In this previous post, I discussed the importance of VOC, especially at the beginning of a new product development process and various methodologies to collect it.
I also mentioned that a VOC study should include different forms of data collection, to provide the development team with a well-rounded database of information for analyses. And one of the techniques to gather the VOC is customer interviewing.
With that being said, this is the first of 2 posts that explores an effective way to conduct qualitative interviews, by employing a simple process for implementation.
What Are Qualitative Interviews?
Qualitative interviews are well-structured conversations with a subject that represents the targeted customer. Interviewees are asked identical questions and the questions are worded so that responses are open-ended.
This structure allows the participants to contribute as much as they desire, and it also allows the interviewer to ask probing questions as a means of follow-up.
These kinds of interviews are likely the most popular form of interviewing that is utilized in VOC studies because of the nature of the open-ended questions, which allows the participants to fully express their viewpoints and experiences.
The Process To Produce Effective Qualitative Interviews
The process to conduct well-structured and professional interviews includes 7 steps:
- Selecting the participants
- Recruiting the participants
- Creating effective questions
- Piloting
- Preparing the interviews
- Implementing the interviews
- Interpreting the data
Selecting The Participants
Asking the right questions is fundamental but asking the right questions to the wrong participants will not help you.
Before you start to build up your sample of participants, you need to define the criteria to drive your selection in order to obtain qualified participants that will provide credible and useful information.
You might think your new product is for everyone belonging to the category of GP, neurosurgeon, OR nurse, etc…; however it is rarely the case.
I’ll suggest that you should be specific, as much as you can and identify the complete set of characteristics of the participants.
Your sample must be a representative of your target customer. For example, if you are investigating an innovative technology that has the potential to be disruptive and to modify the current surgical approach, then it makes no sense to interview people that you can classify as laggard in the technology adoption curve.
You will probably collect lots of false negatives and you might think that your idea for the new product is not very good.
Instead of doing that, you should focus on early adopters and innovators. Similarly, if you have the idea of developing a device for minimally invasive surgery, then the participants should be supporters of this kind of surgery.
I would like to also underline the importance of acquiring participants who will be willing to participate and openly and honestly share information. It is your responsibility to create an environment where these participants feel comfortable and do not feel restricted or uncomfortable to share their experience.
Lastly, if the sales process of the new product involves different stakeholders, it might be better to include not only the “end user” but also other categories of stakeholder.
For each stakeholder category, the interview will be designed differently according to the specific role in the sales process. For example, for a CT scan you might interview the radiologists (end users) and administrators, to obtain all perspectives of the different stakeholders.
Recruiting the participants
If you are working for a well-known company with a large customer base looking for participants in its core business. Or for SME that is approaching a new business area or for a new start-up, note that the effort to recruit participants is not the same.
My suggestion is that in some situations, you need to use creativity to connect to potential participants. Referrals also work well, for example, if your customers are Orthopedic surgeons and you need to explore urologists, referrals from your customers will be helpful to recruit participants.
Likewise, conferences, congresses, and courses are good opportunities. I have found that during hands-on courses, after building the relationship with the attendees it is easier to ask people for their time.
If they cannot be there immediately, they will be available later after the course, so you could have an interview when it fits their schedule.
Your distributors or direct sales force are also a fruitful source of participants, as long as you are clear with the requirements for selecting them.
Finally, always approach potential participants by asking for advice regarding their “jobs to be done”. Asking for advice should be your general question, reason being that people like being asked because it makes them feel important.
There is no single way to get participants and you need some creativity, but it isn’t as hard as you might think.
Creating Effective Questions
Creating good questions for the interview process is one of the most crucial components to designing a successful interview. There are several recommendations available for creating effective questions for qualitative interviews, and some useful elements are:
- Ask open-ended and clearly worded questions (participants should be feel free to answer, using their own terms).
- Ask neutral questions (avoid wording that might influence answers, e.g., evocative, judgmental, positive, negative wording).
- Ask one single question in the sentence. (no 2 questions in one sentence)
- Ask for specific examples from their experience. (behavioural questions)
- Ask about their problems and not your solution.
- Ask “why” questions. (be careful to ensure that it is not too much)
- Ask them to show you how they currently solve the problem.
- Ask about what they love and hate about the matter.
- Ask which other tool/approach they are using to solve the problem.
- Ask how they found out about the current solution.
- Ask them how much they pay for it.
- Ask them what happens if they fail to solve each problem.
Examples Of Bad Questions
Do you think it is a good idea? or Are you interested in a product that…. ? and similar questions are bad questions because you are asking an opinion and you will collect plenty of false positives. Another example is a question that goes like these:
Would you buy a product that will provide ….?
Again, this question leads to speculations and hypothetical thinking; generally, people want to make you happy, and the answer will be “yes” but in reality, the answer is worthless.
How much would you pay for ….?
Very similar to the previous one, the numbers that you will get are not valuable. People tend to be over-optimistic about the future and will lie to please you.
Would you pay X for a product that does Y?
This question, as the previous one, will provide weak data because it forces the participants to agree on a price for your future product; again, people are very bad on predicting future behaviour.
Examples Of Good Questions
To get the most out of the stakeholders being interviewed, try questions like:
Tell me the last time you experienced that…? Or Tell me about a time you did…?
These should be the first questions after the introduction and warm up. These are good questions because you asked about past experiences and not predictions.
Your goal is to find out the problems of your customer and the best way to do it is to let them describe their actions, instead of telling you their opinion. By asking them similar questions, you will get to know the pain and gain points for the jobs they are willing to do.
What did you enjoy about….? What did you struggle with the most during…? What frustrated you about…?
All are very good questions, used to identify problems and gratifications of your customer while doing the job you are focusing on.
Can you give me an example?
This is another great general-purpose question that can give you good supporting evidence for your new product or feature.
That is because, asking for specific examples lets the participants tell their stories, which will provide you with much more information than a higher-level discussion.
Why do you bother?
This question is very good to translate the perceived problem into the real problem. The answer will help you to understand the final goal of your customer and the motivations behind their actions.
Other Examples Of Good Questions Include:
What are the consequences of that? Or What are the implications if you fail to solve the problem?
The answer to these kinds of questions will help you to understand if the problem you would like to solve is important for your customer.
Also, solutions to problems that have consequences (clinical, financial, legal, …) for your customer are more likely to be founded. Moreover, the answer could be very helpful to prioritise customer segments according to the size of the pain or the problem.
What else have you tried? How do you cope with it?
If your customer has not yet looked for a solution, there is a fair chance that he/she doesn’t care too much about the problem.
What’s wrong with what you’ve tried already? How do you feel about your current solution?
Questions like these are very useful to explore weaknesses or strengths in the competitor or substitute product value proposition.
What do you wish you could do that you can’t do today?
I have found that this question works well for very specific features or functionalities.
However, be careful about asking this question too early in the interview or too soon, in general because it will generate speculations or an embarrassing silence.
How much are you currently spending to solve the problem? Where does the money come from?
These questions will allow you to explore competition pricing in order to have a price suggestion, especially if you don’t know how much is paid for the current solution.
How do you know you’ve had a successful surgery/treatment/day?
This is a valuable question because you are trying to uncover customer goals. If your product can help your customer achieve his/her objective or help make him/her become more successful, then you are thinking of a valuable product.
Is there anything else I should have asked?
This question should always come at the end of the interview. People want to help; you should just give them the opportunity. The objective is to explore if we missed something regarding the customer problems.
Conclusion
If you follow the steps I’ve outlined above, I can guarantee that you cannot get it wrong when it comes to getting the right answers during a qualitative interview.
To support this guide, in my next post, I will share practical real-life examples of: how to do a pilot, preparing and implementing interviews, interpreting the data collected and the common mistakes I have made.
I hope that you will put to use all that you’ve already learnt, as you look forward to the next episode.