Getting Remote Users Relaxed and Ready for Interviews
A remote user test can either feel like a tech support session gone wrong or a harmonious meeting of the minds. Theresa Charleston of National Geographic Learning tells us how to prepare for an insightful interview and set the user at ease even when they may be far away or new to user testing.
“One thing that I always tell all my users, and this is actually whether they’re remote or not, is that this isn’t a pass-fail situation...that we welcome honesty.”
Transcript
Jim Morris:
Hi there, fellow product leaders. A remote user test can either feel like a tech support session gone wrong or a harmonious meeting of the minds. Theresa Charleston tells us how to prepare for an insightful interview and set the user at ease even when the other person may be far away. Enjoy.
Theresa Charleston:
I would say one of the most important pieces of advice I could give you that I learned the hard way was, remember that not everybody is going to have the same bandwidth so they may not have the same data speed, et cetera; and they may not have the same home environment. They may have more interruptions with children, et cetera. The mailman coming by, it could be anything. Just account for interruptions during your testing allocated time. Where you might have only allocated 20 minutes, allocate 30 for extra interruptions if you can.
One thing that I always tell all my users, and this is actually whether they're remote or not, is that this isn't a pass-fail situation. That we welcome honesty and that actually this is about making something better, so honesty is key. If you don't like something, it's okay, you're not going to hurt our feelings.
Another thing that I do is I tend to remind them right up front about the compensation because it's a little bit motivating when you say it at the beginning of the conversation. And then the last thing that I typically tell them is... Well, actually there's two more things. One thing is, I tell them that we're not going to use their image or their voice without their permission. This is just a one-on-one conversation right now. It can be as informal as you want. Don't worry about background noise, don't worry about cats or children. That this is just a casual conversation. And then I just listen and let them talk.
There is a little bit of guidance of course in terms of getting us to the next question. But really when you listen and let people talk, they will and they often feel more comfortable when they're allowed to sort of just be themselves and talk about whatever comes naturally to them. You can extract pretty important information when it goes off the schedule the little bit.
Jim Morris:
Thanks for watching. You can find more product discovery resources@productdiscoverygroup.com.
Jim Morris, Product Discovery Group
Jim coaches Product teams to collaborate with each other and seek customer input early and often during the design and ideation phase.
