Empathy Interviews Protocol

Goal:  To gain a deeper understanding of a user’s experience of the issue you are working on.

Norms for Empathy Interviews:

• Seek to understand, not confirm
• Ask once, clearly 
• Ask questions that elicit stories and feelings
• PROBE: “Tell me more…”  “What was that like for you?”

Prep for Interviews (15 min):

What questions could you ask a student/practitioner/stakeholder to understand their experience of your group’s problem/issue, and the factors contributing to it?

• Question Selection/Brainstorm  (3 min):  Individually, review the questions below. Adapt these or generate a few questions of your own.
• Share & Organize (5-10 min):  As a group, identify/organize your top 5-6 questions. Will they help you understand what makes X challenging, or when students experience success (i.e. the root causes you need to address)?
• Predict & Plan (3 min): Each person shares one thing they think they will hear. If you are doing the interview with a partner, decide who will interview and who will take notes.

Consider these possible Empathy Interview Questions (ones in bold highly recommended!):

• What is one word you would use to describe how you feel about X?
• Tell me about a time when you felt successful in X…
  • What happened? What made this a success? (What did you do? What did others do?)
•     Tell me about a time when you X was hard… 
  • What happened? How did that feel? Why was that hard? What do you wish would have happened? 
• What advice would you give another student/person about X?
• What advice would you give to me about X?
• What do you wish others knew about X?
• Suppose you could have three wishes to make X the best it could be. What would they be, and why?
• What do you wonder about X, or wish you knew?
• Draw me a picture of what you think about when you hear X… (then “Tell me about what you drew.”)

Click here for this protocol in document format