Complete Guide to Validation Interviews

Given the importance of interviewing users and asking the right questions (vital element to get the product right), my team and I put together a list of our learnings. I hope this gives you a thing or two.

THE ENTIRE PROCESS (Start to Finish)

1. Before Research ✏️

• Choose a focused, findable segment
• With your team, decide big 3 learning goals
• Choose ideal next steps and commitments
• Create a series of best guesses about what the person cares about
• If the question can be answered via desk research, do that first

2. During research 👩‍💻

• Have conversations
• Frame the conversation
• Keep it casual
• Ask good questions
• Take good notes
• Press for commitment and next steps

3. Share with the team 🧠

• Review notes with team weekly, spare 5-10 min per interview max
• If relevant, transfer notes and update storage
• Update your beliefs and plans
• Decide on next 3 big questions
• Repeat
  *Inspired by Rob Fitzpatrick's Mom-test book, check the full book here: http://momtestbook.com/

PROBLEM INTERVIEW EXAMPLE
Here the aim is to learn whether and how a customer persona is experinecing the problem we are targeting. This is more of an exploratory user research.

Aim:
Learn the current user behavior (what’s their interviewing behaviour)
Learn the current workflow
Identify pain points in the current workflow
Learn their current solution to these pain points
Here’s what a call can look like:

1. Hello
   Example Question: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today. I'm interested in the area of X and your personal experience with it. Could you talk me through your workflow on a daily basis on this area?

2. Problem
   Example Question: What is your biggest painpoint here in this workflow?
   Tip: Did they mention a not ideal situation/ problem in this area? If not, you can directly ask: "What is your biggest painpoint here in this workflow?"

3. Problem Example
   Example Question: Can you walk me through a situation when this happened the last time?
   Tip: Ask specifically how they handled this situation. For example, which tools did they use? How much did it cost them to fix this problem?

4. Problem Implications
   Example Question: What were the implications of this problem?

5. Problem Consequences
   Example Question: What would happen if this problem wasn't fixed? Or, how much would this problem cost you if you didn't fix it?

6. Solution Search
   Example Question: Have you looked for a solution for this problem?
   Tip: Have they taken the bare minimum action of googling?

7. Problem Implications
   Example Question: What would your ideal solution do?

8. Ask for a referral interview
   Example Question: Who else should I talk to about this? Perhaps a colleague or an industry expert?
   Tip: Very important that you use snowballing method to find new leads

9. Feedback & Open-ended Question
   Example Question: And finally, do you think I missed asking you something important? Is there anything else I should have asked?
   Tip:This question usually gives so many new insights to their workflow.

General Tip: Main questions we are after: Does this user fit into the Ideal Customer Persona? & Did they give any unique insight?

If you found this post useful you should know that this barely touches the surface of our guide to this process. You can feel free to download/copy our full guide from here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19NUYntEXcrq3PFsQ781eNiB7VEQfbVrl_7mERQIoUWU/edit#gid=824911051

From the Scrintal Team! Cheers!
www.scrintal.com