Sample user interview questions

💡 TIPS:
● Copy and adapt this as needed.
● Try out your script with a test audience before sitting down with participants..
● Start your script with a broad introduction to get participants comfortable and then
narrow down into more specific topics.
● Don’t ask leading or loaded questions:
○ ASK: What do you think about this product feature?
○ DO NOT ASK: What do you like about this product feature?
● After the person responds, make sure to reflect back what you heard to them.
● Be patient with silence—your participant may be thinking about how to best express
their thoughts.,

Discovery interview questions

Getting-to-know-you questions
Learning goals: To broadly understand who your participants are as people—their
motivations, interests, pain points, and the patterns of their daily lives.

● Tell me about your role at work.

● Tell me about the team you work on.
● What does a typical day at work look like for you?
● What did you do last weekend?
● Tell me about your relationship with [activity/problem].
● What’s the hardest part of being a [persona attribute]?
● What are your hobbies? Tell me about the last time you did something for a hobby.
● What are some of the apps and websites you use most often?
Digging in questions
Learning goals: To understand who your participants are as users or potential users. Dig
into their experiences, attitudes, and desires as they relate to the problem you’re looking
to solve.

● What tasks take up the most time in your day?

● When was the last time you did [activity]?
● How often do you do [activity]?
● Can you describe to me how you do [task]?
● What is the difference between [X task] and [Y task]?
● What's the hardest part about [activity]?
● How do you currently address that pain point?
● Tell me about how you currently solve [problem].
● Have you created any workarounds to solve [problem]?
● How much time do you currently spend on [activity]?
● How does [X task] impact [Y task]?
● How much time or money have you spent solving for [problem]?

Product/market fit questions

Learning goals: To uncover and understand demand for a product or service.

● Tell me about your experience with [activity]

● What tools have you used to solve [problem]?
● What tools or items do you use to do [activity]?
● How did you hear about the tools you use to currently solve [problem]?
● Have you used any other tools in the past to solve [problem]?
● What's your team's current budget for [activity]?
● How much do or would you pay to have [activity] done for you?
● How do you currently solve [problem]? Walk me through each step of the process.
● What's your current process for completing [task]?
● What could be easier about [task]?

Evaluative interview questions

Usability testing questions

Learning goals: To collect in-depth qualitative feedback on a user’s experience with a
product or service in order to evaluate usability and inform design decisions.

● Please describe your experience with [tool].

● What do you think of this product/prototype?
 ● How do you envision using this product in relation to [problem]?
● Can you complete [activity] using this product or prototype?
● What are your first thoughts as you look at this product or prototype?
● What do you think this product or prototype will do?
● If you were looking for [information] where would you expect to find it?
● How easy or difficult was this product to navigate?
● When you log on, what’s the first thing you do? Is there another way to complete
this task?
● What parts of the product do you use the most? Why?
● What parts of the product do you use the least? Why?
● What one thing are you most excited about with the product?
● Why will you continue to use this product? What will stop you from using this
product in the future?
● Tell me about similar products you’ve used.
● Does anything within this product seem out of place or unnecessary to you?
● Was there anything missing from your experience with this product?
● What, if anything, surprised you about this experience?
● Do you know anyone who this product would be useful for? Describe them.

Continuous interview questions

Customer interview questions

Learning goals: To understand how customers are using your product, uncover pain points
not evident in analytics data, and stay on top of evolving customer needs.

● When was the last time you used our product? Tell me about your experience.
● Tell me about how you and/or your team uses our product.
● What's are your biggest frustrations with our product?
● Why did you choose our product over a competitor?
● Where does our product fit into your day to day activities?
● Walk me through your typical workflow with our product.
● How did you find our product?
● Is there anything that would make your experience with our product more
enjoyable?
● Is there anything that our product enables you to do that you couldn't before?
● Have you considered using a competitor instead of our product? Why or why not?
● Does our product help you reach the KPIs you're held to at work? How so?
● What do you wish our product could do that it can't today?