The biggest mistake teams make when running user interviews

The biggest mistake teams make in user interviewsguide×User InterviewsDirect conversations with users to understand behaviours, needs and motivations.Open guide→ isn't asking the wrong questions. It's accepting the first answer they get. Most users will give you an answer quickly. They'll tell you what they think, what they expect, what they usually do. It often sounds reasonable enough to move on. The sessionglossary×SessionA session is a single period of user interaction with a product, from entry to exit within a defined timeframe.Open glossary term→ keeps flowing, the script keeps moving, and you cover everything you planned to cover. It feels productive. But the first answer is rarely where the insightglossary×InsightAn insight is a meaningful understanding that explains why something is happening and what it means.Open glossary term→ is.

There is a social reason for it as well as a procedural one. Participants want to be helpful and are aware they are taking up your time, so they produce a tidy answer quickly. Sitting in the pause after it, without filling the silence, is what gives them room to produce a truer one.

I remember a sessionglossary×SessionA session is a single period of user interaction with a product, from entry to exit within a defined timeframe.Open glossary term→ where a user was going through a fairly standard journey and described part of it as fine. No hesitation, no visible frustration, nothing that would flag it as an issue if you were taking the answer at face value. It would have been very easy to move on. But we didn't. We stayed there a bit longer. Asked them to walk through what they were thinking, why they chose that option, what they expected to happen next. What came out wasn't fine at all. They didn't fully understand what they were doing. They weren't confident in the decision they'd just made. They were moving forward because it seemed like the only available option, not because it felt right. That's a completely different picture. And it only surfaced because we didn't accept the first answer.

Fine is worth treating as a promptglossary×PromptA prompt is the input or instruction given to an AI system to guide its output or response.Open glossary term→ rather than a verdict. So are it's alright, it makes sense, and I suppose so. All of them are answers people give when nothing is obviously wrong and something has still not landed, and each is an invitation to ask what they were expecting instead.

Working across NHS journeys, users would often describe experiences in very general terms: it's a bit confusing, there's a lot going on, it's not very clear. Useful signalsglossary×SignalsSignals are data points or triggers that indicate changes in user behaviour, context, or external factors.Open glossary term→, but not particularly actionable on their own. If you stop there, you end up with vague problems and equally vague solutions. But when you start digging (asking them to show you where the confusion comes from, what they expected instead, what they were trying to achieve in that moment), things start to sharpen. You move from this is confusing to this specific part breaks because the structure doesn't match how users think. That's where decisions can actually be made.

The move that unlocks it is usually asking somebody to show rather than tell. General descriptions stay general no matter how many follow-ups you ask. Watching the same person attempt the thing they just called confusing puts the problem in a specific place, on a specific screen, at a specific moment.

Most interview guides are designed to cover ground. There's a natural pressure to keep moving, to get through everything, to make the most of the time you have. And that pressure works against depth. In my experience, the most valuable interviews are rarely the ones where you cover everything. They're the ones where you follow something unexpected and stay with it longer than planned. Where you notice a small hesitation and choose to explore it. Where an answer doesn't quite add up and you gently push on it. That's where the real insightglossary×InsightAn insight is a meaningful understanding that explains why something is happening and what it means.Open glossary term→ tends to sit: when the person running the sessionglossary×SessionA session is a single period of user interaction with a product, from entry to exit within a defined timeframe.Open glossary term→ is comfortable going off-script and sitting in the uncomfortable space of not immediately knowing where a conversation will leadglossary×LeadA lead is a potential customer who has shown interest in a product or service, typically by providing contact information or engaging with content.Open glossary term→. Because that's where users stop giving rehearsed answers and start revealing how they actually think.

The practical fix is to plan for fewer questions than the time allows. A guide with six areas and forty minutes creates room to follow something; the same forty minutes with twelve areas guarantees that anything unexpected gets cut short in order to finish.

It helps to agree in advance that finishing the guide is not the objective. Without that, a moderator who abandons half the script to pursue something interesting looks like they lost control of the sessionglossary×SessionA session is a single period of user interaction with a product, from entry to exit within a defined timeframe.Open glossary term→, rather than like they did the job properly.