How to Avoid a User Interview Disaster

What do you do when your user research session doesn’t go according to plan? It happens all the time, in a lot of ways, for a lot of reasons. Fortunately we have Jaclyn Perrone, Design Director at thoughtbot, on the pod today to talk us through it all. She shares stories of times things didn’t go quite right, what to do when participants get stuck on the wrong things, and how to avoid (avoidable) mishaps. 

Episode Highlights

[4:05] Things go wrong when you do things with other humans (like user research)

[7:06] Jaclyn answers the question, “Is it more important to be prepared or ready to improvise?

[10:24] Test the test

[12:07] Jaclyn warns against the dangers of fake data

[14:53] What to do when you’re the note-taker and the facilitator strays from the script

[20:58] Jaclyn’s top tips for avoiding research mistakes

[22:29] How to be more comfortable asking stupid questions

About our Guest

Jaclyn Perrone is a Senior Product Designer at Groups Recover Together, an opioid addiction treatment solution. Formerly, she was Design Director at thoughtbot, where she hosted a podcast at centered around digital product design.