User Interview Skills for Designers & PMs

4.8 (27)

·

4 Weeks

·

Cohort-based Course

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

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

10 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

Week 1

Oct 31—Nov 3

    Oct

    31

    👋 Course Welcome

    Thu 10/314:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)

Week 2

Nov 4—Nov 10

    Nov

    4

    1️⃣ Planning Your Research

    Mon 11/45:00 PM—6:30 PM (UTC)

    Nov

    6

    2️⃣ Writing Smart Interview Questions

    Wed 11/65:00 PM—6:30 PM (UTC)

    Nov

    8

    ✨ Office Hour / Q&A

    Fri 11/85:00 PM—6:00 PM (UTC)

    Module 1: Creating a research plan & interview guide

    4 items

    Module 2: Finding & recruiting participants

    5 items

Week 3

Nov 11—Nov 17

    Nov

    11

    3️⃣ Running a Great Interview

    Mon 11/115:00 PM—6:30 PM (UTC)

    Module 3: Interview setup, tech, and data collection

    6 items

    Nov

    13

    4️⃣ Interview Practice 1

    Wed 11/135:00 PM—6:30 PM (UTC)

    Nov

    15

    ✨ Office Hour / Q&A

    Fri 11/155:00 PM—6:00 PM (UTC)

Week 4

Nov 18—Nov 22

    Nov

    18

    5️⃣ Interview Practice 2

    Mon 11/185:00 PM—6:30 PM (UTC)

    Module 4: Analyzing, documenting, & taking action

    4 items

    Nov

    20

    6️⃣ Synthesizing + Sharing Insights

    Wed 11/205:00 PM—6:30 PM (UTC)

    Nov

    22

    🎓️ Final Takeaways + Q&A + Graduation!

    Fri 11/225:00 PM—6:00 PM (UTC)

    Tools, discounts, & further reading

    1 item

4.8 (27 ratings)

What students are saying

What product & design leaders are saying

        Interviewing users should be a Basic Life Skill for designers and product people. Elizabeth created and delivered fantastic training for our in-house teams at Mozilla that was a comprehensive intro for those newer to it but with depth for the more seasoned practitioners. She left our teams knowledgeable and confident.
Madhava Enros

Madhava Enros

Fmr. Senior Director, Firefox UX @ Mozilla
        I’ve had Elizabeth run research training at two companies, so I can attest that this course is full of actionable material and insights to take your interview skills to the next level. Designers and Product Managers, Elizabeth will make you feel comfortable to get started and help you integrate research into your processes.
Dave Poore

Dave Poore

Manager, Product Design & UXR @ StackAdapt
        Elizabeth trained our design team to conduct user interviews and build out a set of user personas to help guide our startup. It was a fantastic experience, and something we couldn't have done without her. Our designers came away more empathetic and empowered to support our customers’ businesses better.
Gianni Chiappetta

Gianni Chiappetta

CTO @ Freshline

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.

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User Interview Skills for Designers & PMs

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.

  • Friday

    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

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User Interview Skills for Designers & PMs