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Interview Guide Template (free)

Structure your user interviews with a repeatable discussion guide that helps you capture consistent responses and turn raw notes into actionable product insights.

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Free to copyNo sign-upReviewed by Junu Yang

What is in it

Template components

Interview Goal & Context

Write one clear sentence defining what decision or hypothesis this interview is designed to inform.

Example: Understand why first-time users abandon the onboarding flow before completing their first project setup, to inform a redesign sprint in Q3.

Participant Profile

Describe the ideal respondent — their role, experience level, and any behavioral or demographic criteria that qualify them for this study.

Example: B2B SaaS product manager, 2–7 years of experience, has conducted at least 3 user interviews in the past 6 months, currently uses a competitor tool for research synthesis.

Core Discussion Questions

List 5–8 open-ended questions ordered from warm-up to deep-dive, each targeting a specific behavior, pain point, or mental model you want to explore.

Example: 1. Walk me through the last time you ran a round of user interviews — what did that process look like? 2. Where did things slow down or feel frustrating? 3. How do you currently decide which insights are worth acting on? 4. What does a good interview debrief look like for your team?

Post-Interview Synthesis Notes

Capture the top 3 themes, one standout quote, and a single recommended next action immediately after each session while it's fresh.

Example: Themes: analysis bottleneck, stakeholder communication friction, lack of tagging system. Standout quote: "I spend more time writing up the findings than actually doing the interviews." Next action: prototype a one-click tagging UI for recurring themes.

The template

The full template, ready to copy

User Interview Guide
[Study name] · [Date] · Conducted by [Name]
1. Research Goal
Primary Research Question
[What is the single most important question this study needs to answer? e.g., "How do first-time users currently manage their monthly budget, and where does that process break down?"]
Supporting Objectives
[List 2–4 secondary things you want to learn. e.g., "Understand what tools participants currently use · Identify the most frustrating moments in their workflow · Learn what a successful outcome looks like to them"]
What We Will NOT Cover
[Scope boundaries help keep interviews focused. e.g., "We are not testing any specific design or prototype in this round. We are not asking about pricing sensitivity."]
How Findings Will Be Used
[e.g., "Insights will inform the Q3 onboarding redesign and be shared with the product and engineering leads by [date]."]
2. Participant Profile
Target Participant Description
[e.g., "Adults aged 25–45 who manage household finances independently and have tried at least one digital budgeting tool in the past 12 months."]
Recruitment Criteria (Must-Haves)
[e.g., "· Has signed up for [Product] within the last 90 days · Uses the product at least once per week · Is not employed in UX, design, or market research"]
Recruitment Criteria (Nice-to-Haves)
[e.g., "· Mix of mobile-first and desktop-first users · At least 2 participants who have contacted customer support"]
Number of Participants
[e.g., "6–8 participants across 2 segments"]
Session Length
[e.g., "45–60 minutes per session, conducted via video call"]
Consent & Recording
[e.g., "Participants will be asked to sign a consent form prior to the session. Sessions will be recorded with permission for internal research use only."]
3. Warm-Up Questions
Interviewer Introduction Script
Hi [Participant name], thank you so much for making time today — I really appreciate it. My name is [Your name], and I'm a [your role] at [Company]. Before we get started, I want to share a few things: there are no right or wrong answers here. We're not testing you — we're trying to understand your experience and perspective. Everything you share will be kept confidential and used only for internal research. I may take notes or pause to jot something down, so please don't read anything into that. Do you have any questions before we begin?
To start, can you tell me a little about yourself — what you do for work, and how you typically spend your time outside of work?
Tip: This is a low-stakes opener. Let the participant talk freely. You're warming them up to conversation, not gathering critical data — but listen for context clues about their lifestyle and tech comfort level.
How would you describe your relationship with technology in general — are you someone who tends to try new apps and tools early, or do you prefer to stick with what you know?
Walk me through a typical [day / week] when it comes to [the activity or domain relevant to your product, e.g., managing your finances / planning a project / staying on top of your tasks]. What does that actually look like?
Tip: Ask them to be specific. If they say "I just check in on things," follow up with "Can you walk me through the last time you did that?" Concrete examples are far more valuable than general descriptions.
4. Core Questions
Before you started using [Product / this type of tool], how were you handling [the problem or task]? What was your go-to approach?
What made you decide to look for a different solution? Was there a specific moment or situation that pushed you to change?
Tip: This "trigger moment" question often surfaces the most emotionally resonant pain points. Give the participant space to tell the full story — don't rush to the next question. Silence after a response is okay.
Think back to the first time you used [Product]. What was that experience like? What did you understand right away, and what felt confusing or unclear?
Can you describe the last time you used [Product] in detail — what you were trying to do, how you went about it, and how it turned out?
Is there anything you wish you could do with [Product] that you currently can't? Or something that feels harder than it should be?
Have you ever started to do something in [Product] and then stopped or given up before finishing? What happened, and what did you do instead?
When things go well — when [Product] does exactly what you need — what does that look like? Can you give me a recent example?
Do you use any other tools or apps alongside [Product] to accomplish the same goal? How do they fit together in your workflow?
If you were describing [Product] to a friend or colleague who had never heard of it, what would you say? How would you explain what it does and why you use it?
Imagine you had a magic wand and could change one thing about how [Product] works — or one thing about how you currently handle [the task] — what would you change and why?
5. Wrap-Up
Is there anything about your experience with [Product] or [the problem space] that you were expecting me to ask about but I didn't? Anything that feels important that we haven't touched on?
On a scale of 1 to 10 — where 1 is "I would stop using this tomorrow" and 10 is "I genuinely couldn't do without it" — where would you put [Product] right now, and what would it take to move that number higher?
Closing Script
That's everything I had — this was incredibly helpful, and I really mean that. The things you shared today are exactly the kind of insights that help us build something better. If it's okay with you, we may reach out in the future for follow-up studies as things evolve. Your [incentive, e.g., gift card / credit] will be sent to [email / method] within [timeframe]. Thank you again for your time — I hope you have a great rest of your [day / week].
Post-Session Notes (Interviewer Use Only)
[Key themes · Surprising moments · Direct quotes to highlight · Follow-up questions for next sessions · Overall sentiment: Positive / Neutral / Frustrated]

How to use

How to use it

  1. Define your research goal
    Before writing a single question, write one sentence in Section 1 that names the decision your team needs to make — this keeps every question focused and prevents scope creep during the session.
  2. Recruit to your participant profile
    Use Section 2 to screen respondents before scheduling, ensuring every interview generates comparable, relevant data rather than noisy outliers.
  3. Run the interview using your question guide
    Work through Section 3 in order but treat it as a conversation — probe on unexpected answers and use the questions as anchors, not a rigid script.
  4. Fill in synthesis notes within 30 minutes
    Complete Section 4 immediately after each session so your pattern recognition is still active, then stack notes across all participants to identify recurring themes.

Filled in

What it looks like filled in

Analysis is the biggest time sink
"I can do five interviews in a week but it takes me another two weeks to actually make sense of what everyone said — by then the team has already moved on."
→ Audit your current synthesis workflow and identify which step (transcription, tagging, or write-up) consumes the most time so you can prioritize tooling or process changes.
Stakeholders distrust findings without quotes
"If I just say 'users are confused by the checkout flow,' nobody acts on it. I have to bring the actual words or it doesn't land in the roadmap meeting."
→ Build a highlight reel of verbatim quotes mapped to each insight in your next research readout to increase stakeholder buy-in and speed up prioritization decisions.
No consistent system for tagging themes across sessions
"Everyone on our team highlights different things in the transcripts — I end up re-reading everything myself just to make sure we didn't miss a pattern."
→ Establish a shared codebook of 10–15 predefined tags before your next research sprint and require all team members to apply them during note-taking, not after.

Or skip it

Why teams skip the template

Usercall reads the user interview questions and discussion guides for you and drafts the themes, quotes and recommendations. See how qualitative analysis works.

  • Manual tagging across dozens of transcripts
    Reading every transcript and applying consistent theme tags by hand takes hours per study and introduces subjective bias that varies by who does the coding.
  • Synthesis degrades as team size grows
    When multiple researchers each summarize their own sessions differently, cross-session patterns get missed and the final readout reflects whoever wrote the fastest, not the strongest signal.
  • Insights arrive too late to influence decisions
    By the time notes are cleaned up, themes are identified, and a slide deck is assembled, the sprint planning meeting has already happened and the opportunity to act is gone — Usercall surfaces themes automatically the moment interviews are complete, so your team acts on evidence while it's still relevant.

Keep reading

More templates.

Other free templates, and the product pages that fill them in for you.

Reviewed by

Junu Yang
Founder of Usercall. 15+ years in qualitative research and insight led strategy

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