90 seconds on user interviews
Why an interview isn't a survey
Here’s another quick glimpse into what we’ve been talking about in the Smart Creative Leadership course I’ve been running this month. In this one, Design Leader and Interaction Director Andrew O’Regan talks about the importance of getting at the why behind what users are doing (after I maybe provoked him a few times about why surveys are just the worst).
Some Links
(look, I used formatting after doing some unintentional user research myself last week and discovering that sometimes people don’t notice the links)
- In my interview with Andrew, he mentions Erica Hall’s book Just Enough Research , which is well worth your time if you want to go down this rabbit hole.
- I love reading about different design processes, especially when they bring in principles of game design (without making me throw up in my mouth). I haven’t used (Not Boring) Habits myself, but this write up of the design of its checkbox sure made me want to.
- Over the past few months, I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the phone with early stage founders, bootstrappers, and people trying to get new products & services from idea to reality. It’s been a ton of fun for me to work through different challenges and ways of developing products with them…so, I’m going to do a little experiment and start opening up my calendar a few times a week for anyone who wants to talk through an idea they’re working on. I’m intentionally burying this at the bottom of this newsletter for now, because I want to start with the people who know me best (or the people they choose to forward this on to). You can sign up for a slot here.
