Market Research Interviews: How to organize and conduct interviews

A market research interview is a method to collect qualitative data by conducting 1-on-1 or small-group conversations. It helps the researchers understand in detail how people act, why they act that way, why they use or don't use a product, what is being missed, what their needs are, what issues they have and how they are currently solve it. A market research interview allows the researchers to get user's stories and understand their deep-seated needs and problems. Sometimes even the user may not be aware of the needs they actually have, so the interviews should be deep and with many psychological questions.

The market research interview is a conversation about life, how a person understands, reacts and perceives it. It is more than just a Q&A session. The market research interview will also help you understand in detail people's reaction to your ideas, concepts and products. The data of market research interviews will help you improve, change and keep the parts needed. So a thoughtful conversation is your most powerful tool.

This guide about market research interviews will walk you through the essential steps to organize and conduct interviews that give powerful insights, from preparing the perfect questions for the interviews to analyzing the results of it.

Step 1: Define the Goals of the Interview

Before you even think about questions, you must be very clear about your goal. Clearly define what task you are solving and what exactly you want to get as an output. Your approach to the market research interview will shift depending on your starting point. Generally, market research goals fall into one of three scenarios:

1. There is a concrete problem with a concrete product/concept/idea

2. There is a topic within which you need to find product concepts for a reason

3. There is an already formulated idea that you need to evaluate

How Yasna.ai can help in this stage

Yasna.ai platform has ready-made research guide templates for different cases (ex. problem exploration, idea testing, customer feedback, etc.). This feature makes it easy to align your interview goals and objectives with a clear structure, ensuring you cover the right topics, you have the right questions and you do not miss important points.

Let’s go back to the scenarios and talk about it in detail:

Step 2. Create a list of questions aka a "GUIDE" for a market research interviews

The backbone of a successful interview is a well-crafted question guide. It should not be just a checklist, it should be a scenario for your conversation that will help you structure your thoughts and ensure that the user's (interviewee's) thoughts are gathered logically and smoothly. Devoting enough time to this task, the right question is half of the answer.

Write down your hypotheses, your assumptions about the research participants, the user, their needs, behavior, problems, and motives. This will help you formulate questions for the market research interview. You can also use open-ended questions that begin with the words "when," "how," "why," "where from," "in what way," "why." Ask for examples, to recall specific situations, to tell in more detail. This will help you gain new knowledge about the interviewee's experience.

How Yasna.ai can help in this stage

On Yasna.ai platform, you can upload your own guide or use built-in templates. The AI moderator follows your guide while adding clarifying probes where needed, saving you time and ensuring deeper conversations.

An approximate structure of the market research interview guide depending on the interview goals:

Scenario 1: THERE IS A PROBLEM

1. Introduction and Warm-up. General questions that are easier to answer and a comfortable atmosphere.

2. Explore Product Experience:

   — Tell me in detail, how do you typically [perform the action]?

   — Can you give me an example of the last time you [used the service]?

   etc.

3. Dig into challenges, workarounds, and their significance.

   — Tell me more about what went wrong last time.

   — What did you feel at that moment?

   — How did you try to solve the issue? What other options did you consider?

   — How do you deal with this problem now?

   etc.

The end: Thank the interviewee for their time and effort and ask for permission to follow up with any clarifying questions. And ask them to contact you when they have new thoughts about it.

Scenario 2: THERE IS A TERRITORY

1. Introduction and Warm-up. You should create a comfortable atmosphere and ask general questions that are easy to answer.

2. Understand Current Behavior: Find out how they meet this need today.

   — "Think about the last time you had to [achieve a certain goal]. Can you walk me through that?"

   — "Why is this important to you?"

   — "What tools or methods do you use...?"

   — "What emotions do you experience during this process?"

   Etc.

The end: Thank and ask if they have any final thoughts to share.

Scenario 3: YOU HAVE AN IDEA

1. Introduction, rules, and warm-up. General questions that are easy to answer.

2. Present the Idea and Assess Perception: We discuss the concept, talk about the idea. The important this is to define the interviewee's understanding of the concept and the benefits and drawbacks they personally perceive.

Questions to ask:

— Tell me what you think about this concept/idea/solution.

— If you had to tell a friend about concept/idea/solution, how would you do it?

— What do you like/dislike and why?

— What issues and problems can it solve?

— In what situations would you personally use it?

Conclusion of the conversation. We thank them for their time. We ask for permission to contact and clarify details if necessary. We ask if the interviewee has any questions, comments or thoughts on the topic that they would like to talk about.

The questions should be written in simple language. Avoid using jargon.

Step 3: Conduct the Interview

Now your guide is prepared, it's time to talk to the users.

— Place to conduct the interview is one of the first things to think about after preparations. It is also important to think about how the interview will take place, and what you might need for it. Schedule interviews in advance and send a reminder (also can have a friendly call reminder before the interview). The interview location should be quiet, comfortable, whether in-person or virtual. For online/remote interviews, test your tech to ensure clear audio and video.

— Prepare the necessary materials in advance. You must have apen and paper for notes. A voice recorder or camera. In the case of a remote interview - audio and screen recording. It is highly desirable to conduct video or audio recording.

— Get Permission to Record: Always ask for permission to record the interview (video is preferable to audio). Always explain that the recording is for internal team use only. Most people agree and quickly forget they're being recorded. A recording material is invaluable—it allows you to focus on the conversation and catch details you might have missed later.

— Memorize Your Questions: Know your questions well enough that you won't have to look at the guide every minute, you can focus on the conversation. Your job is to listen actively and be present in the conversation. Listen to the interviewee and try to ask questions not strictly from the list, but more based on the information you hear. 80% of the conversation should consist of the interviewee's answers. Let's say, it is a monologue, guided by you in the right direction.

— Create a Friendly Atmosphere: The interview should be like a relaxed, friendly chat. Start with a small talk, ask some questions not about the conecpt or idea, so that the interviewee will be more relaxed. Share something about yourself, ask something about them.

— Listen More, Talk Less: Aim for an 80/20 split—the interviewee should be doing 80% of the talking.

— Dig Deeper without Interrupting: When the interviewee mentions something interesting, worth digging deeper, make a note of it. Don't break their flow. You can always return later with, "You mentioned '...' earlier, could you tell me more about that?"

Step 4: Analyze the Results/data

Collecting data is only half the job. Now you must turn the data chaos into order.It is best to conduct the analysis as a team to avoid distortions in the interpretation of participants' words. For the analysis, you will need audio or video recordings of the interviews and your notes. Combine everything you have. In the case of a large number of interviews, the audio recordings can be transcribed into text. It is faster to work with text transcripts, but of course their preparation takes time, and nuances and sometimes the emotions are lost when transferring direct speech to paper.

Together with your team members, listen/watch the audio/video recordings of the interviews and write down all important phrases/moments. It is usually convenient to use sticky notes on the principle of "one sticker - one phrase." After listening/watching the first recording, structure all the stickers into logical blocks.Your task is to create order out of the data chaos, to identify the most frequently recurring problems and moments that are important for the majority of interviewees and that confirm the hypotheses.

Interviews with Yasna.ai

Conducting comprehensive, high-quality interviews requires significant time and effort. It needs careful planning, skilled execution, and long hours of analysis. But what if you could achieve deep insights with unprecedented speed and scale?

The Yasna.ai platform automates the research process. Our AI assistant can conduct and process 100s of personal text/audio/video interviews in just 24 hours. The process is built on the principles of a strong interview guide, ensuring a structured dialogue while allowing the AI to probe deeper with relevant follow-up questions.

And the best part, you will get structured reports. Clear, predictable reports where qualitative findings are supported by quantitative data. + the actual chats with the real people, which you can export, translate, filter. Everything in one place.

Learn more about how Yasna.ai can help you uncover the insights you need to build products people love.

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