Why Interviews Beat Surveys for Early Research

Surveys are efficient at confirming things you already suspect, but they are poor at surfacing what you don't know to ask about. Interviews let you follow an unexpected answer with "tell me more about that," which is where the most useful insight usually shows up.

Writing Questions That Don't Lead the Witness

A question like "would you use a feature that does X?" almost always gets a polite yes. Replace hypothetical questions with questions about specific past behavior: "Walk me through the last time you tried to do this." Past behavior is far more reliable than predicted future behavior.

The Difference Between What People Say and What They Do

Users are generally honest but not always accurate narrators of their own behavior. They will describe the workflow they intend to follow, not necessarily the one they actually follow. Ask to see a real example — a real spreadsheet, a real inbox, a real screen — rather than relying on a verbal description alone.

Structuring a 30-Minute Interview

Open with easy, low-stakes context questions to build rapport. Spend the middle two-thirds on specific recent experiences, using "tell me about the last time" prompts. Close with a couple of forward-looking questions, but treat those answers as directional, not conclusive.

Common Mistakes That Ruin Good Interviews

The two most common failures are talking too much yourself and stopping at the first plausible answer. Silence is a tool — letting a pause sit for a few extra seconds often produces the most honest part of the response.

Conclusion

The goal of a user interview isn't to collect opinions, it's to reconstruct real behavior in enough detail that you can spot the gap between what users need and what currently exists. That gap is where your design work actually starts.