As I was preparing to write this week’s issue of InsideProduct, I deviated from my originally planned topic to delve into the user interview topic one more time.

I had the opportunity to visit a customer of the product I’m currently working on and as I prepared for the visit I realized I’ve gotten lazy with my note taking.

Since I work remotely almost exclusively all my interactions are via Zoom or Google Meet and both have real handy recording capabilities.

This visit was going to be…gasp… in person. In a warehouse. Talking to a group of maintenance techs.

Probably not the best setting to whip out a tape recorder and ask if I could record the discussion.

So I fired up the Google machine and poked around for some helpful hints. And I decided to share what I found with all of you.

Common advice for note taking

I’ve included some articles that provide some good tips below and I wanted to share an overview of what I found.

It seems as though few product people get a chance to interview users in their natural habitat, or at least in the middle of a warehouse. Most articles implied that the interview was taking place virtually, or in an office setting where you’re sitting at a table to have your conversation.

That aside, here are some of the key points I gathered from reading those articles:

• You’re better off if you prepare your questions ahead of time. Know what you’re trying to find out, and put some thought into what questions you’re going to ask to find that out.
• It’s a conversation, but let your customer/user do most of the talking.
• Try to take notes as verbatim as possible.
• Record the conversation if you can, but don’t make it awkward
• Take notes by hand so you can go beyond writing bullet points
• Synthesize after the interview

Those are the main things that came to mind as I was writing this. Read the articles below for even more (and sometimes conflicting) advice.

What I actually did

So that’s a quick overview of what you should do.

I took a notebook with me with the full intent of taking copious notes.

And then I walked into the warehouse. I stood and talked with the maintenance techs for an hour.

And didn’t take one. single. note.

Partly that was because I was tagging along on an account management call, and partly because I was standing in the middle of a warehouse. (The location is extremely relevant to the product).

I listened to the conversation the maintenance techs had with the account manager. I asked some questions about certain situations, and I took a look around the warehouse.

Then on my way back home, I stopped for lunch and furiously scribbled down notes to remember the key points and my observations. When I got back home I immediately typed up my notes and added any additional points I remembered.

Is this gold star note taking technique? Far from it.

It was a read the room kind of moment. Had I been in an office setting, I would have asked if we could meet in a conference room, and I would’ve been up at a whiteboard asking questions and sketching things out as we talked.

But we were in a warehouse. I sensed that if I whipped out a notebook and started furiously scribbling down notes, I would’ve lost any small connection I was able to establish with the maintenance techs.

I get another chance to do a user interview next week, so we’ll see how that goes.

How do you interview users in the wild?

As with most other situations, the context of where you’re doing interviews plays into what techniques are appropriate, so I adjusted to the environment.

I’d love to hear about any experiences you’ve had doing user interviews in unique settings (warehouses, factory floors, volleyball courts…) and what techniques you’ve found particularly helpful. Let me know and I’ll pass them along.

Meanwhile, read through the articles below. There’s some good advice in there, but maybe not for every situation.

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Note-taking for beginners: a brief guide on taking notes in user interviews

When you’re doing user interviews, it’s tempting to forego notes and rely on a recording of your discussion. Erika Spear points out there’s still a place for taking notes. As you may expect, notes serve as a good backup for the issues involved with recording a discussion. They offer additional benefits such as:

• You can find what you’re looking for faster in notes.
• Notes help you identify what questions you want to dig into deeper
• Notes help you improve the amount of information you extract from an interview.
• Notes reflect your thoughts on the topic, i.e. what you deem important to write down.
• Notes help you record the non-verbal aspects of an interview, such as a participant’s body language.

In order to experience those benefits, you need to be intentional about how you take notes. Erika suggests some good note taking practices to follow before, during, and after a user interview.

How to Take Notes During Customer Research Interviews

Teresa Torres has found one of the biggest challenges with qualitative research is capturing the overwhelming volume of data you collect throughout the process. In this article, Teresa shared her thoughts on a couple of choices you need to make when taking notes.

She also provided a set of tips for knowing what to write, and why it’s helpful to differentiate between your customer’s words and your thoughts.

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Notes on taking notes (in user interviews)

Being a note-taker in a user interview is an important role — perhaps more than you might initially think. It’s an extremely valuable role and it can be the foundation that allows your team to do accurate, unbiased, fast, affordable research.

If you find yourself in the note taking role, Nicola Rushton has some suggestions on how to do note-taking well.

Taking notes in interviews

Jacob Kaplan-Moss is not a fan of multiple interviewers, even if one of them is there to take notes. His suggestion is instead of having a designated note taker, that you adopt some practices that help you take notes more effectively. So if you struggle to take notes during an interview, Jacob has some note taking approaches and techniques to try.

How to take notes during customer interviews

Jason Evanish has the opportunity to work with a lot of product managers. He was surprised to learn that it’s not typical to take notes while also asking the majority of the questions in a customer interview.

Doing both comes naturally to Jason, so he wanted to share the approaches that he’s found useful for making the most out of your customer interviews and how to take notes during those interviews.

Thanks for reading

Thanks again for reading InsideProduct.

If you have any comments or questions about the newsletter, or there’s anything you’d like me to cover, let me know.

Talk to you next time,

Kent J. McDonald
Founder | KBP.Media