User Interview Skills for Designers & PMs

4.9

(7 ratings)

·

2 Weeks

·

Cohort-based Course

Hands-on practice & expert guidance to 10x your interview skills. Get insights that power smart, data-driven product & design decisions.

This course is popular

4 people enrolled last week.

Clients include

Shopify.com
Meta
Mozilla
Instacart
MTV

Course overview

Deeply understand your users so you can build things that solve their problems ✨

Any designer or product manager can run a user interview. It’s really not rocket science. Pick up the phone, call up a customer, ask them some questions -- bam, there’s your interview.


Running great interviews, though? That takes training and practice. Even those with the best intentions and the most motivation need some help if they want to do it right. I’ve worked with dozens of designers, developers, and product managers who are pumped about talking to users, but then…


...they spend tons of time and energy reaching out to people, but can't convince them to sign up for interviews

…they ask leading questions that will only ever get them the answers they want to hear. 

…they focus on simply validating the ideas they already think are great rather than testing their assumptions about what users need in the first place. 

…they get nervous and rush through the interview, barely even listening to what the participant has to say.

…they struggle to sift through all their data to synthesize the key insights

...they miss opportunities to make an impact on their product because they can't persuade stakeholders to take action.


In this 2-week course, you'll learn to run interviews just like a veteran user researcher. Through expert advice, personalized feedback, and plenty of of hands-on practice, you'll develop the skills you need to plan, execute, analyze, and document your interviews effectively -- so you can translate your hard work into evidence-based impact on product management & design decisions.

This course is for...

01

Designers who want to upskill by becoming proficient in one of the most useful & versatile user research methods.

02

Product managers who need to deeply understand their users so that what they build next meets their needs & solves their problems.

03

Early-career UX researchers looking for the hands-on practice & expert advice they need to level-up their interview skills.

You'll get...

A proven playbook for planning your interviews
  • Evaluate potential interview topics on multiple criteria to choose the ones that are highest priority
  • Write lightweight, useful, shareable research plans
Step-by-step guidance for finding & recruiting participants
  • Figure out the ideal number of participants to recruit
  • Learn multiple recruiting strategies that vary in scrappy-ness
  • Get people to actually commit to signing up
  • Create an automated scheduling flow
Hands-on practice & specific frameworks to structure your interviews for maximum impact
  • Write thoughtful, useful, non-leading questions to get unbiased answers
  • Create a natural "flow" for both you and the participant
  • Figure out the tech setup that works best for you
Actionable tips for making participants feel comfortable, appreciated, and willing to share
  • Quickly build rapport with participants and make them feel at ease
  • Deal with "too chatty" or "too quiet" participants effectively and gracefully
In-class "lightning" interviews to build confidence with techniques and best practices
  • Conduct real interviews with your peers during a live workshop
  • Dig deep into needs and pain points without biasing participants' answers
  • Ask follow-up questions that reveal thoughts, feelings, emotions, and motivations
  • Read body language and other nonverbal cues
In-class analysis exercises that use real data collected by you
  • An easy-to-follow framework for synthesizing insights from data
  • Hands-on practice applying the framework on real data
  • Info and recommendations for the latest AI analysis tools
Strategies for documenting, sharing, and inspiring action
  • Create research documents that people actually want to read
  • Translate insights into recommendations and next steps
  • Get buy-in from stakeholders to take action on what you learned
  • Make an impact on business decisions through research YOU spearheaded
Confidence built through hands-on practice
  • Practice time built into nearly every live session
  • A safe space to experiment and find what works best for you
  • Fast feedback from your peers and the instructor
Downloadable resources to give you a head start
  • Templates and scripts I use in my own research
  • Examples of real documents I have created for clients
  • Curated resources from my favourite research thought leaders

This course includes

6 interactive live sessions

Lifetime access to course materials

18 in-depth lessons

Direct access to instructor

2 projects to apply learnings

Guided feedback & reflection

Private community of peers

Course certificate upon completion

Maven Satisfaction Guarantee

This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.

Course syllabus

Expand all modules
  • Week 1

    Aug 12—Aug 18

    Week dates are set to instructor's time zone

    Events

    • Aug

      12

      1️⃣ Welcome + Creating a Research Plan

      Mon, Aug 12, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM UTC

    • Aug

      14

      2️⃣ Asking Great Interview Questions

      Wed, Aug 14, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM UTC

    • Aug

      15

      ✨ Recap + Q&A

      Thu, Aug 15, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM UTC

    Modules

    • Module 1: Creating a research plan & interview guide

    • Module 2: Finding & recruiting participants

  • Week 2

    Aug 19—Aug 22

    Week dates are set to instructor's time zone

    Events

    • Aug

      19

      3️⃣ Practicing Your Interview Skills

      Mon, Aug 19, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM UTC

    • Aug

      21

      4️⃣ Synthesizing Insights From Data

      Wed, Aug 21, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM UTC

    • Aug

      21

      🎓️ Final Takeaways + Q&A + Graduation!

      Wed, Aug 21, 5:30 PM - 6:00 PM UTC

    Modules

    • Module 3: Running your interviews

    • Module 4: Analyzing, documenting, & taking action

    • Tools, discounts, & further reading

4.9

(7 ratings)

What students are saying

Meet your instructor

Elizabeth Creighton, PhD

Elizabeth Creighton, PhD

Founder, Brazen UX

With 16 years of experience conducting impactful research, Elizabeth has shaped the design of hundreds of websites, apps, services, and physical products for companies such as Shopify, Mozilla, Instacart, MTV, and Meta. Her experience is complemented by a PhD in Cognitive Psychology, which gives her a deep understanding of how users think, behave, learn, and remember.


Elizabeth is frequently invited to speak on topics related to UX at conferences and events, including UXPA, Web Directions, IXDA, and ConveyUX. She also teaches courses on user research methods for her clients' teams, as well as online with O’Reilly Media and Maven.


Outside of work, Elizabeth is a black-belt martial artist and mediocre banjo player — though she really spends most of her free time these days chasing after her 2-year-old daughter.

A pattern of wavy dots
Join an upcoming cohort

User Interview Skills for Designers & PMs

Cohort 2

$490

Dates

Aug 12—22, 2024

Payment Deadline

Aug 12, 2024
|

Bulk purchases

Course schedule

4-6 hours per week
  • Monday & Wednesday

    12:00pm - 1:30pm EST

    Interactive workshops where we'll talk through concepts and case studies + complete short activities designed to help you solidify what you've learned.

  • Thursday

    12:00pm-1:00pm

    We'll use this time for review, questions, and additional feedback.

  • Weekly projects

    1-2 hours per week

    Short written assignments that challenge you to apply what you've learned.

Free resource

Research Plan Template

Creating a simple, lightweight research plan is your first step towards making sure you'll get useful, actionable data from your research.


You'll be able to create your research plan in just 15min using this template!



Get this free resource

Learning is better with cohorts

Learning is better with cohorts

Active hands-on learning

This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects

Interactive and project-based

You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams

Learn with a cohort of peers

Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if I can’t make a live session?
I work full-time, what is the expected time commitment?
What’s the refund policy?
Can I get reimbursed by my company?
Does this course provide a certificate?
A pattern of wavy dots
Join an upcoming cohort

User Interview Skills for Designers & PMs

Cohort 2

$490

Dates

Aug 12—22, 2024

Payment Deadline

Aug 12, 2024
|

Bulk purchases

$490

4.9

·

2 Weeks