Successfully gathering actionable insights from user research requires detailed planning beforehand. Since there are numerous research methods and tactics used to encourage users to leave their feedback, many researchers aim to have a rough draft of how they plan to guide the participants during interviews or testing. That’s why, in this article, we’ll elaborate on how to write a discussion guide and the key elements you should be mindful of.
By explaining what a discussion guide is and its importance during your research process, you’ll know when to use one to achieve better results. Furthermore, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to write one based on your unique research needs and circumstances. Continue reading to discover all there is to know about incorporating discussion guides within your user research and the best practices.
So, what is a discussion guide? In simple terms, this written text acts as a structured outline or plan to guide conversations during qualitative research sessions. It’s most commonly used by researchers during interviews, focus groups, or user testing to focus the discussion on important research objectives. Furthermore, discussion guides help the research process stay organized and consistent across multiple sessions. Not only does this lead to better research findings, but it also helps you prevent missing essential topics and key insights.
Since discussion guides are always designed to be easily readable, they can act as checklists for research questions. By focusing on the most important elements of the conversation, you can efficiently use the time you have to cover the needed topics without going off course. Even though such guides should always be flexible to protect the natural flow of the discussion, they will help you focus on your research goals and objectives.
Now that you’ve grasped the basics behind the use and importance, we want to elaborate on how to write a discussion guide. While it may sound simple at first, these written plans require detailed planning and structuring. To successfully create a well-designed discussion guide that focuses on the most important topics while also ensuring a natural flow in the conversation, you must be mindful of several crucial elements.
To simplify the process, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step guide for writing a discussion guide, which is as follows:
The first step in writing a compelling discussion guide is defining your research goals. Having a clear overview of what you want to achieve during the research process can help you create better research questions and guide the conversation more efficiently. Thus, your goals and objectives should focus on the type of data and information you want to gather to help you make future data-driven decisions.
If you’re having trouble defining your goals, you can always follow the SMART framework, which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals.
The second step in crafting a discussion guide is creating the research questions. Once you have your research goals aligned, you should brainstorm question ideas that will help you gather the needed answers to reach the predefined objectives. Since you’ll be asking these questions during a real conversation, you must ensure they’re logically sequenced and don’t disrupt the flow. That’s why it’s best to start with more general questions regarding a broader topic and then gradually narrow them down to specific information.
Moreover, you should always encourage participants to give as elaborate answers as possible. Besides ensuring the questions are open-ended, remember that they should focus on the users themselves. While you may be interested in your product’s performance, remember that the best insights are gathered by focusing on the participants during the session. Thus, you should always prioritize how the users are feeling about the product rather than focusing on the product's features.
The next step in writing a discussion guide is creating an engaging structure. Since these plans are designed to outline the entire testing or interviewing process, there are several crucial elements you should be mindful of. To better understand how to properly structure your discussion guide, you should familiarize yourself with the following discussion guide template:
The first key component of a discussion guide’s structure is the introduction, which is used to introduce yourself and your business while also establishing rapport. During this phase, you’re supposed to set the context by explaining the purpose of the session. Even though it should feel relaxed and welcoming, it’s also important to let the participant know what their feedback will be used for and why their insights are valuable.
You can also include simple ice-breaker questions to ensure the participant is comfortable and to gather their basic background information. If the session has any specific rules, this is the prime time to establish and explain them so the testing goes as planned.
Once you’ve introduced yourself and the purpose of the session, you can start gathering feedback by asking core questions. As the name implies, this set of questions directly aligns with your research goals and can be categorized based on the main topics. For example, you can create one core question for each research objective, which you’ll then elaborate on with probing questions.
To gather extensive feedback and rich insights, it’s important for these questions to be open-ended so the participant can answer them in detail. Not only will this help encourage the user to elaborate on their opinions, experiences, and thoughts related to the topic, but you can also better understand their needs, preferences, and pain points.
Since you can group these questions based on the topic, you should always be mindful of the flow of the conversation. To ease into more complex themes, you can start with general questions that gradually delve deeper to gain more specific insights.
Once you’ve asked the core questions, you should always probe the participant with follow-up questions to gather more insights. In most cases, the participants give simple and vague answers to the primary basic questions. To successfully guide them to give you more information and deeper insights, there are specific probing questions you can use to encourage them to expand on their answers.
Some of the best examples you can incorporate within your discussion guide are the following:
If you’re still not satisfied with the answers you’re getting, you can try layering follow-up questions that would help the participant give more detailed answers. As mentioned, it’s best to start with broad questions before you narrow them down into specific details. However, you should always ensure that each follow-up question matches the natural flow of the conversation by modifying them based on the participant’s response.
The last section of the discussion guide should incorporate your closing questions and statement. During this part, you should focus on summarizing the information you’ve gathered during the session and thank the participant for their time and feedback.
You can also ask them to share any additional insights that they may have before concluding the call. If you’re dealing with any type of sensitive information, ensure you let the users know how their feedback will be used and analyzed, while also encouraging future collaboration.
The last crucial step in creating an effective discussion guide is ensuring flexibility. Even though you may have the entire session planned out, remember that there may be instances where you’ll have to improvise based on the participants’ responses. Thus, you should be ready to deviate from your original outline and adapt to the flow of the conversation.
To get the most out of the session, it’s important to let the participant take the lead and adjust to their tempo. If you notice that they’re steering the conversation towards related topics that aren’t part of the plan, you should allow the conversation to naturally flow to them. Not only will the participant feel more comfortable sharing their experiences, but you’ll also have the opportunity to gain unexpected insights.
However, if you feel as if the session has gone in a different direction, you can always steer the conversation back to the original topic by paraphrasing what the participant said and redirecting them to a different question.
After discovering how to write a discussion guide, remember that you’ll always improve through trial and error. While having a precise outline of the session can help you stay organized, it’s also important to stay flexible and adjust to the natural flow of the conversation.
Lastly, if you’re ever in need of a tool that can help you note important research findings while also following a precise discussion guide, check out what we at User Evaluation have to offer. Our AI-driven platform is designed to streamline your user research process by encompassing all the needed features in one place. With our revamped Note Taker, you can seamlessly follow your session’s outline while also noting valuable information side-by-side. So try our platform for free and discover how we can help you accelerate and optimize your customer understanding.