AMA: Atlassian Head of Product, DevOps , Suzie Prince on User Interviews

Google Appointment SchedulerGoogle’s appointment scheduler is great for letting users sign up for interviews. It integrates directly with my calendar and automatically prevents double bookings, which saves a lot of time. Recording and transcription toolsA recording and transcription tool is essential. Loom is my go-to, but Dovetail is a great upgrade. It records, transcribes, summarises, tags, creates clips, and makes it easy to search and share insights later. Bring a friendI always recommend h ...Read More

How you communicate findings really depends on your goal, whether you are simply sharing insights in general or using them to influence or validate a strategy. General sharing When the goal is to keep people informed and build shared understanding: Automate summariesPost short summaries automatically in Confluence or Slack so the wider team can stay up to date without extra effort. Share short clipsVideo or audio clips are powerful, quick to consume, and help stakeholders hear directly from user ...Read More

I do not think there’s a fixed pattern where you only do interviews at the start or just at the end. It is never either-or. You always need to stay connected to your users throughout the product lifecycle. What changes is the purpose of the interviews, not the need for them. What stays the same Always have a goal. Be clear about why you’re doing the interview and what you want to learn. Choose the right method. Make sure a user interview is the right approach compared to a survey, quantitative d ...Read More

Have a goalAs with everything, start with a clear goal for your user interviews. What are you trying to learn, and what will you do with your findings? Once you know that, you can structure your questions around it. For example, if you’re trying to understand whether your product has market fit and whether customers truly value it, asking broad questions about the problem area will tell you that a user has a need, but not necessarily whether your product solves it. On the other hand, focusing on ...Read More

We generally take an open approach. There is always one main interviewer, and then we keep a couple of extra spots open for anyone else who wants to join. Those are offered across all roles, such as engineering, design, marketing, product, and others, on a first come basis. This gives everyone the opportunity to connect directly with users and see how people experience the product in real time. It also helps different teams build empathy in their own way. We usually see a good mix of roles atten ...Read More