Exploratory Interview
Design Anthropology
Definition
Open ended interviews are just like any other interview, but with much less structure. As the interviewer your goal is to properly describe the opportunity space and context to your interviewee. Then you get out of the way and only talk to help coax the line of thinking along or steer completely irrelevant side bars back to the topic.
“The great myth is that you need to be a good talker. Conducting a good interview is actually about shutting up. ”
— Erica Hall, Just Enough Research: User Research Pg 85
Procedure
Preparation
Hone in on opportunity space
Create several prompts and questions
Create a shorthand for note taking
Bring recording and note taking devices
In person
Make sure that you create a comfortable space and address your interviewee in a kind manner to set them at ease.
Ask your interviewee if you can record the interaction.
Take notes when you hear something you think could be an insight, but maintain a rapport with your interviewee.
Explain the opportunity space and help them understand the overall goal of your research.
Then prompt them with a question or a statement that you think will get them talking. These questions can be vague or specific depending on what your goals are at the time. If your participant pauses make sure to give them time to think and try to make your prompts and follow ups relevant so that the interview feels natural.
Make sure to thank your participant for their time.
Analysis
Immediately after each session write down your reflection, specifically take note of how the interview progressed and the paths that your interviewee tended to follow.
With your notes in hand playback your recording and see if there were any insights that you missed or quotes that you think might be helpful.
Use Case
I was tasked with finding ways that the City of Bloomington could use design methods from Smart and Connected Communities to help its citizens. So I decided to do an exploratory interview with the Director of Innovation Devta Kidd. I did this with the hope of finding out what problem spaces the city was interested in and what their vision for the future for Bloomington was.
Strengths
The exploratory method allowed me to quickly figure out what the priorities were for the city officials and how they planned to address them. I also learned what areas the city wanted to address, but had no idea how to begin addressing them.
Weaknesses
One of the weaknesses of the exploratory interview style is that you do not know exactly what you are going to get out of an interview, thus if you have a very specific question you want answered, you probably want a more structured style of probing.
