence
   Digital trails and automated logs that capture actual usage patterns without user interpretation
   "Can you show me your app usage statistics?"
   "Let's look at your browser history"

3. Environmental Context
   Observable setup and arrangements that reveal natural working patterns and preferences
   "What tools do you have open right now?"
   "I notice you have multiple tabs open - how do these relate to your current task?"

Using evidence based questions we are now able to uncover the real actions that people are performing, but you might have noticed a problem in some of the example questions; they return to asking opinion and memory based questions to understand the why behind the evidence.

1. "I see you've created several custom templates - could you explain how these fit into your workflow?"

2. "I notice you have multiple tabs open - how do these relate to your current task?"

Understanding Motivations

Emotion-Based Questions

The key to uncovering the real motivations behind actions is to understand that all decisions are emotional. Logic may play an influencing factor, but the ultimate decision is emotional. This means that our questions need to dig into the emotions that people feel.

The Jobs-to-be-Done framework defines four different forces that influence actions; Push, Pull, Habit and Anxiety forces. A behaviour only happens when the Push and Pull forces exceed the Habit and Anxiety forces. Therefore you need to uncover all of them so you can amplify some forces and mitigate others.

1. Push forces
   What is it about the current approach that the person does not like
   "Open your closet. What items are you ready to replace and why?"

2. Pull forces
   The attractiveness of the new product or service
   "Show me the last three fashion items you saved on social media. What drew you to each one?"

3. Habit forces
   The comfort and familiarity with the current way of doing things
   "Walk me through your typical clothes shopping routine. Let's look at your browsing history from last week."

4. Anxiety forces
   The fears and uncertainties associated with adopting a new product or service
   "Show me something you almost bought recently but didn't. Talk me through the decision process."

Trade Off Questions

In his book, Demand Side Selling, Bob Moesta goes through the different ways of uncovering the true motivations behind people’s actions. He emphasises the importance of triggers and trade offs in what makes people take action.

There is never a perfect solution for a problem. Whenever a person chooses an approach they are either consciously, or subconsciously, making trade offs. Uncovering these is critical to determine real motivations.

1. Summarise / Paraphrase
   Repeat your understanding of what someone has said, highlighting their tradeoffs. This can trigger someone to clarify their actions.
   Another trick you can use is to make mistakes in your summary to trigger them to elaborate more in a particular area. Just remember to use this sparingly.

2. Provide Alternatives
   Suggest different options the person might have considered to uncover their underlying values
   “You mentioned you care about value, why didn’t you choose the cheaper generic option?”

Trade offs are relying on self-reported preferences so there is a risk in the answers that you will receive. These should be validated in further design experiments.

Putting it all together

We default to asking people memory and opinion based questions because they are easy and it feels like we are getting good insights. The problem is that the data we get is unreliable and can lead to bad product decisions.

We need to focus on emotion-based questions, driven by evidence. Once we uncover insights we can start paraphrasing our understanding to ensure that we have captured the insights accurately. Finally, we should offer alternatives that the person could have used to solve the problem to identify their real trade offs.

In the heat of an interview, it can be very easy to drift into opinions. Like many skills in life, though, it gets better with conscious practice. So try out these questions on your next interview and see how your insights improve.