Yasna.ai is built by a team of researchers, each with 15+ years of experience. This makes us uniquely positioned to act as consultants and provide you with best research practices. In this section we offer 10 tips for mastering the interview guide for conversational research.

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If you would like to fast-forward through this part of your project, we got you covered: there are pre-built interview guide templates for a range of market research tasks. They are available on the platform and for review in this chapter of the handbook.

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10 tips for perfecting the guide for conversational research

1. Align your interview guide questions with your business tasks

Ask yourself: how will the collected data help solve these tasks?

Business task example Relevant guide questions
You’re planning to create an app for biking, and you want to understand the demand for this app 1. What was the last time you travelled by bike?
  1. What was the highlight of this experience?
  2. What discomfort did you feel during it? | | You're thinking of launching a new line of food products aimed at people interested in a healthy lifestyle, so you want to understand how people perceive 'healthy lifestyle' | 1. What is your understanding of a healthy lifestyle?
  3. How does the term "healthy lifestyle" make you feel?
  4. What do you think is the most important thing about having a healthy lifestyle? |

2. Focus on the information that matters most

You want to know everything about your audience, we get it! But don't just ask out of curiosity, think about how the data will help you make decisions. Remember that users lose enthusiasm after 15 minutes of discussion.

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Example

Your research objective is to find out more about people who experience pain after exercise. Ask how often they have pain after exercise, what kind of pain it is, and how intense it is. Don't ask how often they exercise, which gym they go to and for how long.

Your research objective is to find out what people think about a new design for cat food packaging. Ask about their emotions when they see the design, or how they would behave if they saw this design on store shelves. Don't ask how often and how much their cat eats, or what it's name is.

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3. Make your interview guide digestible (=concise)

Conversational research works best with small focused tasks. If you have a lengthy guide with 10 or more questions, it may be best to split it into several guides. People answer better when the questions are short and to-the-point :)

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Example

Let’s say you want to ask consumers about purchase decision and packaging design. We advise to create a separate guide for each topic instead of one big all-inclusive guide. Two smaller surveys will be easier for the audience to understand. Plus, by the end of the survey it is unlikely that the quality of responses will drop due to fatigue.

Compare this ONE big guide:

Guide on Purchasing Decision and Packaging Design

  1. What factors influence your decision to purchase a product in a particular category?
  2. How important is the packaging design in your decision to purchase a product?
  3. How important is the brand name when making a purchasing decision?
  4. Does eco-friendly or sustainable packaging impact your purchasing decision?
  5. How often do you rely on customer reviews and ratings during your purchasing process?
  6. What elements of packaging (e.g., color, graphics, material) catch your attention the most?
  7. Do you compare prices across different brands before making a purchase?
  8. Have you ever refrained from purchasing a product because you disliked its packaging?
  9. How influential are discounts and promotions in your purchasing decisions?
  10. How do you perceive the relationship between packaging design and product quality?

To these TWO smaller ones:

Guide on Purchasing Decision

  1. What factors influence your decision to purchase a product?
  2. How important is the brand name when making a decision?
  3. How often do you rely on customer reviews and ratings?
  4. Do you compare prices across different brands?
  5. How influential are discounts and promotions?

Guide on Packaging Design

  1. How important is the packaging design in your decision to purchase a product?
  2. Does eco-friendly or sustainable packaging impact your purchasing decision?
  3. What elements of packaging (e.g., color, graphics, material) draw your attention the most?
  4. Have you ever refrained from purchasing a product because you disliked its packaging?
  5. How do you perceive the relationship between packaging design and product quality?

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