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Sep 1, 2022

The best user research questions and how to ask them

To get the right insights, you need to ask the right questions. Here’s the best user research questions to start gathering feedback right away.

Lorelei Bowman

Content Editor at Maze

Knowing the right user research questions to ask is vital to the success of your UX research. Research is an invaluable source of input for product development, but before you can get started, you need to make sure the questions lined up will get the insights you need, without influencing the data.

Think of this article as your guide to all-things user research questions: what to ask, how to ask it, and how to create your own questions. Let’s get started.

What kind of user research questions are there?

The kind of questions you ask will depend on your research goals—are you looking to gather user feedback, or find out if a particular feature is (or would be) useful? Are you trying to discover what problems bother your user, or whether they’d prefer one solution over another?

Before planning your questions and diving head-first into research, look at your overarching research plan and objectives. Consider this on a project-by-project basis, as your end questions will be drastically different depending on where you are in the product development process . For instance, if you’re in early product discovery , you may want to discover user intent and pain points. Or, if you’re working on a high-fidelity prototype, you might want to see how users interact with the prototype, and how easy it is to use. Asking questions at different stages of your process is a big part of continuous product discovery and ensuring your product remains the best it can be.

💡 If you’re looking to understand the types of question format used in surveys or user questionnaires, take a look at our guide on how to write survey questions .

User research questions can be categorized in many ways—by objective, research scenario, or point in the product journey, to name a few. Since different questions may apply in multiple situations, we’re going to consider questions organized by their research focus.

Questions for user research can typically be categorized three ways:

• Questions about the problem e.g., what are users’ pain points, what task are they trying to complete, what solution do they want
• Questions about the people e.g., who they are, how they use products, what they want to accomplish, how likely are they to use the product
• Questions about the product e.g., how users’ feel about content or design, can they navigate the product, how usable is it, what features do they like or dislike

Now we know what kinds of questions there are, let’s delve into the value of pre-made questions, and some examples of each question type.

Using pre-made user research questions

To elevate your research, you can opt to use pre-existing questions from a question bank. As with all research tools , there are many benefits to this, including saving time and effort, and having many questions to choose from. Using a question bank also ensures questions are always carefully considered, easily understandable for users, and unbiased.

Meet the Maze question bank

An open-source question repository for product teams, our question bank is aimed at helping you ask the best user research questions to gather insight that will help build truly user-centered products.

A good question bank will be multifunctional, with questions you can use when running moderated to unmoderated testing, conducting generative or evaluative research, or gathering quantitative or qualitative data. So you can have one place to go for all your user research question needs.

🚀 Boost your research with Maze templates

If you’re a Maze user, you can also use the question bank as a handy companion to fuel your team’s research with Maze—check out the templates column and question block suggestions for maximum efficiency when building mazes.

Ultimately, a pre-made question bank can help save you a lot of time, and allow you to focus on conducting the research and processing analysis.

If you’d like to create your own questions, let’s get into the different user research question types, what questions they include, and how to ask them.

Click on the image to head straight to the question bank 👆

Questions about the problem

To support product and design decisions behind any solution, you need to be familiar with the problem you (and your users) are trying to solve. Whether you’re starting product discovery and want to understand user pain points, or you’re testing new features and want to gauge which will be most popular— you can’t begin working on a solution until you’ve honed in on what the problem is.

What’s bothering your users? How can you make their lives easier? What’s their key challenge, and what are they trying to achieve that’s being blocked by that problem?

Only once you’ve narrowed down a key problem statement can you translate solutions into the user experience, and identify opportunities for product development .

Questions focusing on the problem you’re trying to solve are key in product discovery stages and concept validation . The reason for using a particular product or feature may vary between users—consider Instagram’s Explore tab: it could be used to find friends, connect with like-minded people, or find inspiration.

Questions that can help hone into the problem at hand include:

• What problems do you face when you do [task]?
• Please complete this sentence: "The most frustrating part of trying to complete [task] is…”
• What is your main goal when trying to complete [task]?
• What is your personal measure of success when it comes to [goal]?
• How are you currently solving [problem]?
• Describe your ideal solution to [problem]

Questions about the people

Understanding the problem you’re trying to solve goes hand in hand with the people who are facing this problem—who they are and how they think, how they adopt and use products, their wants, needs and dislikes.

Put simply, there’s no point building a product if it solves the problem your user is having—but not in the way they wanted it to.

To really understand how your users think, and the way they approach a product, you need to understand their mental models. Broadly speaking, a mental model determines how someone forms their thinking process—it might impact the way they approach a problem, the kind of solution they’d like, and how they expect certain features to work.

UX research methods like card sorting are a good way to understand people’s mental models, but you can also gather this insight through thoughtful user interviews or research questions.

User-focused questions also cover understanding attitudes towards product adoption, use habits and circumstances, pricing models, and demographics.

Some example questions you could ask to learn more about your target users include:

• Are there any products that you prefer to use to do [task]?
• What does your job look like in your company?
• How do you prefer to be trained on new products?
• How much would you pay for [product]?
• Please describe who you might collaborate with when [task]?
• How often do you do [task]?

Questions about the product

Once you understand the problem your product will solve, and the people who’ll be using it, it’s time to circle back to the product itself. Questions about the product may be about its usability, what features you’re including, how users feel about content or design, and whether it does what they need it to.

Just like all research, it’s a good idea to ask product-related questions multiple time during the research phase, as both questions and answer will vary depending on what development stage you’re at—from prioritizing which feature to focus on developing first, to assessing how navigable a certain product section is, or reviewing the appeal of specific design aspects.

To gain a well-rounded understanding of how users find using your product or feature, usability testing is imperative. And, if you’re trying to nail down product navigation and identify any bumps in the user journey, tree testing is the research method of choice.

Whatever your focus, questions relating to the product are useful in both evaluative and generative research , and critical for creating a user-centered, solution-focused product.

Sample questions you can use to learn more about the product and features could include:

• How did you find the language (including but not limited to copy, phrasing, tone) used on the website?
• What’s the single most important thing we could do to make [product] better?
• On a scale of 1-10, how was your experience when [task]?
• Was the product navigation as expected?
• If you could change one thing about the design what would it be and why?
• Thinking about what [product] offers, which of the following best describes your feelings about it?

🤔 To dive into the questions you should be asking during usability testing, check out how to ask effective usability testing questions .

Regardless of what questions you ask, it’s worth bearing in mind that this information should be considered a guide, not a rule—as sometimes what people think they’ll do is not what they always do in practice . This is why it’s so important to continue research and testing in all stages of product development, so you can always be working off the most reliable and up-to-date insight.

Guidelines for crafting the right user research questions

Research questions set the standard of the data you’ll gather with them, so it’s crucial to properly craft each question to maximize insight and ensure accurate results.

Using a pre-made question bank is one way to keep questions effective, but if you’re writing your own questions, bear in mind that everything from the language you use to the structure or format of questions can influence the user’s answer.

The best questions for user interviews and research are clear , precise , and unbiased . Let’s go over some ultimate tips for crafting questions that fulfill this.

Stay neutral: avoid leading questions

One of the most important points when it comes to any research is being a neutral party, which means removing cognitive bias from your work. Research isn’t helpful if it’s biased, so ensure your questions are as impartial as possible—after all, just because you like Concept A over Concept B, doesn’t mean everyone will.

The key to staying neutral is avoiding leading questions where you subconsciously favor one thing over another, or plant an opinion or idea in the user’s mind, such as “How would you use concept A?”—this assumes they preferred concept A, which they may not have. Instead, try asking which concept they would use, followed by how they would use it.

Take it one question at a time

The majority of us think best when our minds are clear and able to focus on one thing, so avoid bombarding research participants with multiple questions phrased together.

Rather than asking a question like “What did you think about the design, copy and layout of the page?”, ask individually about the design, copy, and layout. Otherwise, you risk users merging their thoughts into one answer, when in fact they may feel very differently about each element.

Of course some questions lend themselves to being combined (e.g., “Which concept did you prefer and why?”), but it’s best to keep things separate when possible, and ask “Why?” in follow up questions, to allow users space to think and form individual answers for each question.

Ask open-ended questions

Similar to ensuring questions are unbiased, it’s also a good idea to ask open-ended questions—that is, to avoid questions which result in simply a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

The benefit of open-ended questions is that they give participants an opportunity to expand on their answer, work through their experience, and share details with you that may otherwise be missed. Consider that, while asking “Did you like the product?” may answer whether a user liked it, you’ll be left wondering what it is they like about it. Instead, try framing questions in a way that provides space for additional information, e.g. “What did you think about the product?”.

Pro tip ✨ If you do ask closed-ended questions, always keep follow up questions aside to dig deeper gather and extra insight from your participants.

Help users find their own voice

The language we use is incredibly powerful. Used well, words can move us, sway our opinions, educate us, and more.

By helping your research participants to find their own voice, you can unlock powerful statements and user insights which will truly impact your product. Formatting questions with the user at the center—using ‘you’ and asking emotive questions—builds empathy with the user and encourages them to find and share their own opinions through honest answers.

Ask questions you think you know the answer to

Our final question-crafting tip is to use research questions to test and validate your own assumptions and opinions. Ask questions you think you know the answer to—if you believe all users will prefer one new feature over the other, see if you’re right. If you think a certain design element works better on a different page, ask research participants to determine where they prefer it.

As with any research, while you may be user-adjacent, you are not your users. You are the expert in your product; they are the expert in using your product. Trust their opinions, and use their knowledge and experience to confirm your suspicions, or disprove them. Either way, you gain valuable insights.

User research is as effective as the questions you ask

Whether you’re investigating user preferences or conducting usability testing, research is only as effective as the questions you ask—and how you ask them.

Focus on questions that fit your research objectives, phrase your questions in the best way possible, and work to build empathy with your user; you’ll be able to gather valuable insights in no time.

Frequently asked questions and user research questions

What makes a good user research question?

A good research question is open-ended , unbiased , clear , and precise . It helps research participants share their thoughts, feedback, and opinions with researchers, without influencing or limiting their responses.

What type of user research questions are there?

User research questions can broadly be broken down into three categories:

How do you create a user research question?

There are several ways to create a user research question: you can either write your own question, or select premade questions from an existing research question bank.

If you choose to write your own research questions, it’s important to keep them clear and precise above all else—focus on asking questions that encourage users to open up, share additional information, and speak honestly.

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How to avoid leading questions in UX research (+ examples)

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How to write effective UX research questions (with examples)

Collecting and analyzing real user feedback is essential in delivering an excellent user experience (UX). But not all user research is created equal—and done wrong, it can lead to confusion, miscommunication, and non-actionable results.

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You need to ask the right UX research questions to get the valuable insights necessary to continually optimize your product and generate user delight. 

This article shows you how to write strong UX research questions, ensuring you go beyond guesswork and assumptions . It covers the difference between open- and close-ended research questions, explains how to go about creating your own UX research questions, and provides several examples to get you started.

Use Hotjar to ask your users the right UX research questions

Put your UX research questions to work with Hotjar's Feedback and Survey tools to uncover product experience insights

The different types of UX research questions

Let’s face it, asking the right UX research questions is hard. It’s a skill that takes a lot of practice and can leave even the most seasoned UX researchers drawing a blank.

There are two main categories of UX research questions: open-ended and close-ended, both of which are essential to achieving thorough, high-quality UX research. Qualitative research—based on descriptions and experiences—leans toward open-ended questions, whereas quantitative research leans toward closed-ended questions.

Let’s dive into the differences between them.

Open-ended UX research questions

Open-ended UX research questions are exactly what they sound like: they prompt longer, more free-form responses, rather than asking someone to choose from established possible answers—like multiple-choice tests.

Open questions are easily recognized because they:

Usually begin with how, why, what, describe, or tell me

Can’t be easily answered with just yes or no, or a word or two

Are qualitative rather than quantitative

If there’s a simple fact you’re trying to get to, a closed question would work. For anything involving our complex and messy human nature, open questions are the way to go.

Open-ended research questions aim to discover more about research participants and gather candid user insights, rather than seeking specific answers.

Some examples of UX research that use open-ended questions include:

Usability testing

Diary studies

Persona research

Use case research

Task analysis

Check out a concrete example of an open-ended UX research question in action below. Hotjar’s Survey tool is a perfect way of gathering longer-form user feedback, both on-site and externally.

Pros and cons of open-ended UX research questions

Like everything in life, open-ended UX research questions have their pros and cons.

Advantages of open-ended questions include:

Detailed, personal answers

Great for storytelling

Good for connecting with people on an emotional level

Helpful to gauge pain points, frustrations, and desires

Researchers usually end up discovering more than initially expected

Less vulnerable to bias

 Drawbacks include:

People find them more difficult to answer than closed-ended questions

More time-consuming for both the researcher and the participant

Can be difficult to conduct with large numbers of people

Can be challenging to dig through and analyze open-ended questions

Closed-ended UX research questions

Close-ended UX research questions have limited possible answers. Participants can respond to them with yes or no, by selecting an option from a list, by ranking or rating, or with a single word.

They’re easy to recognize because they’re similar to classic exam-style questions.

More technical industries might start with closed UX research questions because they want statistical results. Then, we’ll move on to more open questions to see how customers really feel about the software we put together.

While open-ended research questions reveal new or unexpected information, closed-ended research questions work well to test assumptions and answer focused questions. They’re great for situations like:

Surveying a large number of participants

When you want quantitative insights and hard data to create metrics

When you’ve already asked open-ended UX research questions and have narrowed them down into close-ended questions based on your findings

If you’re evaluating something specific so the possible answers are limited

If you’re going to repeat the same study in the future and need uniform questions and answers

Wondering what a closed-ended UX research question might look in real life? The example below shows how Hotjar’s Feedback widgets help UX researchers hear from users 'in the wild' as they navigate.

The different types of closed-ended questions

There are several different ways to ask close-ended UX research questions, including:

Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys

CSAT surveys are closed-ended UX research questions that explore customer satisfaction levels by asking users to rank their experience on some kind of scale, like the happy and angry icons in the image below.

On-site widgets like Hotjar's Feedback tool below excel at gathering quick customer insights without wreaking havoc on the user experience. They’re especially popular on ecommerce sites or after customer service interactions.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys

NPS surveys are another powerful type of (mostly) closed-ended UX research questions. They ask customers how likely they are to recommend a company, product, or service to their community. Responses to NPS surveys are used to calculate Net Promoter Score .

NPS surveys split customers into three categories:

Promoters (9-10): Your most enthusiastic, vocal, and loyal customers

Passives (7-8): Ho-hum. They’re more or less satisfied customers but could be susceptible to jumping ship

Detractors (0-6): Dissatisfied customers who are at a high risk of spreading bad reviews

Net Promoter Score is a key metric used to predict business growth, track long-term success, and gauge overall customer satisfaction.

Pro tip: while the most important question to ask in an NPS survey is readiness to recommend, it shouldn’t be the only one. Asking follow-up questions can provide more context and a deeper understanding of the customer experience. Combining Hotjar Feedback widgets with standalone Surveys is a great strategy for tracking NPS through both quick rankings and qualitative feedback.

Pros and cons of closed-ended research questions

Close-ended UX research questions have solid advantages, including:

More measurable data to convert into statistics and metrics

Higher response rates because they’re generally more straightforward for people to answer

Easier to coordinate when surveying a large number of people

Great for evaluating specifics and facts

Little to no irrelevant answers to comb through

Putting the UX researcher in control

But closed-ended questions can be tricky to get right. Their disadvantages include:

Leading participants to response bias

Preventing participants from telling the whole story

The lack of insight into opinions or emotions

Too many possible answers overwhelming participants

Too few possible answers, meaning the 'right' answer for each participant might not be included

How to form your own UX research questions

To create effective UX questions, start by defining your research objectives and hypotheses, which are assumptions you’ll put to the test with user feedback.

Use this tried-and-tested formula to create research hypotheses by filling in the blanks according to your unique user and business goals:

We believe (doing x)

For (x people)

Will achieve (x outcome)

For example: ' We believe adding a progress indicator into our checkout process (for customers) will achieve 20% lower cart abandonment rates.'

Pro tip: research hypotheses aren’t set in stone. Keep them dynamic as you formulate, change, and re-evaluate them throughout the UX research process, until your team comes away with increased certainty about their initial assumption.

When nailing down your hypotheses, remember that research is just as much about discovering new questions as it is about getting answers. Don’t think of research as a validation exercise where you’re looking to confirm something you already know. Instead, cultivate an attitude of exploration and strive to dig deeper into user emotions, needs, and challenges.

Once you have a working hypothesis, identify your UX research objective . Your objective should be linked to your hypothesis, defining what your product team wants to accomplish with your research—for example, ' We want to improve our cart abandonment rates by providing customers with a seamless checkout experience.'

Now that you’ve formulated a hypothesis and research objective, you can create your general or 'big picture' research questions . These define precisely what you want to discover through your research, but they’re not the exact questions you’ll ask participants. This is an important distinction because big picture research questions focus on the researchers themselves rather than users.

A big picture question might be something like: ' How can we improve our cart abandonment rates?'

With a strong hypothesis, objective, and general research question in the bag, you’re finally ready to create the questions you’ll ask participants.

32 examples of inspiring UX research questions

There are countless different categories of UX research questions.

We focus on open-ended, ecommerce-oriented questions here , but with a few tweaks, these could be easily transformed into closed-ended questions.

For example, an open-ended question like, 'Tell us about your overall experience shopping on our website' could be turned into a closed-ended question such as, ' Did you have a positive experience finding everything you needed on our website?'

Screening questions

Screening questions are the first questions you ask UX research participants. They help you get to know your customers and work out whether they fit into your ideal user personas.

These survey question examples focus on demographic and experience-based questions. For instance:

Tell me about yourself. Who are you and what do you do?

What does a typical day look like for you?

How old are you?

What’s the highest level of education that you’ve completed?

How comfortable do you feel using the internet?

How comfortable do you feel browsing or buying products online?

How frequently do you buy products online?

Do you prefer shopping in person or online? Why?

Awareness questions

Awareness questions explore how long your participants have been aware of your brand and how much they know about it. Some good options include:

How did you find out about our brand?

What prompted you to visit our website for the first time?

If you’ve visited our website multiple times, what made you come back?

How long was the gap between finding out about us and your first purchase?

Expectation questions

Expectation questions investigate the assumptions UX research participants have about brands, products, or services before using them. For example:

What was your first impression of our brand?

What was your first impression of X product or service?

How do you think using X product or service would benefit you?

What problem would X product or service solve for you?

Do you think X product or service is similar to another one on the market? Please specify.

Task-specific questions

Task-specific questions focus on user experiences as they complete actions on your site. Some examples include:

Tell us what you thought about the overall website design and content layout

How was your browsing experience?

How was your checkout experience?

What was the easiest task to complete on our website?

What was the hardest task to complete on our website?

Experience questions

Experience questions dig deeper into research participants’ holistic journeys as they navigate your site. These include:

Tell us how you felt when you landed on our website homepage

How can we improve the X page of our website?

What motivated you to purchase X product or service?

What stopped you from purchasing X product or service?

Was your overall experience positive or negative while shopping on our website? Why?

Concluding questions

Concluding questions ask participants to reflect on their overall experience with your brand, product, or service. For instance:

What are your biggest questions about X product or service?

What are your biggest concerns about X product or service?

If you could change one thing about X product or service, what would it be?

Would you recommend X product or service to a friend?

How would you compare X product or service to X competitor?

Excellent research questions are key for an optimal UX

To create a fantastic UX, you need to understand your users on a deeper level.

Crafting strong questions to deploy during the research process is an important way to gain that understanding, because UX research shouldn’t center on what you want to learn but what your users can teach you.

UX research question FAQs

What are ux research questions.

UX research questions can refer to two different things: general UX research questions and UX interview questions. 

Both are vital components of UX research and work together to accomplish the same goals—understanding user needs and pain points, challenging assumptions, discovering new insights, and finding solutions.

General UX research questions focus on what UX researchers want to discover through their study. 

UX interview questions are the exact questions researchers ask participants during their research study.

What are examples of UX research questions?

UX research question examples can be split into several categories. Some of the most popular include:

Screening questions: help get to know research participants better and focus on demographic and experience-based information. For example: “What does a typical day look like for you?”

Awareness questions: explore how much research participants know about your brand, product, or service. For example: “What prompted you to visit our website for the first time?”

Expectation questions: investigate assumptions research participants have about your brand, product, or service. For example: “What was your first impression of X?”

Task-specific questions: dive into participants’ experiences trying to complete actions on your site. For example: “What was the easiest task to complete on our website?”

Experience questions: dig deep into participants’ overall holistic experiences navigating through your site. For example: “Was your overall experience shopping on our website positive or negative? Why?”

Concluding questions: ask participants to reflect on their overall experience with your brand, product, or service. For example: “What are your biggest concerns about (x product or service)?”

What’s the difference between open-ended and closed-ended UX research questions?

The difference between open- and closed-ended UX research questions is simple. Open-ended UX research questions prompt long, free-form responses. They’re qualitative rather than quantitative and can’t be answered easily with yes or no, or a word or two. They’re easy to recognize because they begin with terms like how, why, what, describe, and tell me.

On the other hand, closed-ended UX research questions have limited possible answers. Participants can respond to them with yes or no, by selecting an option from a list, by rating or ranking options, or with just a word or two.

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World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

User interviews 101.

September 17, 2023 2023-09-17

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A user interview is a popular UX research method often used in the discovery phase .

User interview: A research method where the interviewer asks participants questions about a topic, listens to their responses, and follows up with further questions to learn more.

The term “user interview” is unique to the UX field. In other areas, like market research or social science, the same method is called an in-depth interview, a semi-structured interview, or a qualitative interview.

In This Article:

Why conduct user interviews, user interviews vs. usability tests, how to do a user interview, can interviews be used with other methods, limitations of interviews.

When performed well, user interviews provide in-depth insight into who your users are, their lives, experiences, and challenges . Learning these things helps teams identify solutions to make users’ lives easier. As a result, user interviews are an excellent tool to use in discovery.

Here are some of the many things you can learn by interviewing your users:

• What users’ experiences were like, what was memorable, and why
• Users’ pain points during an experience
• How users think or feel about a topic, event, or experience
• What users care about
• Users’ mental models
• Users’ motivations, aspirations, and desires

User interviews help teams build empathy for their users . When teams watch interviews, they can put themselves in their users’ shoes.

Data gathered from user interviews can be used to construct various UX artifacts, including

• User-need statements
• Empathy maps
• Customer-journey maps

Interviews are versatile; they can be used to learn about human experiences or about a customer's experience with one of your existing products. For example, imagine you are working on an app used to track calorie intake. You could interview people about their experiences using the app or about their journey to become healthier (or both).

User Interviews are often confused with usability tests . While they sound similar and are both typically one on one, these two methods are very different and should be used for different purposes.

1. Identify What You’d Like to Learn

Think of an interview as a research study, not a sales session or an informal conversation. Like any research study, an interview should have research goals (or research questions). Goals that are too broad (like learning about users ) can result in interviews that fail to produce useful or actionable insights. Examples of reasonable research goals include:

• What causes customers to consider and try our product?
• What are the highs and lows of their experience?
• How much knowledge of the process do users have?
• What makes users abandon the product?

A concise, concrete set of goals that relate to your target users’ specific behaviors or attitudes can help you gather helpful and actionable insights. These goals will influence the questions you’ll ask in your interviews.

2. Prepare a Guide

An interview guide is used to direct the conversation and help you answer your research goals. An interview guide should contain a few well-designed, open-ended questions that get participants talking and sharing their experiences.

Examples of good open-ended questions include:

• Walk me through a typical day for you.
• Tell me about the last time you [did something].
• Tell me about a time when you [had a particular experience].

Jog the memory by asking about specific events rather than about general processes. Remembering a particular incident will nudge the user’s memory and enable them to give you meaningful details.

An interview will also contain followup questions to gather more-detailed information . When constructing the guide, these questions are often nested underneath the main questions. Construct followup questions based on your research goals. Anticipating different responses can help you identify what followup questions to ask. Examples include:

• When did this happen?
• How long did it take you?
• Has this happened to you before?
• How did you feel during this experience?

An interview guide can be used flexibly : interviewers don’t need to move through questions linearly. They can skip questions, spend longer on some questions, or ask questions not in the guide. (See our interview-guide article for an example guide .)

3. Pilot Your Guide

Even the best guide may need to be tweaked after the first interview. Piloting allows you to identify what tweaks are needed before running all your interviews. You can pilot your guide with a friend or colleague if the interview topic isn’t too specialized. Or, you can recruit a target user (or two).

Piloting helps you learn:

• Whether any questions were misunderstood or caused confusion
• If there are questions that should be added to the guide
• If any questions should be removed because they aren’t likely to provide helpful information
• Whether the order of the questions felt natural

Since interviews are a qualitative research method, it’s okay to continue making minor tweaks to your guide as you complete all your interviews. However, avoid changing your research goals throughout the study. It may become difficult to achieve your research goals without collecting enough relevant data.

4. Start Easy

Some participants can feel nervous at the beginning of the interview, especially if they’re not sure what to expect. Start by talking through the purpose of the interview, what kinds of questions will be asked, and how the information will be used. Slow down your pace of speech. Talking slowly has a calming effect and indicates that you are not anxious and have time to listen.

Start with questions that are easy to answer, such as Tell me a bit about yourself or What do you like to do in your spare time? These questions are easy to answer and can get participants comfortable talking. Avoid asking questions likely to be interpreted as personal or judgmental, such as What was the last book you read? This question assumes the user read a book recently; if they didn’t, they might feel stupid.

5. Build Rapport

People are more likely to remember, talk, and let their guard down if they feel relaxed and trust the interviewer and the process. Keep in mind that there’s a big difference between rapport and friendship . The user does not have to like you, think you’re funny, or want to invite you out for a cup of coffee in order to trust you enough to be interviewed.

Build rapport by showing you’re listening and by asking related questions. You can show you’re listening by using verbal and nonverbal cues. Verbal cues include:

• Neutral acknowledging like, I understand, okay, I see
• Making noises like mmmh
• Echoing what the participant has said
• Adjusting the speed, volume, and intonation of your questions

Nonverbal cues include:

• Frequent eye contact
• Raising eyebrows occasionally
• Smiling when the participant smiles (also known as mirroring)

Avoid interrupting or rushing participants as these behaviors will harm your ability to build rapport.

6. Follow Up and Probe

Ask your prepared followup questions if the participant did not cover them when sharing their experiences. Additionally, ask further questions that probe into your participant’s responses. These questions help you to uncover those important motivations, mental models, perceptions, and attitudes.

Probing questions include:

• Tell me more about that.
• Can you expand on that?
• What do you think about that?
• How do you feel about that?
• Why is that important to you?

Since you won’t know when you might use them, probing questions are not usually prepared in advance. However, if you know you might forget to use them, write them at the top of your guide or on an index card.

Yes. You can mix interviews with other methods, such as:

• With a usability test . You might want to learn about the participant before giving them tasks on a design. Your session might begin with a short interview before transitioning to the test. When user tests and interviews are combined, sessions are usually longer (for example, 90 minutes rather than 60 minutes). If you’re combining these methods, the questions you ask in the interview shouldn’t prime users to pay more attention to certain things in the design.
• With a field study or some kind of observational study. You could perform an interview before or after observing a study participant work on their tasks. An interview before an observational study can give you context into what you will observe. An interview after a field study allows you to follow up on interesting things you observed.
• With a diary study . In longer diary studies, it may be beneficial to have an initial interview before the logging period to learn about the participant and prepare them for the diary study. After the logging period ends, a wrapup interview is often conducted to learn more about the participant’s diary entries.

Since interviews are an attitudinal method, they collect reported behaviors (rather than observed behavior). Some limitations of self-reported data include:

• Poor or faulty recollection : Human memory is flawed, so people don’t recall events fully. If the event in question occurred in the distant past, your participants might not recall it accurately.
• Missing details : Participants don’t know precisely what is relevant for the interviewer, so sometimes leave out important details.
• Social-desirability bias : Some people are very conscious of how they’re perceived and may withhold information or may want to present themselves and their behaviors in a certain light.

If we want to know what users actually do, we need to observe them or collect data about their behavior (such as through analytics and other behavioral metrics).

Another limitation of interviews is that the quality of the data collected is very much dependent on the interviewer's skill. If the interviewer asks many leading questions, the validity of the data will be compromised.

Interviews are a popular method to learn about users: what they think, do, and even need. Treat user interviews like a research study, not an informal chat. Compose research goals before crafting a guide. During your interviews be careful not to lead participants and make sure to follow up with further questions. Finally, complement interviews with observation-based research to attain an accurate and richer picture of users' experiences.

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Discovery research is a UX essential — Here’s how to get started

Georgina Guthrie

April 13, 2022

Design is all about problem-solving. Often, these are quite big problems with complex answers — so designers break the process down into different stages to make it more manageable. These stages generally focus on research, design, and testing/development.

Today, we’ll take a closer look at how designers can move between the first two stages to gather information and test their ideas before fully launching into the development phase.

With this back-and-forth approach, it’s possible to analyze and make informed decisions about which findings to take forward. Discovery research ultimately leads to a final product that meets users’ needs—  not just the designer’s assumptions .

What is discovery research?

Discovery research (also called generative, foundational, or exploratory research) is a process that helps designers understand user needs, behaviors, and motivations through different methods, such as interviews, surveys, and target market analysis.

Discovery research is related to product research but involves a broader analysis. Whereas the former deals with all kinds of research — for brands, innovations, products, and more — the latter is solely focused on the product.

How does discovery research help with design?

Discovery research helps designers understand user needs, behaviors, and motivations, which form the basis of key design decisions.

Conducting this early-stage analysis also ensures that designs are based on real user needs rather than the designer’s assumptions. This approach leads to products that feel more like tailor-made creations rather than a broad approximation of what users want.

Finally, it saves time and money by revealing potential problems before they become bigger (and more expensive) issues further down the line.

What are the main goals of discovery research?

• Understanding your users better : the first and most important goal of discovery research is to help you get under the skin of your users. By understanding user goals and pain points, you can design solutions that address their needs.
• Improving design decisions : the second goal of discovery research is to improve design decisions. Instead of simply creating a product the design team thinks is cool, you can develop a product roadmap based on relevant data.
• Save time and money : testing before leaping right into development means you can spot potential problems and work through them, investing time and resources wisely.
• Creating a shared vision : discovery research can create a shared vision for a project among the design team. Because the research provides a common understanding of user needs, design teams can more easily agree on what to prioritize.

What are the benefits of using both qualitative and quantitative research methods?

Qualitative research is based on open-ended questions and provides insights into people’s attitudes, opinions, and feelings. Typically, this research involves interviews, focus groups, or surveys. Quantitative research, on the other hand, uses closed-ended questions and focuses on hard data, including:

• Performance analytics : websites and apps contain a wealth of numerical data. Google Analytics can show you everything from the number of page views to time spent on a page.
• Target market analysis : demographic research looks at characteristics such as the age, gender, and location of your target market. It’s often collected through surveys and distributed via email.

The benefits of using qualitative and quantitative research methods are twofold.

Qualitative research is often viewed as ‘creative’ and exploratory, while quantitative research is considered more ‘scientific’ and focused. Both types of research reveal something different, each with its strengths and weaknesses.

Qualitative research is good for exploring new ideas and getting an in-depth understanding of user needs. However, it’s often less reliable than quantitative research and deals with smaller samples, which may not represent the wider population.

Quantitative research is good for obtaining hard data and measuring people’s feelings about specific topics or activities. The downside is it’s less nuanced than qualitative research and may provide a less multifaceted analysis of user needs.

Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, designers can get a complete picture of user needs.

When should you run a discovery session?

Use a discovery session any time the design team needs to move forward in a design and/or when relying on guesswork or intuition is impossible or risky.

Here are some common real-life examples:

• New market opportunities : companies that want to enter a new market must understand user needs and identify opportunities to fill current gaps.
• Rebranding : before rebranding , organizations have to understand how users feel about the current brand, what they want from it, and what issues to avoid moving forward.
• Redesign : when redesigning a product, design teams need to understand what users like and dislike about the current product and how they can innovate in the future .
• Mergers : to ease the transition, merging companies need to understand how employees from both companies feel about the merger and design processes to meet their needs .
• New organizational strategy : when implementing a new strategy, organizations must consider how employees view the upcoming changes and communicate plans and expectations .
• Organizational problems : companies that are struggling with organizational problems must investigate the root cause of the problem to develop effective solutions.

How do you run a discovery research session?

The exact route you take will depend on your goals. Sometimes, you’ll want to use a mixture of methods (the more, the better). At other times, you’ll focus on one or two options. Here are some common discovery research methods.

User interviews

Interviews are a common qualitative research method. They involve sitting down with users and asking open-ended questions about their needs, behaviors, and motivations. Interviews are very useful for understanding user feelings and attitudes in their own words prior to any design work taking place.

Focus groups

Focus groups are a type of qualitative research that involves a group of people discussing a topic together. Not only does this help you find out how people feel about a design, but it also draws out deeper responses as participants build on each other’s comments.

Tips for running a focus group

• The ideal group size is around eight to ten people. To get started, you’ll need to define the topic of discussion and prepare some questions to spark conversation.
• When conducting the focus group, it’s important to moderate the discussion effectively. Keep things on track, offer up discussion points if the momentum slows, and ensure everyone can speak.
• Once the focus group is over, analyze the data you collected. Write a transcript of the discussion, or use diagramming software to help with the analysis.

Surveys are a quantitative research method that asks closed-ended questions about user needs. However, including a few open-ended questions is common to provide context for a user’s responses to closed-ended questions. This type of research is useful for obtaining hard data.

Decide what type of questions you want to ask: closed-ended or open-ended. Closed-ended questions have a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, or participants can choose a specific response from a list of options. Open-ended questions can have a longer, freeform answer subject to various conditions.

Ethnographic user research

Ethnographic user research is a form of qualitative research in which you observe users in their natural environment. This type of research is useful for understanding user behaviors and needs.

Tips for conducting ethnographic user research

• Define the scope of your research, and decide on the observation methods prior to session kick-off.
• Choose one to three research methods that suit your resources and goals. Interviews, surveys, and user testing are all valid forms of observation.
• Once you collect user data, collate and analyze it. At this point, you’ll have dense information. Turning the raw data into business intelligence that makes sense for the wider team and stakeholders is important.

Diary studies

Diary studies are a qualitative research method asking participants to write down their thoughts and feelings about a given topic. Journaling gives a glimpse of a user’s thought processes, so you can better understand how they feel about a design or prototype.

Here are some questions you can ask to get the user thinking:

• What were your thoughts and feelings about the design/prototype?
• How easy was it to use the product?
• What did you like or dislike about it?
• Why did you feel that way?
• What problems did you encounter?
• How well did the design meet your needs?

Diary logging techniques you need to know

• Interval-contingent protocol : ask participants to record their thoughts and feelings at fixed intervals (e.g., every hour or every day). Use this type of diary study to understand how people feel over time.
• Event-contingent protocol : ask participants to record their thoughts and feelings after specific events, such as using a feature or carrying out a particular process. Choose this format to study how people react to specific events.
• Saturation sampling : ask participants to keep a diary until they have nothing new to say about the topic. Similar to interval methods, this diary study helps evaluate user feelings over time.
• Choice sampling : give participants a list of topics to choose from and ask them to record their thoughts and feelings about their chosen topic. This study helps you understand how people feel about different design aspects and what issues are most important to them.

Tips for conducting diary studies

• Make sure you store the data securely if the diaries contain personal or sensitive information.
• Define the study’s goals and the logic you’ll use to evaluate the data you receive. Diary studies can be time-consuming for both participants and researchers. As such, ensuring the study is well-designed and the results are worth the effort is crucial.
• Provide participants with an incentive to take part. Diary studies require time and energy, so it’s a good idea to compensate participants with a gift voucher or free product.

Sort cards are a type of qualitative research that involves asking participants to sort a set of cards into groups. The goal is to observe how people think about a particular topic and design intuitive products.

Where else can you find data?

Chatting with users is important, but don’t neglect the wealth of data already at your fingertips. Web analytics, social media, and customer support data can give you insights into how your users think and feel.

• Business data : if you’re working on an internal tool, you probably have access to a lot of data about how it’s used. This information is invaluable for understanding the steps users take to perform an action or solve a problem.
• Web analytics data : this data tells you how people are using your website or app. Use it to understand what pages are being visited, how much time users spend on a page, and what elements they interact with.
• Social media data : social media can be a great way to understand how people feel about your brand. Use social listening tools to track mentions of your brand and see what people are saying.
• Customer support data : if you offer customer support, the data can show you what problems people encounter when using your product.
• Competitor resources : it’s worth looking at competitor resources, such as websites, blog posts, and whitepapers, for ideas on improving or differentiating your product.

Analyzing and assessing discovery research

So, you’ve got all this data. Now what?

It’s time to assess it. Evaluating your discovery research involves looking at the numbers and determining how it fits together. You can write a report or create a diagram or graph to help you visualize it all.

When assessing qualitative data, it is important to consider the following factors:

• The quality and reliability of the data : bad data could send you in the wrong direction. If in doubt, chuck it out.
• The quantity of the data : too much could be a burden when turning it into reports. Too little might give you unreliable results.
• The context of the data : make sure you apply data to the relevant area, but at the same time, don’t look at it in isolation.
• The meaning of the data : only include responses that directly answer your questions. Don’t include irrelevant or unclear data.
• The validity of the data : data goes out of date. Disregard anything that’s no longer relevant.

Final thoughts

Data visualization features, like those in Cacoo , can help turn all those numbers into insight that makes sense.

Resources like persona templates , user story maps , and other research and design diagrams can help you see patterns and trends in the data and communicate your findings to others — including stakeholders who might not have a technical background.

Remember, your top priority is to make the data as understandable as possible for everyone on the team — whatever their background. After all, data is only useful if it’s used and understood!

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User interview discovery questions

What to ask when you don't know what you don't know.

What you can take away from this guide

• What discovery questions are
• When to use discovery questions
• Good examples of discovery questions
• How to create your own discovery questions

Who is this guide for

• This guide is for those looking for examples or ideas on how to compose discovery questions
• This guide is for those seeking to gain knowledge (for themselves, their employer, or their client) in a particular area without having much prior exposure to the research subject by conducting user interviews

Professionals and organizations are always growing. They are growing because of the demands of their businesses. Many times expansion nessesitates doing things the professional or the business does not have a core competancy in.

To gain competency in a quick and efficent manner research is done, many times that research includes conducting user interviews.

Some roles and professions that require learning about areas without too much prior knowledge include:

User Experience (UX) Researchers and Designers

UX Researchers and Designers are responsible for doing the leg work on learning about how to best create or improve a product or service. These individuals must gain a deep understanding of the target user in order to provide the best designs and experiences. Since they do not have all the information they need at the onset of a research project they will use discovery questions to gain a high level understand and then subsequently decide on how to drill down from there.

Market researchers

Market researchers are responsible for assessing a specific market or ecosystem and then provider recommendations on patterns or trends, or just share their learnings with their clientele. The data they collect is used to guide organization as they try to determine an appropriate next course of action. These market research firms may not have a deep knowledge of a specific market and so can use discovery questions when composing their surveys, questionnaires, and opinion polls. Conducting user interviews is also a task they can perform.

Product managers

Product managers spend their time driving a specific product or service along to provide value to the organization. Their work involves many tasks and can also include conducting customer and stakeholder interviews. Often times the business will require a new product to be created, a new feature to be built, or various tasks to be prioritized. If important information is not available to make a decision a product manager can conduct interviews if it will help move the work forward. Discovery questions can help a product manager gain knowledge in a particular field they or their organization do not have the answer for. New product development is an especially fitting senario which could require developing discovery questions and conducting user interviews.

Entrepreneurs and Startups

Entrepreneurs and Startups have to bring an idea to market that they may not entirely understand. Conducting user interviews helps them get closer to their target users and helps them gain deeper understandings. Discovery questions are a logical tool to use during their research and customer development interviews.

Marketers and growth professionals

Marketers and growth professionals have to drive awareness and usage for a particular product or service. These individuals operate as part of a product/service company or on a consulting firm. Their actions will help improve brand image and awareness, increase activity through the product's funnels, or improve various product or service KPIs. As they experiment with new channels to target or assist the organization in bringing a new product/service/feature to market they may need to gain knowledge about new areas. Using discovery questions in their user interviews will help shed light about such things has user behavior, communities, expectations, and results. This information is valuable in determining how to market to those users and how to help them get more value from a particular product or service.

Sales professionals

A sales professional has to balance their primary objectives (sales) while reflecting positively of the organization as many people don't like being "sold to". Sales professionals use many types of tactics to understand their prospects in order to determine the best way to help these prospects understand the value of what they are selling. Discovery questions, carefully selected and genuinely stated, can help build trust with the prospects as well as help the sales professional know if their offering is a good fit.

Assumptions

What follows is a breakdown of various types of discovery questions along with examples of how to use them. We're going to make a few assumptions about the reader of this guide. Although asking these questions is useful, the correct questions to ask, and angles to approach the interview from would be better realized if some of these assumptions were met.

• Conducting user interviews and using discovery questions is the correct course of action for you
• You have done some pre-work or project planning
• You have an idea of which market/demographic or other segment you want to learn about
• You have made attempts to identify your own biases
• You have looked into what leading questions are
• You are ready to check your assumptions at the door
• You have looked into how to make your interviewee/respondents feel comfortable (empathy)
• Self reflection: you have reflected on your personal behavior and manorisms in order to reduce influence on the outcome of your questioning

On leading questions

Leading questions, either for discovery or validation, are structured in such a way that they tend to influence their outcome. They expose the interviewer's assumptions and can cast a shadow of doubt on the results of your research. Some questions are blatantly leading while others are almost unnoticeably so. It is my own opinion that any question is a leading question, even if it’s to the most miniscule degree. It is important to understand this so that the degree an interviewer leads their interviewee is clear and that those assumptions can be taken into account when analyzing the results.

Extreme examples (to highlight the point)

A glaringly leading question: How happy would you be if you won a billion dollar lottery?

What’s wrong with this? (so much). To keep is simple let’s just focus on the “happy” part. By asking someone how happy they would be is guiding them to focus on happiness of some hypothetical event. What if their instinct is indifference, or sadness? You’ve forced them to answer from the perspective of happiness.

A not so obviously leading question: What is your biggest challenge at work?

Assuming this question is being asked of someone who is employed, the leading part is forcing them to discuss “challenge” at work. If your pre-work/recruiting/earlier question of this respondent did not identify a problem or a challenge at work that this interviewee voluntarily provided, this question is a leading one.

This interviewee could be perfectly happy at work, perhaps never contemplating the idea there there are "challanges at work". With this question they are now answering a question that had never really occured to them.

Leading questions aren’t bad as long as the interviewer understands the degree to which they can influence a response and the context through which the interviewee is giving feedback. Ideally the magnitude of the leading question should be reduced in areas of the interview that are most critical, but leading questions can serve other purposes that can help a study along, such as rapport building or as breadcrumbs leading to discovery.

Discovery questions in general

Discovery questions as a group are a series of questions and statements directed at an interviewee in order to gain an understanding of the interviewees specific circumstance and viewpoints on a general topic. The exploratory nature of discovery questions encourages the interviewer to explore the bounds of their research through these unbound open ended questions. Although the interviewer may have a motive or hypothesis in asking these questions, since they should be asked without too much guidance, they allow the interviewee space to respond and so will give the interviewer data that addresses their question, as well as data that leads into other subjects that the interviewee finds the need to mention.

Discovery Question categories

Throw a dart at a map.

These discovery questions are great for starting an interviewing sessions. They help the interviewee ease into the conversation by answering questions that are unbounded and not taxing on their train of thought. These interview questions help build rapport. The responses to these questions can be used as a gateway to follow on questions either continuing with discovery questions, or perhaps are a lead-in into validation questions. Depending on the specificity of the questions, some of these questions can either be used in a research screener to see if the potential interviewee is of the correct profile/persona being searched for, or they can be used in surveys. At a one on one interview, the value to these questions is in the follow up. (Ask “why” or “can you elaborate?”)

These questions can look like:

• What are some < products/services/communities/websites > you frequent regularly?
• Can you describe what your typical day looks like? (What does your typical weekday look like? What does your typical day look like?)
• Can you tell me how you do < task >?
• Do you pay for < service/feature >? If so, how did you choose that service?
• What’s the hardest part of your day?

Tell me a story

These can be more requests and statements than questions. Their intended purpose is to dig deeper into a specific topic or area. By being more specific they begin to expose the underlying goal of this interview (not that it needs to be a secret, but ideally the conversation would flow rather than be guided). These questions can overlap with the “Throw a dart at a map” type questions but when comparing the two, we can see these are more task based and more focused. These questions look like:

• What did you do last weekend?
• Tell me about your current role at your organization.
• Tell me about a time you did < task >?
• Tell me about the last time you tried to < task >?

These discovery questions are ideally used after something has been said that will allow the interviewer to gracefully flow into them and can come off as follow up questions. These interview questions are very specific. They clearly tell the interviewee what the interviewer wishes to discuss and so may influence the responses a bit. Since these questions are more specific they tend to yield very specific answers and so can give the interviewer more data points with which to follow up on with more specific questions. Zeroing-in type discovery questions look like:

• How do you currently go about doing < task >?
• How much time do you typically spend on doing < task >?
• How much do you typically pay/invest to have < task > completed?
• What do you like about how you currently perform < task >?
• What is the biggest pain point when performing < task >?
• What’s the hardest part about < subject >?
• What are you currently doing to make this < subject or task > easier?
• How does < task > impact < another task >?
• What is the biggest pain point related to < task/subject >?
• What’s the hardest part about < task >?
• What are you currently doing to make this < task/subject > easier?
• What are some unmet needs you have?
• What tasks take up the most time in your work day?
• What’s the hardest part about being a < persona attribute/demographic >?
• What are your greatest or most important responsibilities/goals?

In a perfect world, and other hypotheticals

These discovery questions give the interviewee an opportunity to release the shackles (assuming they’re shackled by something). They are intended to expose the internal workings of the interviewee to get a better understanding of how they see themselves and how they would prefer things to be. These questions should be asked at the end of the interview to help the interviewer frame the conversation with the interviewee. They are not an open permission to chase after the whims of the responses, since the questions themselves are rooted in a fictional context. These questions can look like:

• If you could wave a magic wand and have < painful task/subject > disappear, what would it be and why?
• What would your ideal day look like?
• If you could do anything you wanted with regard to < painful task/subject > what would it be and why?
• What products or services do you wish would exist that currently do not?

Now that we’ve seen a few discovery questions let’s go over a few scenarios of how to use them in tandem in an interview script.

Scenario: Building a new software feature

A Customer Relationship Management platform is thinking of adding a social media tracking feature.

What do we know?

• Our CRM provider has many customers (small businesses) but is not a leader in its industry
• Our CRM provider thinks adding this feature will reduce churn and open up additional prospecting channels
• A few customers have asked for this feature
• Shipping this feature will take 3 months for a small development team of 6 (developers, PM, design)

Since the challenge is to determine if the new feature should be built, as opposed to making another investment, a UX Research Designer or Product Manager within the CRM provider needs to determine if building out this feature is worth the cost of a small team’s time.

Since this new feature is intended to reduce churn and open additional prospecting channels we should create a different interview script for each persona.

Interview script for existing CRM customers:

• Can you tell me about your business's most pressing challenges?
• Can you describe your marketing process?
• Can you describe how you acquire new customers?
• (If social was not mentioned in the previous questions) Do you use social media as a marketing or sales channel and if so, how?

Interview script for desired prospects:

• Have you ever used any CRM tools? If so which?
• Which CRM tool(s) are you using now? How did you come to using this tool?
• Can you tell me about the types of customers you serve?
• Do you use social media as a marketing or sales channel and if so, how?

These two interview scripts are very similar because they intend to shed light on existing pain points and behavior. The guide for new prospects includes questions that could be used in a screener, a questionnaire, or discovered through various marketing tactics (through self selection). Depending on the hypothesis or vision of the product team, more specific validation questions could be included with these scripts.

Scenario: Starting a physical goods startup

An Entrepreneur with manufacturing experience in travel bags has an idea for a stylish leather travel bag for business travelers that is different from everything else in the market.

• The product is still an idea.
• The Entrepreneur is obsessed with the idea.
• The Entrepreneur has a lot of experience with both travel and travel goods manufacturing.
• Launching on Kickstarter will take 3 months to organize campaigns and build buzz and around $50k for initial marketing and prototypes.

The goal here is for the Entrepreneur to determine if spending 3 months and $50k is the right course of action in order to start the travel bag company via a Kickstarter launch.

In order to learn if he/she is on the right track this Entrepreneur may want to interview frequent business travelers. The interview script could include these questions:

• How often do you travel for work?
• What modes of travel do you do most often?
• Can you describe your business trip packing/preparation process?
• What sorts of travel bags do you use and why?
• What do you like about your current bag?
• What do you dislike about your current bag?
• What other bags have you owned why do you no longer use those bags?
• Have you ever heard of < competing brand's bag >? If so, what are your thoughts about it (or a feature of it)?

Although our Entrepreneur is experienced in the travel bag industry, he/she intends to create something “new” and that my require additional risk mitigation since there is no precedent in the market. This interview guide is intended to expand the entrepreneur's current knowledge of the market as well as shed light on the positioning and features this new bag should address.

Scenario: Internationally expanding the marketing effort of a software service business

A leading US based online real estate platform company wishes to drive continued growth by expanding into international markets. The UK, Canada, and Australia are deemed as possible targets for expansion.

• This organization has a profitable and admired product
• It has the workforce (marketing/product) to sustain expansion into one new market
• This organization knows its customer persona very well
• The effort to gain market share from incumbents and expand is a multi-year endeavor which will cost millions of dollars in both marketing and product development

The goal here is to determine which of the countries is the best one to enter at this point in time.

A strategy for interviewing potential users could include the following discovery questions.

• What are the most important challenges your real estate development company is facing?
• How do you set your developments apart from you competitors?
• On which platforms do you currently list your developments?
• What do you like about these platforms?
• What do you dislike about these platforms?
• Have you ever heard of < expanding US company >? If so, what have you heard about them?

These questions focus on the particular business’ challenges as well as on the existing ecosystem. The expanding company should learn if their current personas match up with those of their potential customers in the new markets. They should also begin to build a picture of how their prospects use their competitors as well as how their prospects view their brand.

Discovery questions for stakeholder interviews

Conducting user research isn’t limited to a target user or customer persona. For a project to succeed all participants should be taken into account. If it makes sense, other stakeholders should be a part of the research. Discovery questions are great to ask stakeholders because they can help clarify the goals of the project and the metrics for success. The stakeholders can often include the entire organization as they may be upstream or downstream from the deliverable for a project. These stakeholders may be C-level, Product Management, Project Management, Business Development, Sales, Software Development, Support and even Operations or Accounting. A few discovery questions for stakeholder interviews can include:

• Why should this product/service be built?
• What are the goals for this project and why?
• What does success look like for this project and why?
• What are your concerns for this project?

When directed at the various stakeholders these questions, and other like them, can allow the researcher to add additional questions in their interviewing guide or to help shape recommendations and findings from the research.

Putting it all together

Discovery questions are a great way to learn about your interviewee and the way they see themselves in the world. These questions can reveal all sorts of interesting information and it is on the interviewer to decide which responses need a follow up “why” and which responses are not of interest to the research. When choosing which discovery question will be included in your research keep in mind the person you will be speaking with and what you hope to learn from them. If you find that you’re not learning from your discovery questions perhaps ask yourself if the issue is with the interviewee, if it is with the questions, or if it is with you. It is okay to change questions, interviewee personas, and even researchers if you don’t think the feedback is useful. Nothing is set in stone, and just as the questions are made to be flexible, your research can be as well.

Feedback & Questions

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30 product discovery questions to ask about your next project

UserTesting

Product discovery is an essential phase of product development. During product discovery, cross-functional teams explore, define, and refine an idea to create a  customer-centric solution . It's a collaborative process that involves various stakeholders, including  product managers , designers,  executives , and test users. Product discovery questions allow teams to uncover the most valuable product concepts and help answer the question, "What should we build and how?" 

In this guide, we'll review some common and not-so-common questions that product teams should consider asking themselves during product discovery. 

Product discovery questions to ask your team before user research

To ensure that product discovery is done effectively, ask a series of questions that cover various aspects of the project. These questions can guide the team to make informed decisions, prioritize features, and align the product with user needs and organizational goals. First, let’s dig into some of the most common and important questions to ask your team at the beginning of the product discovery process.

1. What problem are we trying to solve? 

Start by identifying the pain point or challenge the product aims to address. Creating a problem statement is the foundation of the entire discovery process. It forces the team to define the issue or challenge the product aims to address. With a clear problem statement, the project's purpose and direction can be clear.

2. How will the product solve that problem?

Defining how the product will tackle the identified problem is a must for shaping its design and functionality. This question helps create a detailed action plan for  product development by establishing a clear, problem-solving focus.

3. What are the customer’s needs or pain points?

Successful product development depends on understanding the needs and pain points of the target customers. This question will ensure the team designs the product to provide meaningful solutions and meet user demands.

Pre-made test template available: Needs and frustrations discovery

4. How are we currently solving these needs or pain points?

This question prompts the team to evaluate existing solutions or workarounds, if any, that users employ to address their needs or pain points. It helps to identify areas where the product can provide superior or more efficient solutions.

5. What existing solutions or competitors are in the market? 

Analyze the competition to gain insight into what works and what doesn't. Examining the competitive landscape allows the team to see potential gaps in the market and opportunities for differentiation. It's a critical step in market analysis and  product positioning .

6. How will we differentiate our product from competitors?

This question compels the team to think creatively about what unique value the product will offer that sets it apart. The answer often forms the basis for the product's value proposition and marketing strategy.

Pre-made test template available: Competitive comparison

7. Who is the target audience? 

Knowing the target audience helps tailor the product to their preferences, needs, and pain points. The product's features and design have to resonate with the intended users.

8. What are our goals and key performance indicators (KPIs)?

Clearly define the project's success metrics, such as conversion rates, user engagement, or revenue growth. Explicitly defined goals and metrics will allow the team to measure the product’s performance, impact, and ability to meet objectives.

9. What are the technical constraints and possibilities? 

Assess the technical capabilities and limitations to determine the project's feasibility. Doing this helps to align the product's features and design with what can be realistically achieved.

10. What are the potential risks and challenges?

Identifying risks early in the discovery phase allows the team to develop  risk mitigation strategies . It helps in proactively addressing challenges and avoiding unexpected setbacks during development.

11. How does this project align with the organization's goals?

Aligning the product’s goals with the organization's mission and vision promotes strategic consistency. It prevents the team from developing a product that may deviate from the organization’s core objectives.

12. What is the estimated timeline and budget for this project?

Clearly define the project's scope and allocate resources accordingly. Estimating a structured project timeline and budget helps manage resources efficiently, prevent scope creep, and set realistic expectations for  stakeholders .

13. What are the must-have features and nice-to-have features? 

Prioritize the essential features that directly address the problem at hand. Must-have features are imperative for meeting the core requirements, while nice-to-have features can be added depending on available resources and time.

14. What are the legal and compliance requirements for this product?

The product must adhere to all relevant laws and regulations to avoid potential legal issues and protect the organization's integrity.

15. What is the pricing strategy for this product?

Defining the pricing strategy is necessary for monetization and market positioning. A pricing strategy verifies that the product is competitively priced while covering its development costs.

16. What kind of post-launch support and maintenance will this product require?

Consider the ongoing effort needed to keep the product stable and functional. Preventing post-launch problems will help cultivate customer satisfaction and loyalty.

17. What emotional impact do we want this product to have? 

This question encourages teams to think beyond functionality. The product should also resonate with users on an emotional level, building a deeper connection.

18. What are the potential ethical implications of this product? 

In an era of ever-expanding ethical concerns, the team should evaluate how the product might impact users and society as a whole – both now and in the future. Addressing ethics through responsible development will help avoid future harm and safeguard the organization’s reputation.

19. What are the potential unintended consequences of this product?

Consider the ripple effects that the product might have, both positive and negative, on users and the market. Identifying unintended consequences is a form of  risk management . This can help the team prepare for unexpected outcomes and mitigate them effectively.

20. How can this product contribute to sustainability and environmental responsibility?

Thinking about the environmental impact of a product can set it apart. Focusing on sustainability aligns the product with broader societal and environmental goals, which can be a strong selling point and show a commitment to responsible business practices.

21. What is the long-term vision for this product beyond the immediate release?

Think about the product's evolution and potential future iterations. By planning for the product's future, the team can effect its continued relevance, protecting it from becoming obsolete shortly after launch.

22. How will this product support accessibility and inclusivity?

The product should be usable by as many people as possible, regardless of disabilities or limitations. Prioritize accessibility and inclusivity to demonstrate a commitment to equal access and social responsibility.

Product discovery questions to ask users during a test

Real user testing during the product discovery phase is crucial in creating a product that resonates with its intended audience and succeeds in the market. User testing is valuable, allowing teams to refine and validate ideas from the beginning.

Real  user feedback during product discovery can guide decision-making, enhance the product's  user-centered design , and foster iterative improvements. The following questions will help the team gather specific, actionable feedback from real users. 

23. What was your initial impression of the product?

Users' first impressions often shape their overall perceptions. Understanding their initial reactions can reveal whether the product aligns with its intended message and branding.

Pre-made test template available: First impressions

24. Could you complete the key tasks you expected to perform?

This question assesses the product's user-friendliness and functionality. It helps identify usability issues or roadblocks that may hinder users from achieving their goals.

25. What features or aspects of the product did you find most valuable?

The product team can reinforce and prioritize the most valuable features by identifying the product’s strengths and highlights from the user's perspective.

26. What features or aspects of the product were confusing or frustrating?

Understanding users' pain points, confusion, or frustrations gives insight into areas that need improvement. This feedback allows the team to refine the product and create a more user-friendly experience.

27. Would you recommend this product to others? Why or why not?

This question gauges user satisfaction and the likelihood that they would advocate for the product. It also spotlights any major issues or concerns that might deter potential users, helping the team address them proactively.

Product discovery questions to ask users after testing

It’s important to heed your test users’ feedback during product discovery. Here are some questions to consider asking your test users and your team after conducting testing.

28. Is the product performing the way it should?

Post-launch evaluation allows the team to confirm that the product meets its intended objectives and provides value to users.

29. What are the product’s strengths and weaknesses?

Identifying the product’s strengths will help the team leverage what's working well. At the same time, recognizing its weaknesses directs attention to areas that need improvement or innovation.

30. How can we continue to improve the product?

By fostering improvement through  continuous discovery , the team can allow the product to remain competitive and valuable in the long term. This will facilitate ongoing  innovation and adaptability.

Final thoughts on product discovery questions

Product discovery is not about finding a single "right" answer but about exploring different possibilities and making informed decisions based on the best available information. The more thorough and thoughtful the product discovery process, the higher the likelihood of delivering a successful product that truly meets user needs and business objectives.

As teams navigate the product discovery process, they should consider incorporating various techniques and methodologies to gather insights. These may include  user interviews ,  surveys ,  usability testing , competitive analysis, and brainstorming sessions. Additionally, it's valuable to maintain a user-centered approach throughout, continuously seeking  feedback and validation from potential users.

Real user testing in the product discovery phase is crucial for creating a product that truly resonates with its intended audience,  mitigates risk , and increases the chances of success in the market. Through our  Human Insight platform , UserTesting can optimize the product discovery process. We can help your  product and design team incorporate real user feedback from the beginning of product development through every post-launch iteration.

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12 UX Discovery Questions You Need to Ask

Jack O’Donoghue

Better questions lead to a deeper understanding of the problem and more informed design solutions.

It only takes one question to spark a whole new world of thought and inspire a whole new way of thinking that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Here are 12 valuable questions you can ask during the discovery phase of your UX Design project.

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Table of Contents

Did you know, 1. what are the primary goals and objectives of your product, 2. who are your target users, and what are their key characteristics, 3. what are the main pain points and challenges faced by your users, 4. what are the key tasks your users want to accomplish using your product, 5. how do your users currently solve their problems or complete their tasks, 6. what are the primary metrics for measuring success, 7. what are the main competitors in the market, and how do they differentiate themselves, 8. what are the technical constraints and requirements, 9. what are the key milestones and deadlines for the project, 10. how will you obtain user feedback and conduct usability testing, 11. what are the main risks or challenges you foresee for this project, 12. what are the long-term goals and vision for your product, frequently asked questions.

To help teams implement Design Thinking , we offer bespoke innovation training workshops. Talk with us and find out how we can help transform the way you design your products and services.

Interested? Message us in the bottom right corner or learn more here.

The first step in any UX Design project, is to understand what the business hopes to achieve.

We need to understand the business strategy and how our project is intended to support it.

By getting this level of clarity in advance, we can make more informed design decisions with a clear idea of how the business will measure success .

Understanding business objectives is the first step in any UX Design project.

Most projects exist for one of the following reasons:

• To move the needle on a KPI .
• To solve known technical issues.
• To address customer feedback.
• To enable new technology.

When a project first lands on our lap, it’s more than likely briefed from the perspective of the business and what they consider to be opportunities.

Our job as UX Designers is to take this business perspective and find out where it overlaps with customer problems and user needs.

We can then design useful and intuitive technology solutions that meet customer needs and achieve business goals.

Key questions you need to ask at this stage are:

• What is the business trying to achieve?
• How will they measure success?
• Who are the stakeholders and decision-makers involved in this project?

Think of this stage as building the foundation of your design project by understanding where the project comes from and why it exists.

You can then build on this foundation knowing that you have a solid grounding and clear understanding of stakeholders’ goals and expectations.

Before we can conduct discovery into users’ goals and pain points. We need to first identify and define who our users are. This enables us to recruit the right customers for our UX research later on in the project.

If you’re in an established organization, then this stage shouldn’t be too difficult, essentially, the key question you want to answer is:

• Who are our core customer segments?
• What behaviors does each group exhibit?
• What are our screening criteria for recruiting UX research participants?

If you’re starting a new project that doesn’t have a well-defined audience, then you need to take an iterative approach.

Defining who our customers are means we can focus our user research on the people that will give us the most valuable insights.

First, look at any existing data from analytics, customer feedback, or existing research.

Make your best guesses about who your audience is based on the information you have available.

Go out and speak to the users to confirm or deny that you have identified the correct group.

After your first couple of user interviews, you should have a very good understanding of whether or not you’re speaking to the right people, you can now document your findings by creating the first piece of the persona puzzle:

Who are your customer groups, and what are their key characteristics and behaviors?

During the next step, we’ll dig deeper and add layers to our personas by asking more specific questions and learning about each customer group and their experiences related to our project.

At this stage of discovery – assuming we don’t know a lot about our user’s experiences – we want to keep our research broad. We want to understand what experiences our customers are having related to our product or service.

By going broad and asking open-ended user interview questions like:

• Tell me about a time when you [Insert the task or problem area you’re researching]
• Can you show me how you [Insert the task or problem area you’re researching]

These questions keep our research broad enough that we can understand the entire context of the user’s experience.

User research usually starts broad and gets more focused over time. Always tie your research back to your research questions and business objectives.

It allows us to dig into their motivations, goals, and expectations by asking questions like:

• Can you tell me what you were hoping to achieve with this?
• Why was it important to you that you could do this?
• What did you expect to happen when you did this?

When the users answer this kind of user research question, we want to listen out for how their experiences overlap with our business objectives:

• Which parts of their experience align with a product or service the business provides?
• What motivations, goals, and expectations sound aligned with what the business wants to achieve?

It’s important that we’re always thinking about how the user’s experiences align with the goals of the business. If we leave the business out of the equation, then we risk creating a product that isn’t economically viable or doesn’t align with our business strategy.

At this stage of discovery, we want to understand the key tasks and goals that our users want to accomplish using our product.

More than likely we can review the conversations we had with them in the last phase and highlight what their key tasks are related to our product or service. But sometimes we might need to narrow the focus of our conversations with users to get the granularity we need.

We do this by asking questions like:

• What task or goal would you like to accomplish with this?
• What features do you think would help with this task?
• How easy do you find it to complete this task?
• Why did you choose to use our product for this task?

This kind of user research question is designed to get a better understanding of how our users interact with the product and what their experience is.

Defining your customers key tasks helps you to prioritize your efforts and focus on the areas that matter most.

Understanding what tasks they are trying to complete can give us valuable insights into how we can improve the user journey and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

By understanding which features they find helpful in completing their tasks can help us focus our development efforts in the right areas. With this information, we can start to build better products and services that meet user needs.

When analyzing existing solutions, tools, or workarounds used by users, it is important to identify any gaps or obstacles that occur in the process. This can help uncover opportunities for improvement or innovation.

For example, if users are struggling with the current system, it’s a good indication that there is room for improvement in the product design or user experience.

In addition to identifying existing solutions and tools used by users, it’s also beneficial to understand how users currently approach problem-solving.

Knowing how customers currently solve their problems helps us decide how we can help them in a way that aligns with our business objectives.

Oftentimes, there are more efficient ways of solving problems that may not be immediately obvious when using an existing solution.

By understanding how and why users approach certain tasks in a certain way, designers can tweak existing systems to reduce friction and improve usability.

Finally, it’s important to consider the wider context in which users are operating when analyzing existing solutions and tools used by them.

For instance, if a user has a limited amount of time to complete a task due to external constraints like budget or deadlines, this could have an effect on how they approach that particular problem-solving process.

Understanding and taking into account these broader contextual factors can lead to more effective design solutions that take into account user needs as well as organizational goals.

When determining success metrics, it is important to consider both quantitative and qualitative measures.

Quantitative metrics may include metrics such as user engagement, conversion rate, completed tasks, or time on task.

Qualitative measures can involve collecting feedback from users on their overall satisfaction with the product and experience.

Knowing how you’ll measure success gives you an acute sense of what you should focus on and how you should do it.

This type of data can be used to identify areas for improvement and make changes that better meet user needs.

In addition to measuring success with both quantitative and qualitative metrics, it’s important to track performance over time in order to determine if improvements have been made.

Some of the key UX Metrics worth keeping an eye on are:

• The number of calls to customer service.
• The time it takes a customer service rep to assist a customer.
• The number of errors throughout a core journey.
• The time it takes to complete time-sensitive journeys.
• Customer satisfaction and how they rate the ease of use.

Tracking performance data such as usage trends, completion rate, or drop-off rate will provide insights into how well a system is doing long-term and inform what we decide to focus on in the future.

User satisfaction is also an important metric that should be tracked over time in order to understand how users are responding to the product or experience.

Collecting feedback from users via surveys or interviews will provide valuable insights into what they think about the product and any areas for improvement they recommend.

This type of data is invaluable when assessing how successful a product or solution is in meeting user needs.

Conducting a competitive analysis involves looking at the main competitors in the market and analyzing their strengths and weaknesses.

By doing this, you can determine what unique value propositions your product or service can offer that would make it stand out from the competition.

This could include offering better customer service, more features, lower prices, faster delivery times, or any other benefit that is not currently offered by competitors.

Identifying these gaps and opportunities for creating unique value propositions will help you create a successful product or service that meets user needs.

When building a product or solution, it is important to understand the technical constraints of the platform or development framework being used.

This involves researching what features can be achieved and how those features can be implemented.

This includes assessing the available resources such as coding languages, libraries, and frameworks that are necessary to develop the product or solution.

Some of the key questions you can ask here are:

• What are the system requirements for this product or solution?
• What technical specifications does it need to adhere to?
• Are there any existing legacy technologies that need to be taken into account?
• Are there any legal, compliance or security requirements we need to consider?

Understanding these technical constraints in advance will help you plan your development process more efficiently and ensure that your final product meets the necessary standards.

It’s also important to make sure that the design solutions are feasible and compatible with existing platforms and development frameworks.

This requires understanding the limitations of each platform and making sure that any proposed solutions work within those constraints.

It’s critical to assess whether the proposed design solutions are meeting user needs and objectives while remaining cost-effective and efficient.

Regular user feedback should also be gathered during development in order to ensure that any changes made meet their requirements.

Before you even put pen to paper and create a design plan, you need to list out any key milestones or commitments that your project sponsor and stakeholders have already made.

We can then design our project plan around these goals. This information will help you determine how extensive your research phase is and how quickly you need to move through iterations of your ideas.

Before you write your design plan, make a list of key milestones and commitments that have already been made by your project sponsor and stakeholders.

Ask your stakeholders questions like:

• What time commitments have already been made?
• What milestones have been agreed for delivering the project?

Some projects might allow the luxury of upfront discovery research and a more extensive research method, while most will need you to be lean, efficient, and creative with how you get answers to your research questions.

Some of the things you need to consider at this stage are:

• What key knowledge gaps do we have and how do we fill them?
• Which areas of the design do we need the most confidence in to ensure success?
• Which parts of the design offer the greatest risk if we get it wrong?

The answers to these questions will help you focus your user research to reduce risk and ensure success.

When designing the project, it is important to take an iterative approach in order to ensure the most effective and efficient design solutions are implemented.

This means regularly reviewing and assessing the progress and gathering user feedback in order to make adjustments where necessary.

It is also important to keep in mind that user feedback should be taken into account throughout the entire process, from research and concept development all the way through implementation.

Usability testing is a great way of obtaining user feedback as it allows designers to evaluate how people interact with their products or service.

Usability testing can help identify areas where users struggle, areas they find confusing or difficult, as well as areas they find intuitive or enjoyable.

By collecting this data, designers can make whatever changes are needed to ensure a successful product launch.

In order to conduct usability testing effectively, it is important that the right test methods are used so that insights can be properly gathered.

Depending on the type of project, this may include remote interviews, field visits, A/B testing, surveys, or other methods of research.

Through these research methods, designers can understand how their products are being used by real users which gives them valuable feedback for improvement and optimization of their designs.

By taking an iterative approach with testing at each stage of development, any issues can be identified quickly before they become too costly and time-consuming to fix later down the line.

By identifying your stakeholder’s biggest fears and challenges, you can get an idea of where the project holds the most risk.

This is good information to have because most big projects will have pivots and changes in direction as well as scope cuts and knee-jerk reactions to competitors or stakeholders changing priorities.

Knowing where the biggest risks are helps you to mitigate against them and anticipate their inevitable arrival – as few projects go off without a hitch.

When you know what the main risks and challenges are, you can better anticipate where all these changes might be. It’s good to have flexible expectations because no project happens in a straight line.

Just as you are trying to figure everything out, so too are your stakeholders and project sponsors. This means when new information comes in it could change your focus and priorities.

A long-term vision is a beautiful thing that can align teams around a concerted effort, create autonomy in decision making and inspire people to connect to a larger purpose.

If you can align your team around a shared vision early on, it can make the whole product development process much more efficient and productive.

A compelling vision will create clarity and provide direction to the product development team.

To help with this you can ask questions like:

• Fast forward 3 years and we’ve exceeded our wildest dreams, what does that look like?
• What are the key success measures that will tell us if we’ve been successful, what if we 10x’d those metrics?
• Imagine we’re receiving glowing customer feedback, what would that feedback say about our product?

When you consider these questions, and you frequently speak to customers to understand their ideal futures, you can start to cultivate a powerful vision that will provide direction and clarity to your whole team.

That said, some projects will naturally be shorter-term tactical plays. Like meeting new governance and compliance regulations. Or solving a backlog of known issues.

In this example, our vision might not be as aspirational and we might be able to define it within a couple of conversations, but it’s still worth having.

Q: What are UX discovery questions?

A: UX discovery questions are a set of specific questions that UX designers and the UX researcher asks during the discovery phase of a project. These questions help gather valuable insights about user needs, goals, and pain points, guiding the design process and ensuring a successful user experience.

Q: Why are UX discovery questions important in the UX design process?

A: UX discovery questions play a crucial role in the UX design process by helping designers understand their target audience and identify user needs. By asking these questions, designers can create products that cater to users’ preferences and motivations, ultimately leading to better product development and user satisfaction.

Q: How do UX discovery questions contribute to user research?

A: UX discovery questions are an essential component of user research, as they help uncover users’ problems, frustrations, and goals. By asking these questions during user interviews and other research methods, designers can gain insights into users’ experiences, informing design decisions and improving the overall user experience.

Q: What is the difference between UX discovery and product discovery?

A: While both UX discovery and product discovery aim to gather insights for creating successful products, UX discovery focuses on understanding user needs , behaviors, and motivations, whereas product discovery encompasses a broader scope, including business goals, market analysis, and technical requirements.

Q: How do Internal stakeholder interviews and discovery sessions contribute to the discovery phase?

A: Internal Stakeholder interviews and discovery sessions are essential in the discovery phase, as they involve discussions with key stakeholders such as product managers, business analysts, and internal stakeholders. These conversations help identify project goals, requirements, and potential challenges, providing a solid foundation for the design process.

Q: Can UX discovery questions be used in other research methods, like usability testing?

A: Yes, UX discovery questions can be adapted and used in various research methods, including usability testing. By asking users about their needs and experiences during usability tests, designers can gain additional insights that inform design iterations and improvements.

Q: What are some examples of UX discovery questions related to user research and user experience?

A: Some examples of UX discovery questions related to user research and user experience include:

• What are the primary goals and objectives of your product?
• Who are your target users, and what are their key characteristics?
• What are the main pain points and challenges faced by your users?
• How do your users currently solve their problems or complete their tasks?

Q: How can UX designers collaborate with product teams and project managers during the discovery process?

A: UX designers can collaborate with product teams and project managers during the discovery process by participating in discovery workshops, sharing research findings, and aligning on project goals and requirements. Open communication and collaboration among team members ensure a unified vision for the product and a successful outcome.

📸 Shout out to İrfan Simsar for the cover photo.

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UX Research: How to plan and prepare for discovery research?

When you think about conducting user research to understand their needs, challenges, and motivations, you often don’t think about the planning that goes into this type of initiative. If you are just starting out on the journey of UX research, feeling a little overwhelmed by the process, and wondering how to set up and plan a research project, today’s blog post is for you!

Let’s back up a step. You may be wondering, why is it important to conduct user research? For starters, investing in UX research will save you time and money! (Say no more, right?) By understanding what your customers truly want early on in the process, you can gather feedback and spend your hard earned money and valuable time developing and launching a product or feature users are guaranteed to need and use. Additionally, conducting user research will help to reduce customer churn. When you create a product that’s valuable to your user, they are much more likely to offer their loyalty! You may even develop a product or feature your user didn’t realize they needed, solving a problem they didn’t even know existed. Conducting UX research will also help establish a strong proof of concept and de-risk product launches . We recommend using design research methods like in-depth interviews or observations .

How to start the research planning process?

You’ve received stakeholder buy-in confirming that conducting some research would be a good idea. But where do you start? There is a lot of orchestration that goes into a successful research project. Planning for research typically takes 2-6 weeks, depending on how much research you intend to conduct. During the planning stage, things you’ll want to create include:

A Research Plan (outlining all of the research you plan to do and how you plan to do it) – see below

Interview and Observation Guides , Survey Questionnaires, and more

Recruiting Criteria and Guide (Who you will recruit for research and how?)

To begin, you’ll want to have a few meetings or collaborative discovery sessions with stakeholders to understand the business goals and identify what is known about the research area/topic. Then you’ll want to scope the project and start to identify the types of research methods you’ll use. On Outwitly’s blog , we cover a lot more on the different types of UX and design research, if you’re curious!

Scoping Discovery Research

How do you know how much research to actually conduct? Well… it depends. This also comes with experience, and after having conducted numerous research initiatives you’ll get better at understanding how much is too much, too little, or just right. However, we can provide some of our tips for scoping a discovery research project.

Timeline – How much time do you have to conduct the research? If you only have 1-2 months, you’re going to be limited with how much you can do in that time. So you might decide to stick to only one type of research method, such as interviews. If you have 3-6 months, then you can start to layer in other research methods and more participants.

Budget – Is budget a factor? How much money do you have to conduct the research? This could impact how many hours you can spend on the research, how many participants you can recruit if you are planning to give them each incentives for their time, and it can also impact how many researchers are on the project.

How much is already known about the problem area? If a significant amount of research has already been conducted on the same topic, it may be better to start by leveraging the existing research findings and scoping out a smaller amount of new research to compliment what exists. If not much is known or understood at the outset, you may want to build in more time for research, more methods, and more participants.

Best practices – In general and when possible, we recommend you follow some best practices for conducting research. These are:

Plan to conduct at least two different types of research (e.g. interviews AND observations)

Plan to interview 4-6 participants from the same user group in order to identify patterns in the data (so if you have 3 different types of users you want to understand, then you are looking to interview 12-18 participants in total).

If you’re worried that you are scoping out too much research, or you haven’t gotten the full buy-in/support from your stakeholders, then consider biting off a smaller research initiative to start. This will help to show the value of this type of work and get everyone on the team to understand the process. Then you can start to take on bigger projects! One way to do this is by reducing the number of user groups you are hoping to understand – this will cut down the number of people you need to recruit and make the scope of work smaller.

Elements of a Strong UX Research Plan

While research plans will vary depending on where you work and what research you are conducting, in general a solid discovery research plan will include the following:

Overview – To begin, include a paragraph the answers the following questions: What is this research about? Why has it been initiated? Who is the research for? What will it involve at a high-level?

Research Goals –  We typically list 3-5 core research goals. What are you hoping to accomplish through your research? What insights are you aiming to uncover? How will this research help you achieve a better user or customer experience?

Research Methods – Which research methods do you plan to use? Our favourites are interviews , observations , and diary studies for qualitative research. You may also include your plan to conduct stakeholder or expert interviews, as well as any quantitative research, and secondary research such as literature reviews and documentation reviews. Whatever methods you choose, plan to describe each one in detail. For example, this might include: How many interviews you’ll conduct, how interviews will be conducted (remotely, in-person, over the phone), how long each interview will take, and more. You should also provide your rationale for choosing each method here.

Participants – Your research plan should explain who you plan to research, what high-level user groups are you planning to research, what are their characteristics, how many people you plan to interview or observe, and how you might incentivize them.

Recruitment – Once you’ve explained who you are going to research, you’ll also want to provide an in-depth description of the recruitment methods you’ll use, how you’ll schedule participants, how you’ll screen participants to make sure they are the right fit for the project, and any additional information on the recruiting criteria.

Tools/Technology – What tools or applications will you use to recruit, conduct, and analyze your research? For example, what tools will you use to record interviews or schedule participants? Do you plan to use a phone or camera to take photos and video during observations?

Some of our favourite tools are:

• Miro for workshops
• Zoom for interviews
• Calendly for scheduling
• Aurelius for data analysis

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Data Analysis/Synthesis Methods (how you will analyze the data) – Describe how you plan to analyze your data. For example, will you group common ideas and identify patterns in the data in order to uncover insights?

Deliverables – What deliverables do you plan to create based on your research findings? Some examples include Personas, Journey Maps, or a Research Report. Describe each one and provide examples or explain why each deliverable will be useful in helping them to achieve their goals

Timing/Project Schedule – You should include a research schedule in your research plan. This shows how long each activity will take and when stakeholders can expect to see each of the milestones reached.

Risks & Mitigation Strategies – See below!

Roles & Responsibilities – Who are the team members involved? What will each team member be responsible for throughout the project?

Data Storage & Security – Depending on the nature of the project being conducted, data storage and security may be important to either the project stakeholders or to the participants. This can be in the case of more sensitive topics such as healthcare or the financial sector. It’s important to outline how you will keep participant data safe, where it will be stored, and when it will be destroyed.

Recruiting Strategies in UX Research

Recruiting for research can be one of the toughest parts of the process. We could go into a lot of detail on how to develop recruiting criteria, breaking down the screening and recruitment process, but we’ll save that for a future post! For now, here are the most common methods we’ve used to recruit participants for research:

Existing contact/emails lists – This applies to organizations/companies that have customer lists they are allowed to share for research purposes.

Real-time – Recruiting on-the-go and in-person (aka standing on a street corner asking people to participate, going to a bus stop, or a museum, or a mall).

Partner organizations & community hubs – Asking community centers or partner organizations to recruit participants on your behalf.

Recruiting firms – Paying $ to hire a professional recruiting firm.

Social Media, Crowd-Sourcing, & Forums

Keep in mind that incentive in the form of gift cards can go a long way to helping you attract participants and prevent no-shows!

Common Risks in UX Research & Mitigation Strategies

When preparing to conduct discovery research, whether it be as part of a proposal or as part of the research planning, it’s important to identify possible risks early on and develop mitigation strategies to help alleviate these challenges if they arrive during the course of the project. When we consider risks, we like to create a table that looks at three main elements:

Criticality or Likelihood (Low, Medium, or High) – Essentially how likely it is that this risk happens, and if it were to happen, how would it impact the project and it’s timelines?

Risk – Describe the risk in detail

Mitigation Strategy – For each risk you identify, list 1-3 mitigation measures or corrective actions that you will use if it does happen.

At this point you might be wondering, what are the most common risks when conducting UX research or design research? To help you out, we’ve listed the ones we see most often:

Recruiting – It may be difficult to recruit enough participants that match your target user groups in the timeline. You’ll want to think about alternative methods for recruiting participants or what to do if you can’t find participants who are the perfect fit to your recruiting criteria.

Scheduling – If you’re scheduling internal interviews with busy stakeholders, they might not have time to schedule meetings and interviews, which could cause the overall schedule to slip. Similarly, if stakeholders are unable to provide feedback on key milestones it could also result in timeline slippage. A mitigation strategy in this case could be to ensure their is a governance structure in place. Assign a final decision maker who will ensure they have enough bandwidth/availability throughout the project to provide feedback.

Potential Resource Changes – This is a risk that applies most often to longer term projects, but in the case that someone leaves the team and needs to be replaced, how will you ensure the project runs smoothly and keeps going? Knowledge continuity and sharing is key – keeping files organized early on and documenting as much as possible are both great mitigation strategies.

Scope creep – This is a common risk when you get into a research project! Often times you’ll set out to do a certain number of interviews and observations, but once you start collecting data, you realize you need a bit more research or work to be done. This is where you can get into “scope creep”. Some ways to help this are to pad the project with additional time in the schedule and additional budget. Also, try to make sure that all team members and stakeholders are clear from the beginning on what activities and deliverables are in scope and which fall out of scope.

Finally, we like to put these together in a nice clear table. Share these with project stakeholders prior to starting the research, discuss the mitigation strategies with them, and then add or edit the table based on their feedback. This way everyone is on the same page from the outset, and when these issues come up (which inevitably, they will!) you’ll have already planned for them! This means less drama among team members and stakeholders. Whew!

There are many moving parts in the planning and preparation of conducting discovery research. From kicking off the process and writing a strong UX research plan, to recruiting for research and developing mitigation strategies, there is no shortage of hard work! We hope the details of this blog post make the entire process feel a little less daunting. And trust us, the benefits of properly laying the groundwork for discovery research will become very clear in no time. Happy researching everyone!

Resources we like…

What’s the worst that could happen? Reducing risk through user research

Creating a User Research Plan (With Examples!)

How to Find Things and Do Research in a Discovery Phase

Related Posts

How to Get the Most Out of Your User and Customer Research?

Designing User Personas in 5 Steps

How to De-Risk Product Launches with UX Research

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Blog User research in government

https://userresearch.blog.gov.uk/2015/05/27/doing-user-research-in-the-discovery-phase/

Doing user research in the discovery phase

Here are some things you should know about doing user research in the discovery phase.

• You should definitely do user research in the discovery phase. Understanding who your users are and what's going on when they come across your service is one of the most important parts of discovery. Have an experienced user researcher in your discovery team. Plan for the rest of the team to spend plenty of time going out into the field to meet real users with the user researcher.
• Discover people not projects. If you want to deliver a service that really meets user needs, you need to understand what people are trying to do, and how they're trying to do it, when they encounter your service. This means that research during discovery might seem 'bigger' than it needs to be for your specific project. This is because you've got a bunch of preconceived ideas about what your project should be. This is exactly why we do user research: to find out what people are doing now to solve their problem, understand what needs they have, and to understand how we can best help meet those needs. Then it's time to work out what the project should be.
• Discovery is for discovering, not for prototyping. Making is an excellent way to learn about a problem, but that doesn't mean you need to make from the very beginning. Put the code away for a few weeks, get out into the field, and understand your users. Understand how different they are from you and your team. Spend some time doing this at the outset of the project, and it's much more likely that the thing you make will meet everyone's needs and not just yours.
• If you haven't discovered you were wrong about some things, you probably haven't done it right. Discovery is not for validation. The point of research during discovery is to work out what people need, and what you need to do to meet those needs. It's not to prove that a project should proceed. If you set out to validate, you won't learn what you don't know. What you don't know is the thing that will ultimately make your project fail. It's fine to have some hypotheses about what the project will be, but go into discovery to test those hypotheses, not to validate assumptions. The way you frame the user research in discovery will make all the difference.
• Do qualitative, contextual user research in discovery. Try to meet at least 6-8 people of each 'type' of user of your service. (Your user researcher will help you understand what 'types' there might be and which ones matter). Go to the place your users are currently doing the thing you're going to make better, and get them to show you how it works, what it looks like, how it makes them feel (user needs are both functional and emotional). Don't 'outsource' this and get a report and a presentation at the end - bring the team along to observe the user research - everyone should see at least 2 interviews.
• Maps and stories are good things to make with user research in discovery. Lots of teams have found that making maps of the journey that people go through (in doing the thing they need to do when they encounter your service) can be useful. It's also important to try to capture the stories of the people you meet, what they're doing and what their needs of the service are. There is no one right way to do this - talk to other people who have tried different things to get inspiration (being part of the cross government user research community is a great way to do this). If you're in government and what to be a part of the cross government user research email group, email me  and ask me to add you.

Doing user research to understand your users will help make sure you design the right thing, before you start worrying about designing it the right way.

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Comment by James Barnsley posted on 13 December 2015

The discovery phase is something I have been using in my business. I use the discovery phase as a paid for service because my clients are getting something out of it as well as me. I wrote an article about it on my own website here ...

http://www.jamesbarnsley.com/site/2015/12/05/the-importance-of-a-discovery-phase/

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Product Talk

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Core Concept: The Role of User Research in a Continuous Discovery World

July 7, 2021 by Teresa Torres

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been exploring what a product trio is , how decision-making works in product trios , and why more roles aren’t included . Today, we are going to tackle how user researchers fit into this puzzle.

You can watch the short video or read a lightly edited transcript below the video.

Why aren’t user researchers included in product trios?

What role should they play when product teams adopt a continuous discovery cadence ?

Can product teams really do their own research?

How does user research fit into a continuous discovery world?

I want to start by saying user researchers absolutely have a place in a continuous discovery world. We need more researchers, not fewer.

User researchers aren’t included in the default product trio simply because most companies don’t have enough user researchers for this to be feasible. So, given that, what role should user researchers play?

I see three primary patterns—each of which is a viable way of getting value out of user researchers. And many companies mix and match the patterns.

User Researchers Work on Longer-Horizon Research

First, many companies deploy their user researchers as a centralized team working on longer-horizon research, also known as project research.

Project research isn’t bad. In fact, it’s necessary. We need teams tackling big, strategic questions, keeping tabs on external trends, and understanding customer behavior over time.

Product teams don’t have time to do this research. We are too busy shipping value week over week to tackle these bigger questions. Having a centralized user research team to fill in these gaps is invaluable.

Embed User Researchers with Your Product Trios

Second, some companies are hiring enough user researchers to embed a user researcher with each of their product trios. If you are in this situation, fantastic. Be sure to include your researcher throughout discovery. They can help you improve the reliability and the validity of both your customer interviews and your assumption tests .

Be careful, however. Sometimes when we embed user researchers on product teams, it can be easy for the team to let the user researcher do all the research on their own. We don’t want this.

It’s important that the product trio conduct the research together so that they each have firsthand exposure to the customer. Remember, this is what allows us to avoid hand-offs, makes our research more believable, and helps us see the gaps between how we think of the product and how our customers think about the product.

Even when we have a user researcher embedded with the product trio, we still want the entire trio involved in the research.

Assign User Researchers as Research SMEs for Your Product Trios

Third, if you don’t have enough user researchers to embed one on each of your product teams, you can assign a user researcher to several teams acting as a subject matter expert. Again, this does not mean that the user researcher does all of the research for each of their teams. This will create bottlenecks that will slow all of your teams down.

Instead, the user researcher should be available to give guidance on interviews and assumption tests. They can help their teams increase the reliability and validity of their research methods. They can help train the individual members of the trio in different techniques so that everyone gets better at research.

The challenge with this third pattern is many researchers want to do research. They don’t want to train others on how to do research. So you have to use this pattern wisely. I often see it paired with the first pattern, where researchers both work on longer-horizon research and advise a few product teams on their discovery activities.

When user researchers advise product trios on their discovery activities, however, they need to understand that discovery research is fundamentally different from project research. Product teams work on a faster cadence. We don’t have time for perfect research. And that’s okay. We are trying to mitigate risk, not seek truth.

Product teams work on a faster cadence. We don’t have time for perfect research. And that’s okay. We are trying to mitigate risk, not seek truth. – Tweet This

User researchers need to understand that product teams work under the constraint that they need fast answers to daily questions. They need to be able to test an assumption in a day or two, not weeks. Good user researchers understand this and are able to balance the science of longer-horizon research with the art of quick and dirty assumption testing.

Avoid This Anti-Pattern: Don’t Let User Researchers Be Gatekeepers

Regardless of how you mix and match these patterns in your organizations, here’s the major anti-pattern to avoid. Don’t let your user researchers become the gatekeeper to your customers.

I’ve worked with far too many teams who waste weeks spinning their wheels waiting on research from the user research team. Instead, they could have used that time to run less-than-perfect assumption tests, which are more than adequate for discovering and shipping customer value.

Remember, longer-horizon research is fundamentally different from discovery research. It’s not about pitting these methods against each other. We need both. We need well-trained researchers doing project-based research to get answers to jumbo-sized research questions and we need product teams getting fast answers to daily questions so that they can ship value this week.

We need well-trained researchers doing project-based research to get answers to jumbo-sized research questions and we need product teams getting fast answers to daily questions so that they can ship value this week. – Tweet This

There’s plenty of room for all of us. This is the epitome of the “yes, and” mindset. Companies thrive when they get both types of research right.

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• Product Discovery Basics: Everything You Need to Know
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User research in discovery

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The aim of user research in the discovery phase is to find out:

• who your likely users are and what they’re trying to do
• how they do it currently (for example, what services or channels they use)
• the problems or frustrations they experience
• what users need from your service to achieve their goal

You must do this before you start planning, designing or building your service. What you learn about your users in discovery will also help you to scope your service .

How to do user research in discovery

You need to think about your service from end to end and consider all the ways that users interact with it (including all tools, transactions, support and offline steps).

Who to research with

You must do research with a broad range of users, including disabled people and people with low digital skills. It’s also helpful to learn about the range of abilities that people have .

You should also find out about the people who provide the service or who support other users (for example, caseworkers, call centre agents and charity workers).

Learn more about finding user research participants .

Typical user research activities

To learn more about your users and their needs, you can:

• research the current experience of people who want to do the task your service provides
• observe people to see how they do things now and what problems or barriers they face
• use interviews and visits to explore relevant aspects of their lives and work
• examine existing data (for example analytics, back-office workflow and support logs)
• review previous user research

From these activities you’ll typically get:

• a detailed map that presents the current experience of likely users
• descriptions of different types of users (for example, personas)
• sets of needs for different types of users
• an understanding of some of the barriers that disabled users face

You’ll have done enough research when you understand the different kinds of people who use your service and what they need from it, including disabled people and people with support needs.

Involve the team

Get the whole service team involved in your research during discovery.

Observing and talking to users from the beginning helps everyone understand the problems you’re trying to solve.

Examples and case studies

To find out more about researching a service, read these blog posts:

• User research for government services: 8 strategies that worked for us
• Digital academy: Understanding the problem
• Dos and don’ts of designing for accessibility - understanding how to cater for disabled people

Related guides

You may also find these guides useful:

• Plan user research for your service
• Learning about users and their needs
• Designing government services: an introduction
• Making your service accessible: an introduction

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• May 7, 2024

How To Run UX Research Without Access To Users

• UX Research , User Experience , Design
• Share on Twitter ,  LinkedIn

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Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing, he’s most probably running front-end & UX … More about Vitaly ↬

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UX research without users isn’t research . We can shape design ideas with bias, assumptions, guesstimates, and even synthetic users , but it’s anything but UX research. Yet some of us might find ourselves in situations where we literally don’t have access to users — because of legal constraints, high costs, or perhaps users just don’t exist yet. What do we do then?

Luckily, there are some workarounds that help us better understand pain points and issues that users might have when using our products. This holds true even when stakeholders can’t give us time or resources to run actual research, or strict NDAs or privacy regulations prevent us from speaking to users.

Let’s explore how we can make UX research work when there is no or only limited access to users — and what we can do to make a strong case for UX research .

This article is part of our ongoing series on design patterns . It’s also an upcoming part of the 10h-video library on Smart Interface Design Patterns  🍣 and the upcoming live UX training as well. Use code BIRDIE to save 15% off.

Find Colleagues Who Are The Closest To Your Customers

When you don’t have access to users, I always try to establish a connection with colleagues who are the closest to our customers . Connect with people in the organization who speak with customers regularly, especially people in sales, customer success , support, and QA. Ultimately, you could convey your questions indirectly via them.

As Paul Adams noted , there has never been more overlap between designers and salespeople than today. Since many products are subscription-based, sales teams need to maintain relationships with customers over time. This requires a profound understanding of user needs — and meeting these needs well over time to keep retention and increase loyalty.

That’s where research comes in — and that’s exactly where the overlap between UX and sales comes in. In fact, it’s not surprising to find UX researchers sitting within marketing teams under the disguise of Customer Success teams, so whenever you can befriend colleagues from sales and Customer Success teams.

Gaining Insights Without Direct Access To Users

If you can’t get users to come to you, perhaps you could go where they are. You could ask to silently observe and shadow them at their workplace. You could listen in to customer calls and interview call center staff to uncover pain points that users have when interacting with your product. Analytics , CRM reports, and call center logs are also a great opportunity to gain valuable insights, and Google Trends can help you find product-related search queries .

To learn more about potential issues and user frustrations, also turn to search logs, Jira backlogs, and support tickets. Study reviews, discussions, and comments for your or your competitor’s product, and take a look at TrustPilot and app stores to map key themes and user sentiment. Or get active yourself and recruit users via tools like UserTesting, Maze, or UserInterviews.

These techniques won’t always work, but they can help you get off the ground. Beware of drawing big conclusions from very little research, though. You need multiple sources to reduce the impact of assumptions and biases — at a very minimum, you need five users to discover patterns .

Making A Strong Case For UX Research

Ironically, as H Locke noted , the stakeholders who can’t give you time or resources to talk to users often are the first to demand evidence to support your design work. Tap into it and explain what you need. Research doesn’t have to be time-consuming or expensive; ask for a small but steady commitment to gather evidence. Explain that you don’t need much to get started: 5 users × 30 minutes once a month might already be enough to make a positive change.

Sometimes, the reason why companies are reluctant to grant access to users is simply the lack of trust . They don’t want to disturb relationships with big clients, which are carefully maintained by the customer success team. They might feel that research is merely a technical detail that clients shouldn’t be bothered with.

Typically, if you work in B2B or enterprise, you won’t have direct access to users. This might be due to strict NDAs or privacy regulations , or perhaps the user group is very difficult to recruit (e.g., lawyers or doctors).

Show that you care about that relationship. Show the value that your work brings. Explain that design without research is merely guesswork and that designing without enough research is inherently flawed.

Once your impact becomes visible, it will be so much easier to gain access to users that seemed almost impossible initially.

Key Takeaways

• Ask for reasons for no access to users: there might be none.
• Find colleagues who are the closest to your customers.
• Make friends with sales , customer success, support, QA.
• Convey your questions indirectly via your colleagues.
• If you can’t get users to come to you, go where they are.
• Ask to observe or shadow customers at their workplace.
• Listen in to customer calls and interview call center staff .
• Gather insights from search logs, Jira backlog, and support tickets .
• Map key themes and user sentiment on TrustPilot, AppStore, etc.
• Recruit users via UserTesting, Maze, UserInterviews , etc.
• Ask for small but steady commitments: 5 users × 30 mins, 1× month .
• Avoid ad-hoc research: set up regular check-ins and timelines .

Useful Resources

• The End Of Navel Gazing , by Paul Adams
• UX Research Cheat Sheet , by Susan Farrell
• Overcoming Limited Access To Users in UX Research , by Debbie Levitt
• What Can You Do When You Have No Access To Users? , by H Locke
• UX Research When You Can’t Talk To Users , by Chris Myhill
• How To Conduct UX Research Without Users , by Mariia Kasym
• User Research When You Can’t Talk to Your Users , by Jon Peterson

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Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT) for Environmental Allergens: Top Questions Answered By an Allergist

What is sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT)?

SLIT is a treatment option for allergic rhinitis (also known as hay fever), which is characterized by sneezing, itchy watery nose/eyes, nasal congestion and rhinorrhea in relation to an allergen in the environment (i.e., pollens, animals etc.).  While many people get relief from standard therapies such as oral antihistamines or nasal corticosteroids, those who do not may benefit from subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT or allergy shots) or SLIT.  As opposed to SCIT, SLIT involves administering the allergen in a liquid or tablet formulation under the tongue daily.  The efficacy of SLIT is similar to SCIT. However, it is only effective in controlling symptoms related to the allergen being administered, unlike antihistamines or corticosteroids, which are nonspecific medications that dampen the immune reaction.

Is SLIT available for all environmental allergens?

No, at present the only FDA-approved SLIT tablets are for grass pollen (GRASTEK and ORALAIR), ragweed pollen (RAGWITEK) and dust mite (ODACTRA).  Currently, SLIT is only approved to be used a single formulation at a time. In other words, people who are allergic to multiple allergens should generally only receive SLIT for one of those allergens at a time or consider SCIT.  In SCIT, allergists do have the flexibility to include multiple allergens in administered shots. While there are products available that mix multiple allergens into a sublingual drop, these are not FDA approved as they have not been rigorously evaluated for efficacy and safety, and therefore, are not currently recommended by national academic allergy societies.

When should I consider referring a patient for SLIT?

Patients who have uncontrolled allergic rhinitis despite standard therapy (nasal corticosteroids are typically first line therapy) can be referred for aeroallergen testing by an allergist to confirm diagnosis and consideration of additional therapies such as SLIT.  As detailed above, SLIT is only approved for single allergens, so ideal candidates for SLIT are patients with allergic rhinitis that is primarily driven by a single environmental allergen. 

What are the side effects of SLIT?

SLIT is generally safe and well tolerated. After a first test dose monitored in the office, it can be given at home, in contrast to SCIT which should always be administered in a medical facility because of the need to quickly recognize and treat anaphylactic reactions. The most common side effects include localized itching or tingling of the mouth and lips or mild gastrointestinal symptoms. Systemic reactions to SLIT, although much rarer than with SCIT, can happen. Patients should be prescribed an epinephrine autoinjector and be trained in their use.

SLIT is also contraindicated in certain medical conditions including severe and/or uncontrolled asthma, a history of a severe systemic reaction to any form of immunotherapy, a history of a severe local reaction to SLIT, eosinophilic esophagitis, or any condition which might impair a patient’s ability to survive a severe reaction.  Therefore, while it is typically well tolerated, SLIT should be prescribed under the guidance of an allergist.

How long do patients need to take SLIT?

For SLIT products targeting seasonal allergens, it is typically recommended to start 12-16 weeks before the relevant pollen season and continue throughout the season.  SLIT products to perennial aeroallergens (i.e., dust mite) may be taken year-round.  The duration that an individual patient is on SLIT varies and is up to the discretion of their allergist, but evidence suggests that three years of SLIT can help induce clinical benefit and immunological changes that can be maintained for two-three years after stopping therapy.

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