The Expert's Guide to Contextual Inquiry Interviews

Most consumers are used to the typical style of interviews. They get to sit in a chair, slightly zoned out, while you probe them with questions about their experiences. All they have to do, simply, is just give you accurate answers while you scribble down their responses word-for-word.

This style, while still informative, puts your consumers in a very passive role. This can be completely fine, considering what the point of the interviews is. However, often times, consumers don't actually know how to articulate responses about their needs in a product or service. They may not have a full grasp on the technology or completely comprehend the "why" behind their purchasing decisions.

因此，这种访谈风格在产生有效和可行的见解时可能缺乏。这是上下文查询访谈的来源。

这与典型的访谈不同，因为您可以观察参与者的自然习惯性活动，他们在正常的，口头访谈中描述他们的用法时可能会忽略这些活动。此外，访调员可以确认他们对参与者的任务的理解，他们可以同意，不同意或提供更大的解释。因此，如果您的公司努力了解产品或服务是解决方案的根问题，则上下文查询是一个不错的选择。bob全站app

There are four main principles of contextual inquiries:

1. Context

Naturally, the first principle is context. It's essential that a contextual inquiry occurs in the context of use. This means the interview must travel to the participant's work, home, school or other location in which they habitually use the product or service. If reaching the location is an issue, contextual inquiries can also occur over video chat in order to still observe the participant in their environment.

The interviewer must also pay attention to all tasks done and artifacts used in addition to the product or service at hand. In order to fully understand the situation, interviewers must take into consideration everything a participant does during the process of using the product or service.

2. Focus

在进行上下文查询之前，面试官应决定面试的重点。您的公司试图得出什么结论？bob全站app重点是在实验中提出研究问题。它将只能磨练所有参与者的活动。

A good focus says exactly what you want to accomplish with the interview and how you plan on accomplishing it. This is also to save you time; once you've learned all you need to learn about the focus, you can feel free to end the interview. However, it's okay to let the interview be loose in structure and in the hands of the customer. Be open to the interview taking you down an unexpected, yet rewarding, path.

3. Interpretation

如上所述，上下文查询的重要部分是相互解释。这就是为什么这些与自然观察不同的原因；在这种情况下，研究人员将得出自己的结论，而无需咨询观察到的参与者。但是，在上下文查询中，访调员有机会与他们的主题交谈并获得更大的意义。

面试官必须与参与者一起回顾他们的学习，而不仅仅是产生影响。这使参与者有机会确认您的观察结果是否准确。他们的澄清可以验证，扩展或反驳您的发现，从而进行更准确的面试。

4.伙bob综合博彩下载伴关系

The entirety of a contextual inquiry is based on collaboration between the interviewer and participant. There are two models that can be used to make for a more meaningful partnership:

Active Observation

这是上下文查询中最常用的模型。当参与者通过他们执行的所有任务进行交谈时，就会发生这种情况，就像在对访调员的过程中教育一样。面试官有机会打断参与者在任务中间提出问题。

Passive Observation

在这个模el, the participant performs their tasks as if the interviewer is not present. The interviewer silently observes the participant and does not interrupt their tasks. Rather, they ask all their questions at the completion of the observation.

Keeping these principles in mind, read on for some examples of when you would use contextual inquiry interviews.

上下文查询示例

1. Testing a Product

Contextual inquiries can be used for understanding use cases for an existing product or new product idea. Observing a participant navigating a product can help an interviewer understand what aspects trip them up, what they enjoy, what is unnecessary, and what they might use it for.

A children's toy brand is considering creating a new educational technology product for preschool-age children. Using a contextual inquiry, an interviewer can observe a classroom full of children using the product, while being guided by their teacher. The interviewer can also observe some children using the product at home with their families. These interviews can help the interviewer understand whether or not the product is age-appropriate, engaging, and actually educating children as promised.

2. Optimizing Ecommerce

Contextual inquiries can also be used to find ways to improve the shopping process for a company. Interviewers can observe how participants navigate an online ordering process to discover ways to make it more efficient.

An ecommerce clothing brand wants to improve their online ordering process. An interviewer can observe customers surfing the website on their respective devices, adding products to their carts, and completing the order process. The interviewer can then speak with the customers to understand the ways to make the experience easier and faster, such as by allowing customers to save their credit card information for future purchases.

3.设计用户界面

Another great use for contextual inquiry interviews is to better design user interfaces. It can be difficult to get a sense of the best possible user interface by simply asking participants questions about what they like to see. Watching them succeed and stumble through different interfaces can be a better gauge.

A technology company is designing a new smartphone model. An interviewer can pass out a prototype to a participant and assign them some tasks to complete, such as downloading an emailed file or connecting a Bluetooth device to the smartphone. The interviewer can then ask questions about their experience with the interface and observe if certain apps are difficult to locate or tasks require too many steps.

4. Enhancing Customer Experience

Contextual inquiries can also be used to improve or modify a customer's experience with your brand, typically at the location site. Following a customer through their journey can give you important insights that would otherwise be difficult to understand.

A bookstore cafe brand is trying to create a more welcoming environment, as most of their customers currently only come to shop and not to sit at the cafe. An interviewer can invite participants to the location and observe their experience with the location. Throughout, the interviewer can ask them questions. Participants will have a better grasp of their emotions and habits while they're actually performing them at the bookstore cafe.

5.改善员工工作流程

Contextual inquiries don't have to be solely customer-facing. In fact, one of the most beneficial uses of this interview style is assessing employee workflow. Interviewers can review an internal process at your business and ask employees what can be done to improve productivity.

For example, if your customer support team is struggling to meet customer demand, you can conduct a contextual inquiry to see where you can improve their workflow. Interviewers can observe yourcall center和调查代理商有关他们在轮班期间面临的障碍。在做出重要的业务决策时，这可以为您提供宝贵的见解，例如是否投资客户服务工具。

6. Anticipating Customer Behavior

有时，企业领导者努力做出决定，因为他们不知道客户将如何应对他们提出的变化。这是使用上下文查询的最佳时机，因为它可以帮助组织预期客户行为。您可以分析客户如何和平面ntly using your product or service, and ask them how that may change if you executed the action you're considering.

Let's say you manage an app that connects people who are looking to play recreational basketball. While your product is loved by your users, you're considering expanding it to include soccer as well, but you don't know how to appeal to this new target audience. To find out, you can go to soccer fields to see how players are meeting and connecting with each other. This can give you plenty of information to determine how your marketing team should position your app's new update.

7. Identify Unanticipated Use Cases

Did you know that text messaging was never intended to be a popular cell phone feature? Its original purpose was to give carriers a less-intrusive way to notify customers about problems with their networks. Eventually, people started using this feature to quickly communicate with their peers, and then cell carriers capitalized on the financial opportunity. Now, texting a staple that's included in almost every cell phone plan.

This is a great example of how contextual inquiry highlighted an unanticipated use case for a product or service. By analyzing the different ways that customers were using cell phones, carriers uncovered a new feature to monetize.

8. Recognizing Product Flaws

一些意外的产品用例最终可能使您的业务付出代价。客户一直在寻求从购买中获得最大收益，而他们可以找到可以利用的方面并不少见。虽然您当然想鼓励产品的大多数用途，但有时您需要进行调整，以免您最终损失钱。

Take Netflix, for example. The streaming giant found that it was losing over1亿美元each month because users were sharing their passwords and accounts. To salvage this, it added product limitations so users could only create a certain number of accounts. Additionally, Netflix added a clause in its terms and conditions that states it can terminate or freeze an account if it finds that the customer has been sharing passwords.

现在，您已经了解了可能使用上下文查询访谈的情况，您可以将以下一些问题用作下一次面试的潜水点。

Contextual Inquiry Questions

Many of the questions you ask may be in response to something you observe a participant do. So, often, the questions may be "Why did you do that?" or "What made you perform that task?" It's great to be present and ask reactive questions, but you'll also want to prepare a list of proactive questions that can typically be applied to any contextual inquiry.

1. "What did you enjoy about this product/service/experience?"

自然，您想知道人们已经喜欢您的品牌。在任何改进或变化的情况下，这些方面应该保持稳定。

2.“你遇到了什么问题？”

On the flip side, you want to know where they were confused, frustrated, or simply "stuck." These are the things that should raise red flags and be improved to create greater efficiency and ease for customers.

3. "When might you use this product/service?"

Although you'll be watching the participants use the product or service in their typical context of use, you want to be sure of example when else they might use it in their day-to-day life. For instance, you might be watching a customer test out a new tech gadget at their workplace, but there's a high chance that they might also use it while on their daily commute, resting at home, or exercising.

4. "Will you use this product/service for personal or professional reasons?"

同样，您需要了解此新产品或服务的特定用例。这也可以帮助您确定您是否应该更多地是B2B或B2C公司。bob全站app如果您知道您的产品或服务是否用于履行工作场所的职责或个人乐趣，则可以更好地针对受众。

5.“您会单独使用此产品/服务，还是作为团队的一部分？”

这个问题是关键，因为它可以揭示实际上有多少人正在与您的产品或服务互动。bob官网官方网站报纸和杂志公司认识到，流通数字通常比读者小得多，并且可以将相同的原则应用于其他品牌并改善目标工作。

6.“您喜欢（a）或（b）吗？”

This is an essential question if you're using the contextual inquiry to compare two models of a product or service, as participants can help you decide which prototype will be better received by customers.

7. "What would make you choose this product/service over that of a competitor?"

在一天结束的时候,你想知道already differentiates your products or services from those of competitors and what more you can do to improve on that. When participants are hands-on with the product or service, they'll have a much easier time relaying exactly what they enjoy about your differentiation.

有关更多信息，请阅读我们的指南service designnext.