User research is one of the most important tasks of a UX designer. It helps validate assumptions, builds an understanding of our users, and provides actionable insights.
Yet, a lot depends on the quality of the research. The difference between great and poor research can actually be very striking. Great research could reveal a lot of new things; poor research can leave you with little to show for your efforts. A key factor in conducting impactful research lies in asking the right questions.
This post explores the difference between UX research questions and interview questions, and why getting them right matters.
One of the biggest challenges with user research is its infinite potential. Once you have a user in front of a skilled UX researcher, you can learn almost anything.
Promising as it is, it’s also very problematic. Without a specific goal in mind, it’s easy to get lost in asking various unrelated questions. In the end, it often ends up with research that’s both excessively long yet yielding few truly valuable insights.
The solution is clear — begin with a focused research question to anchor and guide the entire research process.
A research question is a high-level question that you want to answer during your research process. The whole research process includes tools, methods, and participants, and it should be structured in a way that maximizes the chances of getting quality answers for previously set research questions.
For example, if you want to build a new product for teachers to make their lives easier, a high-level research question could be, “What are the main challenges teachers face in their work?”
With this as your anchor, you’d then build a research plan that answers that specific question.
Many people confuse research questions with interview questions. Although these are somewhat similar, understanding the differences is crucial:
You don’t ask research questions directly.
For example, your research question might be to understand the barriers to completing the onboarding process. Understanding that is essential for a great onboarding flow, but you wouldn’t ask users about that directly — that would lead to misleading declaratory statements. You would ask them more general questions to spot what challenges users face.
Research question:
What are the barriers to completing the onboarding process?
Interview questions:
Research questions inform the overarching goal, while interview questions are tactical, helping you uncover insights to answer the research question.
It may be tempting to skip the research question step and jump straight into the research itself. Don’t do that.
The benefits of using research questions are just too great to ignore. I’ll talk about them next:
There are always more questions or exercises we’d like to conduct than we have time and resources. Knowing what questions exactly need to be answered allows us to focus only on these essential activities.
Instead of discussing with every stakeholder what your research is about, what methods you will use, and why you are doing things the way you do, you can just summarize the whole process with “We are trying to answer [research question].”
Research questions allow healthy alignment. You debate the research questions themselves with key stakeholders, and once you get alignment, the UX team can jump into specifics of how to answer the question.
If you jumped straight into interview questions, you would most likely end up in a lengthy discussion about details that shouldn’t matter to stakeholders.
Summarizing the research, spotting patterns, and drawing conclusions is easier if you know what exactly you are looking for.
In the past, I used lengthy step-by-step frameworks to formulate the “best” research questions out there. Over time, though, I discovered that over-perfecting research questions don’t add much value, so I use a simplistic approach instead.
Just imagine that you have a magic wand. What information about your users or product would you like to know? And what questions would help you design a better product?
That’s your research question.
For example, if user engagement is high, but conversion rates for your paid version are low, your research question could be:
Or slightly broader:
Coming up with questions is the easy part. There’s always something we need to learn about our users. But the framing of the question itself is also important. A poorly framed research question can lead to wrong interview questions and useless insights.
Avoid that by keeping in mind a few key principles:
Your research question should always relate to the key business objectives of the company. There’ll always be more questions you’d love to get answered than time and resources available, so you need to prioritize accordingly.
Closed-ended research questions lead to very limited and biased research.
Instead of asking:
“Do users like our new feature?”
Ask:
“What do users think about the new feature, and how does it impact their workflow?”
Getting the answer to the second question will give you much more insight for further development.
Balance the breadth of the research question.
If your research question is too broad, you’ll get overwhelmingly diverse and hardly actionable insights. If your research question is too specific, you’ll get a detailed answer, but you’ll likely also miss out on valuable insights about the topic.
Ask questions specific enough to provide you with the next steps yet broad enough to get insights beyond what you think you need to know.
Here’s what I mean:
The effectiveness of UX research is defined by three criteria:
The easiest way to meet these criteria? Dedicate time upfront to formulate research questions. Even when the research goal seems obvious, investing 30 minutes to align with stakeholders ensures clarity and saves time later.
Don’t skip this step. By focusing on the right research questions, you’ll unlock deeper insights, make better design decisions, and ensure your research efforts deliver value.
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