research methods
User interviews
How do you ask good user interview questions?
A user interview is a one-to-one conversation aimed at uncovering someone’s needs, context, and experience. Its value comes from asking about actual past behaviour - you get evidence, not hypotheticals, leading questions, or yes/no questions, which yield polite fiction. The skill lies in getting people to reveal what they actually did, not what they might do or what you’d like to hear.
Also known as: user interviews, interview questions, research interviews, depth interviews
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The demo
You're about to interview a user. For each weak question below, pick the rewrite that will actually get you a useful answer - then see why.
What this demo shows (text version)
Each round presents a weak interview question - a hypothetical ("would you use a feature that saves favourites?"), a leading or yes/no question ("do you find the app easy?"), or one that asks users to design ("what features do you want?") - alongside two rewrites. You pick the stronger one, and the reveal explains why: the best questions are open, neutral and about specific past behaviour ("tell me about the last time you wanted to come back to something"), because people report what they did far more reliably than they predict what they'd do.
The craft of interviewing is mostly this - asking for memories not prophecies, following the participant rather than a script, using silence, and never outsourcing design to the user. Combined with observation (since what people say and do diverge), good questions are what turn a chat into evidence.
Good interview questions are open, neutral, and rooted in the past: 'tell me about the last time you…' beats 'would you use…?' Every time. People are poor at predicting their own behaviour and eager to please, so hypotheticals, leading questions, and yes/no questions produce unreliable answers. Ask what they did, dig into the why, embrace silence, and never ask users to design your product for you.
Each "better" question pulled for a real story instead of a flattering guess - "tell me about the last time" rather than "would you like…". That's the whole craft: people can't reliably predict what they'd do, but they can tell you what they did. Ask for the memory, not the prophecy, and the answers are worth something.
The most reliable questions are grounded in specific past behaviour: "walk me through the last time you tried to do X", "what happened then?", "what were you hoping for?". Hypotheticals ("would you use a feature that…?") ask people to predict themselves, which they do badly and optimistically; leading questions ("how helpful was that?") hand over the answer; and yes/no questions close down the story you actually want.
Technique matters as much as wording. Ask open questions and then follow the participant's thread rather than marching through a script; use silence - people fill it with the real answer; ask "why" and "tell me more"; and resist the urge to explain, defend or sell, which turns an interview into a pitch. You're there to listen, not to validate.
And don't ask users to be designers. "What features do you want?" outsources your job and yields wish-lists, not insight; people are experts in their problems, not in solutions. Mine the problems, frustrations and workarounds instead, then design the answer yourself. Pair interviews with observation, too, because what people say and what they do diverge.
User interviews are best when you ask about what people actually did, not what they might do - try the interactive demo to practice. Avoid yes/no questions and leading prompts; instead, dig into the why and embrace silence - your users will reveal more truth than you expect.
User interviews work best when you ask about what people actually did, not what they might do - try the interactive demo here to see it in action. Avoid yes/no questions and leading prompts - they produce polite fiction, not evidence - and always dig into the why after the what.
User interviews are most powerful when you ask about what people actually did, not what they might do - try the interactive demo here to see it in action. Avoid leading questions and yes/no traps; instead, dig into the why and let silence speak - this is how you get real evidence, not polite fiction.
User interviews work best when you ask what people actually did, not what they might do - try the demo to see how to ask the right questions. Avoid yes/no questions and hypotheticals - they yield polite fiction - instead, dig into the why and embrace silence, as shown in the interactive demo here.
Run user interviews by asking open-ended questions about past behaviour - the demo here lets you practice. Avoid yes/no or leading questions - they don’t reveal truth, they just get polite fiction - try the interactive example to see why.