User Research Methods and Execution Questions

Covers end to end planning, design, and operationalization of user research studies and the concrete skills needed to collect and analyze user data. Candidates should be able to define research goals and hypotheses tied to product or business objectives; select appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods such as user interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies, ethnographic observation, moderated and unmoderated usability testing, prototype testing, card sorting, surveys, cohort and analytics analysis, heatmap and session recording review; design screening criteria and sample size and recruitment strategies; create moderation guides, scripts, and test tasks; run studies in person and remotely; capture, transcribe, and code observations; apply analysis techniques such as thematic coding, affinity mapping, triangulation, and basic statistical checks; synthesize findings into artifacts such as personas, user journeys, jobs to be done, pain points, and prioritized recommendations; surface limitations and bias and validate findings; practice ethical research including informed consent and data privacy; and manage operational constraints such as timeline, budget, and participant access. For senior candidates include designing research strategies, defining appropriate power and sampling trade offs, creating reproducible study templates and processes, mentoring others, and describing how research choices and analysis techniques informed product or documentation decisions.