Revamp your UX research with better customer discovery interview scheduling

Addie Johnson
Bootcamp
Published in
5 min readFeb 1, 2023
Image is a piece of notebook paper with the title “Schedule better UX interviews with this framework. “
Schedule more interviews & get more insights.

You’ve sent out a bunch of emails requesting interviews for feedback, but you aren’t getting any responses. You’ve followed up with surveys, but no bites.

What gives? Why don’t people respond?

Getting people to respond isn’t a game of luck. It’s a game of process and system.

Here’s my exact framework for getting 3–5 customer interviews scheduled a week.

(I’ve found that 3–5 is my sweet spot. Anything more can be a lot to juggle with meetings and other work.)

1. Write a dang good email.

People miss this one the most. We need to take some pages out of email marketing here.

  • Personalize the email if you have the recipient’s name. “Hey Annika, I was looking for your thoughts…”
  • Personalize the segment of customers to send the email. Work with your analyst here if you have one to separate which customers took which actions. If you’re looking at all customers who made it through your checkout flow, make each piece a segment. Example: target only customers who abandoned their cart. Then, mention that. “I noticed you did not continue with your purchase…”
  • Make the email scannable. Write in one or two sentences per paragraph.
  • Personalize the content from you the designer or researcher (It’s Addie at [CompanyName].
  • Make it as easy and as clear as possible what action you want the customer to take. [book a time? submit this survey? sign up for this diary study? etc.]
  • Emphasize that there are no wrong answers. You’re looking for their honest feedback.
  • Send it to 20–30 people, in batches. Experiment with the subject line, preheader, overall copy, and wording each time. Make a list of what wording works and what doesn’t work with your customers.
  • Send the email out at a good time for your customer base (if you can segment based on time zone, even better). Experiment with open rates to see when customers engage the most or book the most amount of appointments.

If you get anything out of this post at all, please make your main takeaway this: Learn. Email. Marketing.

2. Make interview time slots short and super manageable.

15-minute interviews are the bread and butter of my research stack. It’s short, sweet, and forces you to get right into the discussion.

In my experience, customers are more likely to set an appointment for 15 minutes, as opposed to 30 minutes.

Depending on the research question, you can usually get all the insights you need, too. If you need longer research sessions, try upping your financial incentive too.

3. Use better money: time financial incentive.

I tend to prefer giving more money for shorter time frames; who doesn’t like to make more money per hour? My team has recently been using $25 gift cards for 15 minutes. When the money: time ratio is larger on money, customers are more likely to engage.

You can use larger money amounts for longer research sessions — but keep in mind the money: time ratio.

3. Use appointment-setting software like Calendly or Ethn.io.

Calendly automatically connects to your calendar, sends reminders, and blocks time off. That means you can focus on actually talking to the customer. Also, you can decrease the number of no-shows.

Ethn.io allows you to screen and segment customers based on criteria. Then, you can show customers specific questions — all live. You also can talk to them in-product while they are using it.

4. Schedule calls, not video chat.

You can call customers using Slack, Teams, or Zoom. That way, team members can be there to take notes/help ask questions. You’re also able to record the session for future follow-up. (Get the customer’s permission first!)

With calling, I’ve experienced significantly fewer no-shows compared to video chat. You can text the customer and communicate any questions beforehand if necessary.

Video chatting can also be distracting. With calls, you can be more focused on the conversation at hand.

My only exception is for usability tests and prototype tests. With anything that requires screen shares, video chat may be your best bet. I’d also recommend Usertesting.com for usability tests out of ease and convenience.

5. Ask someone else to take notes.

If you don’t have someone else available to take notes, make sure to record the session. Then, take notes on the second listen.

That way, you can be fully invested in the conversation. You won’t have to worry about missing something and disrupting the conversational flow.

I like Otter.ai for ai-transcribed interviews. You record the conversation on your dashboard, then AI transcribes it for you. It’s easy to copy the link to the interview and input it into a spreadsheet, too.

6. Summarize right after your session.

Highlighting major insights right away will keep the big ‘a-ha’ moments fresh in your head. You can do this with sticky notes on Miro, a Word doc, Airtable, or a spreadsheet. Use whatever you choose to store your insights!

Send a thank-you note after the interview and include the gift card information.

Scheduling UX research interviews can be tricky, but with the right preparation, you’ll be well on your way in no time to creating a backlog of users to interview.

Steal my exact customer email for requesting user research 👇

Hi there [First Name]!

Hope you are having a good start to your week so far. My name is Addie, a product designer at [Company Name].

I’m reaching out to you to hear your experience with [your specific segment/objective] with [Company Name].

Would you be up for a 15-minute phone call with me this week or next? I’ll give you a $25 [VISA/Starbucks/other company] gift card for your time. (There are no right or wrong answers, I’m just looking to hear about your experience.)

There are a few times available in my calendar that [you can choose directly here]! (Insert your Calendly or scheduling software link)

Once you book the calendar slot, I will call you at the designated time, and I’ll send you your $25 gift card right after we speak.

Thank you in advance. Every bit of feedback helps. :)

-Addie

Product Designer at [Company Name}]

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Addie Johnson
Bootcamp

writing about the intersection of design, business, and technology // addiejohnson.com