Running JTBD Interviews
How to run a JTBD Interview.
Preparation
- Take notes - capture as much as possible (recording is also an option, but ask permission)
- Mark emotional moments
- You can have a note-taker
Approach
Make them feel helpful & comfortable.
- Let them know the information we'll collect, which is available in this publicly available document here
- Explicitly tell them they'll do most of the talking so they don't feel uncomfortable
- Just observe and don't judge their answers (they'll be frightened to offend you)
- Don't immediately offer help if they get stuck
- Talk less than 10% of the time
Tactics
- When you must respond, leave it open-ended:
- How long did that take?
- Why do you think that happens?
- When was the last time you did this?
- Avoid leading questions — "Did you like X?" vs "What did you think of X?"
- Summarize hearings back to interviewee to confirm your perception — "what I'm hearing is X"
- Tangents can be useful if you keep hearing them, but otherwise you can try to redirect back to original problem
- If people start talking about features they want:
- "Can you walk me through when and how you would use it? How would it help you?"
- "Sounds like you have X problem. Is that accurate? Can you tell me more about it?"
See JTBD Questions for more.
Post Review
- Any questions that led to bland answers? Can you revise?
- Any questions we should add to template?
- Anything you wanted to learn but didn't get to?
- What questions/topics got the most emotion?