How do you handle difficult or unresponsive participants during user interviews?

The most essential part of really uncovering a diverse set of insights is to incorporate difficult participants. When we look at how to engage difficult participants I typically do the following:

1. re-asking questions in different ways,

2. repeating back how you understand them and if any details are missing,

3. ask them if they have any context on the problem they want to share or if they are not informed enough to be in the study, and

4. then remind them that an incentive that is provided for this study is, if there is one, is only provided if they give meaningful feedback.

So those are all ways that I've been able to, like, steer a difficult participant into providing meaningful insights, period. Sometimes I find that observing and commenting on their resistance or their discomfort is a way to add some empathetic engagement in that conversation or moment.