Hello {{First Name | founders}}!
Welcome to ‘Tactical Tips’ by Jerel and Shuo at DECODE, where we cover one new idea to help you build and grow your startup – every week in <5 minutes!
Today, we’ll be answering the question, “How to run user interviews?”
And here’s what Jeanette Mellinger, Former Head of UX Research at Uber Eats and BetterUp advised.
If you're in the early stages of validating your idea and attracting your first users—then today’s newsletter is for you.
🔥 Inside this issue:
✅ 3 tactics for running user interviews
✅ 2 traps to avoid
✅ 1 tool to leverage
👇Let’s dive in.
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3 tactics for running user interviews
🔨 Narrow down and go deep
Define the next decision you need to make. (Which feature should I build first?)
Prioritize 1-2 learning goals—don’t try to learn everything at once. (Which feature attracts customers with the highest willingness to spend?)
Target 1-2 customer segments who are most important to serve—segment by psychographics (how they think/behave) first, then demographics (who they are/where they are based).
Conduct 5 focused conversations per customer segment.
🔍 Zoom out, zoom in, zoom out
Start broad—understand the user’s world, habits, mental models and context outside your focus area. (Tell me about how you run your business)
Narrow in on your learning goals. (Which apps do you use most? How has it changed over time?)
End with 1-2 high-level questions to uncover pain points. (If you had a magic wand to fix one thing about X, what would it be?)
In crowded spaces, go broader.
✍️ Tag, track, & translate user insights
Log qualitative data immediately—tag key moments for hypothesis confirmation and note direct quotes, emotions, and workarounds.
Ask “Why” repeatedly to uncover deeper user motivations and trends across interviews. (Why does the customer do X?)
Organize insights visually, so you can prioritize the biggest clusters of pain points and define next steps.
2 traps to avoid
🚨 Letting bias creep into your research
Cut leading questions. Start with “Tell me about” instead of “Do you”. Avoid using adjectives and ‘yes or no’ questions.
Don’t hint at what you want to hear—avoid mentioning your product idea upfront and encourage open, honest responses instead.
Focus on recent, specific behaviors and not hypotheticals like, “Would you use this?”
🚨 Taking customer requests at face value
Don’t jump to building what customers explicitly ask for.
Dig deeper to understand why they made that request.
1 tool to leverage
📖 Best practice for doing qualitative research
Ask 1 short question at a time. Avoid stacking questions.
Rephrase important questions 2-3 ways to uncover deeper insights. (How do you solve this problem? → What’s the most frustrating part?)
Use tools like Miro to group and analyze qualitative data.
Dive deeper
Watch Heide Gibson (VP, Product Growth at BILL and former Snr. Director, Product Led Growth at Adobe) share frameworks and strategies for uncovering customer needs, gaining deep product insights, and iterating toward an MVP that truly resonates.
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Stay tuned for more startup wisdom in next week’s edition!
