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A thread: I'm about to do a bunch of customer interviews - how shall I analyze once I have a bunch of notes/recordings?
First of all, try to get a note-taker to partner with you. (offer to return the favor, but also I'm always surprised by how much people enjoy the note-taking role. It's all the insights with none of the on-the-spot stress!)
Having a notetaker allows you to focus on the questions you’re asking and noticing when is a good time to dig deeper - **every interview is different, because every person cares about different things.**
You may still end up recording, but you can effectively go without if you’ve got a note-taker. For most people, skimming notes - even pages and pages of them - is faster than listening to a recording.
It’s also searchable! This comes in handy, as many patterns of insight aren’t immediately apparent - it’s after interview 11 that you realize that interview 4 said something similar, and wait, who was that interviewee who said something also on that subject?
When taking notes:
- Listen for emotion/emphasis
- Verbatims, not summaries
- Use !!! or **** to help your eyes snap to 'the good stuff' later
- Debrief immediately after
- Listen for emotion/emphasis
- Verbatims, not summaries
- Use !!! or **** to help your eyes snap to 'the good stuff' later
- Debrief immediately after
Listen for emotion/emphasis:
because what people say in a neutral voice is something that is routine, that they don’t think about much.
When they're angry/stressed/delighted/sheepish/sad - that's the problem space you want to understand.
because what people say in a neutral voice is something that is routine, that they don’t think about much.
When they're angry/stressed/delighted/sheepish/sad - that's the problem space you want to understand.
Verbatims, not summaries:
You’re not trying to get the topic sentence/main ideas from a lecture, you're trying to convince folks to reconsider/rethink.
You’re not trying to get the topic sentence/main ideas from a lecture, you're trying to convince folks to reconsider/rethink.
!!! or ****:
Quite often you’ll start taking notes and then as the customer continues you’ll realize “oh! this is gonna be important!” and you’ll want to come back to those notes. The fastest thing is to ********* so your eyes can pop right to it later.
Quite often you’ll start taking notes and then as the customer continues you’ll realize “oh! this is gonna be important!” and you’ll want to come back to those notes. The fastest thing is to ********* so your eyes can pop right to it later.
(I also add editorial notes with my initials - like CA: he says it's easy but I don't believe him)
Debrief right after:
Even if just for 3-5 minutes, look at your notes and think about what really struck you. What question provoked the most vehement customer response? What question clammed them up? What did they say that contradicted your expectations? What surprised you?
Even if just for 3-5 minutes, look at your notes and think about what really struck you. What question provoked the most vehement customer response? What question clammed them up? What did they say that contradicted your expectations? What surprised you?
For summarizing: I use stickies - real or (usually) virtual - google jamboard or http://stickies.io or similar to jot down notes or quotes that stand out (if you do this virtually, you can copy/paste instead of having to write).
Then I like to physically move around the stickies and look for groupings. Some will be odd-man-out and you’ll realize it doesn’t matter, it’s still important. Other groups of stickies, when you go to put a descriptive heading on it, you’ll realize it’s not that important.
