Great post. Sounds like what I do during user interviews:
I told them that my secret to getting people to talk boils down to three words: “tell me more”. Sometimes I’ll provide additional directions, like “tell me more about what happens after the email arrives”, but the basic concept is still the same. It’s a short prompt to get someone to add in more details or to give clarification. Then I can use this additional information to ask additional questions, get feedback from others, or be able to ensure that what I think that I’ve heard is complete and correct.
Great researchers use short phrases or silence during a conversation to get more information out of end users. If find this to be my favorite part of the conversation. The key is listening, not talking.
Patrick Neeman is Director of User Experience at Jobvite, a social recruiting platform and runs both the UX Drinking Game and Startup Drinking Game | More | Contact
If you're a UX Designer in San Francisco, ping me at Twitter. I want to add you to a list I have there.
