Practical Guide to User Interviews — Part 1: Preparation & Execution
A hands-on guide to running user interviews that lead to real insight — not just polite feedback.
Hey, Dmytro here — welcome to Atomic Product.
Every week, I share practical ideas, tools, and real-world lessons to help you grow as a product thinker and builder.
If you're new here, here are a few past posts you might find useful:
Hit subscribe if not on the list yet— and let’s roll 👇
In the first part of this series, we covered why user interviews matter and the mistakes even experienced PMs often make [link]. Now it's time to get down to the practical side of things — we’ll break the user interview down to its atomic components.
I’ve put together a detailed guide (in two parts) to help you run interviews that actually lead to insights and impact.
Ready? Let’s go. 🚀
Preparing for the interview: 60% of success happens here
If you’re asking yourself, “Do I really need to prepare?”, the answer is simple: a poorly prepared interview is worse than no interview at all.
A user interview isn’t just a “chat with a user.” It’s a research tool — one that should influence your product strategy. But if you’re not prepared, the whole thing turns into a waste of time.
🚨 Without proper prep:
❌ You’ll ask vague questions and get useless answers.
❌ Your interviewee will be confused and give you superficial feedback.
❌ You won’t be able to compare interviews or extract patterns.
An interview ≠ conversation. It’s a decision-making tool. And like any tool, it works only if it’s properly set up.
Proper prep includes three key steps:
Defining your objective: What exactly do you want to learn?
Choosing the right people: Who should you talk to and where do you find them?
Building your interview guide: What questions will lead to real insights?
Let’s break each one down.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Atomic Product to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.