Interviewing users is for anyone who talks to customers to improve their work, not only designers but also, engineers, strategists, and marketers

To design for users, you need to start with a deep understanding of the user.

• You are not your user (even if you are a user of a product you design, you are not allowed to consider just yourself and noone else)

What does interviewing mean?

• Deeply studying people, ideally in their context
• Exploring not only their behaviors but also the meaning behind those behaviors
• Making sense of the data using inference, interpretation, analysis, and synthesis
• Using those insights to point toward a design, service, product, or other solution

Embrace how other people see the world. This involves exploring the details of their perspective and using their language.

Be ready to ask questions for which you think you know the answer; don't be overly confident in your presumptions, as interesting tidbits can emerge. And listen. Listening is the most effective way to build rapport and demonstrate that what participants say is important. Your questions and body language demonstrate that you are listening

Getting ready to conduct an interview:

• Establishing objectives is a challenging but initial priority. This is done by interviewing stakeholders to understand their history, beliefs, barriers, business goals, and specific questions. The output is the research goals.
• Finding participants (recruiting) involves identifying key characteristics, focusing criteria more on behavior than attitude. Working with recruiting agencies is common practice. Ensure screeners clarify important details, like where the interview will take place and access to devices.
• Creating the field guide translates research goals into specific questions and covers activities, tasks, and logistics. The guide typically flows from introduction, main body, projection/dream questions, to wrap up. It is not a script but a tool to prepare for flexibility in the field.