User Interviews
Creating a User Interview Plan for Exploring Product Expectations
This prompt guides teams in creating an interview plan to understand user expectations for a product or feature. It focuses on what users hope to achieve, their ideal experience, and how well current offerings align with their goals, providing a foundation for product enhancements.
Responsible:
Product Management
Accountable, Informed or Consulted:
Product, Design, Marketing
THE PREP
Creating effective prompts involves tailoring them with detailed, relevant information and uploading documents that provide the best context. Prompts act as a framework to guide the response, but specificity and customization ensure the most accurate and helpful results. Use these prep tips to get the most out of this prompt:
Define the primary goals for the interviews (e.g., improving alignment with user needs).
Collect any existing data on user satisfaction or feature requests to inform the questions.
Identify specific user segments or personas to target in the interviews.
THE PROMPT
Help design a user interview plan to explore user expectations for [product/service name or specific feature]. Include:
An opening section to establish rapport and gather context (e.g., 'Can you tell me a bit about your experience with similar products?').
Questions about the user’s ideal outcomes and motivations (e.g., 'What are the top goals you want to achieve using this product?').
Probing questions to identify gaps between their expectations and the current product (e.g., 'Is there anything you felt was missing or didn’t work as expected?').
Inquiries about their perception of value and future needs (e.g., 'What could we do to make this product indispensable to you?').
If additional information about the product or user segment is needed, ask for clarification to refine the plan.
Bonus Add-On Prompts
Suggest ways to frame questions that encourage users to articulate unmet expectations.
Propose follow-up questions to dive deeper into areas where the product fell short.
Create closing questions to explore users’ vision for the product’s future.
Use AI responsibly by verifying its outputs, as it may occasionally generate inaccurate or incomplete information. Treat AI as a tool to support your decision-making, ensuring human oversight and professional judgment for critical or sensitive use cases.
SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE
Adjust questions to explore industry-specific expectations for niche products.
Include comparisons to user expectations for competitors or previous experiences.
Focus on future-oriented questions for innovative or aspirational features.
Add inquiries about pricing or perceived value for monetized offerings.
Tailor questions to address both new and returning user perspectives.
WHEN TO USE
To better align product development with user expectations.
When launching new features or enhancing existing ones.
To uncover insights for differentiating your product in the market.
WHEN NOT TO USE
If there is no baseline understanding of user needs or current product performance.
When immediate feedback on usability or specific pain points is required.