Interview Tips from Germ

2 Types of Interviews

Discovery Interviews 

Learns about people’s behaviors and attitudes about the choices they’re making in the space you’re building in, including or not including your product 

Product Feedback 

Learns about people’s behaviors directly discovering and using your product, usually involving them using it in the interview 

Best Practices for Interviews:

• Start with a super general description of your interests; anything too specific can distort your results. E.g., “I’m interested in how teens use messaging apps.” 

• Receive users’ consent for participating in the interview, the specifics of how their data will be stored and accessed, and published with or without identifying information

• Ask open-ended questions to generate thick descriptions of user behavior and pain points. Ask follow-up questions to dig into deeper motivations or attitudes. Don’t ask about your product, ask about their behaviors

• If you want demographic insights, ask people to self-identify. Don’t guess people’s identities.  

Obtaining consent 

Recruitment Opt-In - receive an affirmative answer to these 3 questions - “OK, before we start, I’d like your consent for our research procedures, is that ok?”

• Are you willing to participate in a 30-45 minute single or group interview with me?

• Can I (record this and) take notes and share them with my team?

• We will never publish your name, identity, or any images, video, or audio of you. This interview is not associated in any way with your user account or any data you produce on Germ. Can we have your consent for us sharing these records internally?

• Will you share your age with me?

Optional:

• Can we potentially quote something from this interview in our published materials with any demographic information you share?

At the end: 

• Would you be willing to identify by race, gender, and/or sexuality? For example, I identify as… [tell them, or why should they tell you?] Sharing this information helps us make sure we are building around diverse users’ needs. Sharing or talking about this is optional but helps us design an equitable tool for everybody.

• [If they share.] Thank you for sharing that. Do you think your identity has shaped your experience on social media or in DMs?

From Germ's Interview Protocol:

UX Product Research Prompt

• Prompt: I’d like to see how you set up messaging with your Bluesky (sorry lol) handle in our prototype without me telling you too much about it.

• Here’s what I will tell you. Germ is an end-to-end encrypted messenger. We’re integrating with Bluesky’s ATProtocol so that you can use your ATProto/Bluesky handle to message your Bluesky friends in our app. I’d like to see how you can navigate getting it set up. I’m also curious on your feedback about anything you read or see, whether you like it or don’t.

• So the way this works is, try to navigate the app on your own, narrating out loud what you are doing, noticing, or choosing. For example, “I am reading this text, I am skimming this, I’m looking for what to press, I like these colors, I don’t like that sizing, etc.”

If they get quiet, prompt them: Can you tell me what you’re looking at and thinking?