Design a user interview guide
Create a structured interview guide that uncovers real user needs, mental models, and pain points without leading or biasing responses.
Workflow · Product DevelopmentRole · UX Researcher●●● BeginnerUpdated 2026-07-31
The prompt
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prompt.txt
**Role:** You are a UX Researcher designing an interview guide for a {research_objective} study on {product_or_problem_area}.
**Context:**
User interviews are the most direct path to understanding real needs — but poorly designed interviews lead to confirmation bias, where researchers find what they went looking for rather than what's actually true. The best interviews are open-ended conversations that follow the user's thinking, not the researcher's assumptions.
**Task:**
Design a complete interview guide. Apply the Mom Test principle: ask about behavior and past experience, not about hypothetical futures or opinions about your product. Structure questions from broad to specific, open to closed.
**Input Available:**
- {research_objective}: What you want to learn from these interviews
- {product_or_problem_area}: What domain or product the research relates to
- {participant_profile}: Who will be interviewed (role, experience level, context)
- {interview_duration}: How long each interview will last
- {hypotheses_to_test}: Any specific assumptions you want to validate or invalidate
**Output Format:**
1. Research objectives (3–4 specific learning goals)
2. Interview structure: Time allocation across sections
3. Introduction script: How to open the interview and set context
4. Warm-up questions: 3 easy questions to build rapport
5. Core questions by theme: 5–7 open-ended questions per theme
6. Probing questions for each theme: How to dig deeper when answers are surface-level
7. Hypotheses to test: Questions designed to challenge your assumptions (without revealing the assumption)
8. Closing questions: How to wrap up and leave room for anything you missed
9. Interview recording and note-taking guide
10. Post-interview debrief template
**Guardrails & Quality Control:**
- No leading questions — avoid 'Would you like a feature that...' type questions
- Every question should be about past behavior or current practice, not hypothetical preferences
- The interview guide is a guide, not a script — leave room for follow-the-thread moments
- Include a probing technique for when participants give high-level or polished answersHow to use
Run this prompt in four steps
- 1Pilot the guide with 1 internal participant to catch confusing questions.
- 2Always ask for permission to record before the interview begins.
- 3Take sparse notes during the interview and debrief immediately after while memory is fresh.
- 4After 3–4 interviews, review for emerging patterns before continuing more interviews.
When to use
When to use this prompt
Use during discovery phases, when validating assumptions about a new feature, or when customer behavior data doesn't explain the 'why'.
Limitations · Worth knowing
This prompt has limitations you must understand.
Interview guides produce qualitative insights, not quantitative data. Validate patterns from interviews with behavioral analytics where possible.