Qualitative UX Research Course

Advanced User Interview Training for UX Researchers

Zero Risk Enrollment: Receive a full refund through the second week of the course, no questions asked.
Course features
  • 2 hours/week
  • 3 weeks

  • Class Size: 15 Students

  • Fridays, 12-2pm ET US, January 23-February 6, 2026
  • Format: Live Online via Google Meet

Build the User Interview Skills That Influence Product Decisions

This advanced, practice-driven course is designed for UX researchers who want to master the art and science of moderating in-depth interviews (IDIs) that genuinely shape product decisions. Strong interviewing skills are what separate research that influences strategy from research that gets politely ignored. The ability to conduct rigorous, unbiased interviews allows you to uncover user needs that stakeholders didn't know existed, validate or challenge strategic directions with credible evidence, and build the kind of deep user understanding that becomes foundational to product vision.

Across three highly interactive sessions, you'll step into the roles of interviewer, participant, and observer to build genuine fluency through intensive practice. The course begins where impact is won or lost: connecting your interviews to business goals and designing protocols that answer the questions stakeholders actually need answered. Session 2 is the heart of the course, where you'll moderate live interviews in intensive rotation cycles, practicing the conversational techniques that turn surface-level answers into rich stories while learning to probe without leading. You'll handle the silences and tangents that derail weak interviewers and develop the real-time instincts that separate researchers who ask questions from researchers who uncover insight. In the final session, you'll practice structured debriefing and synthesis techniques that translate raw conversation into actionable findings.

By the end of the course, you'll walk away with a polished case study, a battle-tested interview protocol, and the improved interview moderation skills you can only get from expert coaching. You'll know exactly what to do when participants clam up, ramble, or give you nothing but surface answers, and you'll have the skills to consistently produce interviews that stakeholders trust.

Course Format: Intensive Live Practice With Expert Coaching 

Most researchers learn interviewing through lists of "good questions" or theoretical frameworks that fall apart the moment a participant goes off-script. This course is different. Every session puts you in the hot seat, but Session 2 is where the real transformation happens. You'll moderate live interviews in rapid rotation, making real-time decisions, recovering from mistakes, and building the conversational instincts that can't be learned from reading.

Our fully live format immerses you in small-group exercises, structured role-play, and rapid feedback loops. You'll design a protocol, interview real people, critique your peers, and immediately apply what you learn. The moderation practice is especially intensive: three full rounds where you'll experiment with different probing techniques, learn to read participant energy, and develop your own interviewing voice. This approach ensures you don't just understand the theory; you internalize the skills.

The three-session arc builds progressively:

Session 1: You'll design a decision-aligned interview plan, evaluate real-world examples against best-practice criteria, and collaborate on rewriting flawed protocols until they actually work. This foundational session teaches you how to trace a clear line from vague business questions to focused research goals to specific interview questions. It's the skill that ensures your qualitative work drives impact instead of gathering dust.

Session 2: You'll go through three full rounds of interviews, rotating through moderator, participant, and observer roles as you develop the conversational flow and probing techniques that separate good researchers from great ones. This is the core of the course: intensive, hands-on practice where you'll learn to handle long silences without panicking, redirect ramblers without shutting them down, draw out one-word answerers, and probe deeper without leading. The instructor coaches in real time, and you'll get live feedback. 

Session 3: You'll manage complete IDI logistics, practice structured debriefing with your cohort, and run synthesis exercises that transform raw conversation into actionable insights.

What You'll Learn in This User Interview Training Course

You'll develop the advanced moderation skills that senior-level roles demand but that almost no one teaches through deliberate practice. The core skill you'll build is conversational interviewing: the ability to ask questions that unlock real stories instead of rehearsed answers, listen actively while planning your next probe, and navigate challenging moments (long silences, participant rambling, one-word responses) without breaking flow. 

You'll learn to probe strategically, going deeper on what matters without leading participants toward your assumptions. You'll also sharpen your ability to move from raw transcripts to meaningful insights quickly, a critical skill for researchers who need to influence decisions on tight timelines.

How Advanced Interview Training Accelerates Your UX Research Career

Senior research roles expect you to lead qualitative studies from end to end, make sound methodological decisions, and deliver insights clear enough to shift product strategy. The researchers who excel at this level are the ones who can conduct interviews that produce trustworthy, actionable findings.

Mastering interview technique opens doors throughout your career. You become the researcher teams trust with their most strategic questions, the one who can quickly get to the heart of complex user problems, and the voice that stakeholders listen to when making difficult decisions. Strong interviewing skills give you:

  • The ability to uncover genuine user needs and behaviors, not just surface-level responses
  • Credibility with stakeholders who can see the rigor behind your findings
  • Confidence to lead studies independently without second-guessing your approach
  • The strategic thinking that connects research activities directly to business outcomes
  • A portfolio that demonstrates deep qualitative expertise through a polished, methodology-focused case study

When you can reliably surface insights that challenge assumptions and reveal new opportunities, you become indispensable. This course helps you build that capability through the kind of deliberate practice that produces lasting skill development.

Who is this course for?

This course is ideal for:

  • UX researchers who want to move beyond adequate interviewing to true fluency
  • Researchers stepping into roles that require more independence in study design and moderation
  • Mixed-methods practitioners who want to strengthen their qualitative foundation
  • Anyone preparing for senior-level interviews where qualitative expertise is closely evaluated

A solid understanding of UX research fundamentals is expected. The course moves quickly and focuses on advanced application, not introductory concepts.

Angela Orlando, PhD

Bio
Dr. Angela Orlando is a cultural anthropologist and senior user experience researcher specializing in ethnographic methods and in-depth interviewing. She brings more than 15 years of industry experience conducting high-stakes qualitative research for leading technology organizations, including recent work with Google and ServiceNow.

Angela began her career as a journalist and spent years as a professor of anthropology, where she trained students in qualitative research design, field methods, and analytical writing. She is known for translating rigorous research practice into clear, teachable frameworks and for coaching researchers to develop confident, real-world interviewing skills.

In this course, Angela draws on her experience running hundreds of in-depth interviews across industries and cultures to help researchers move from “good questions” to truly strategic, decision-shaping conversations.

Learning Outcomes

By course completion, you will confidently:
  • Design interview protocols that are tightly aligned to the decisions your research needs to inform
  • Execute conversation-based moderation using natural flow, strategic probes, and smooth transitions
  • Identify and eliminate bias triggers, leading questions, and structural weaknesses before they undermine your study
  • Synthesize early themes and insight patterns from live sessions while the details are still fresh
  • Create a polished, portfolio-ready research plan and protocol grounded in a realistic scenario
Overview

Course Syllabus

Week 1: Designing In-Depth User Interviews That Work

Learning Objective: Build a strong, decision-aligned interview plan and critique real protocols with precision.


You'll start with a scenario brief and select your research track based on the kind of deliverable you’d like your work to inform (opportunity, persona, or journey). After a focused lesson on what separates effective IDIs from weak ones, you'll translate vague business prompts into sharp research goals and map them to what you actually need to learn from participants. You'll dissect flawed interview questions, spot bias triggers before they do damage, and rewrite an entire guide using best-practice criteria. Peer groups exchange guides for structured critique before closing with a refinement assignment.

Week 2: Moderating User Interviews With Skill

Learning Objective: Strengthen real-time conversational interviewing techniques through intensive, three-round role-play.


This is the most intensive session of the course. After a brief recap and live demo introducing the principles of conversation-based research, probe-layering, and tactical strategies for handling difficult moments, you'll jump straight into practice. Students form triads and rotate through three complete rounds of moderation, spending significant time in the moderator seat. The instructor coaches in real time, observing your technique and providing targeted feedback between rounds.

Each rotation gives you a chance to experiment and improve. You'll practice different probing approaches, test ways to recover from awkward moments, and find your natural moderating style. Observers track question types, conversational flow, and technique, then provide structured peer feedback. By the end of this session, you'll have run multiple full interviews, received detailed critique on your strengths and growth areas, and developed the muscle memory that only comes from repeated practice under coaching.

Week 3: Field Readiness (Running, Debriefing, Synthesizing)

Learning Objective: Manage the full IDI process, conduct structured debriefing, and convert raw conversation into early insights.


After a quick recap, a volunteer moderates a timed IDI demo to model smooth transitions, note-taking cues, and strong probing under pressure. Students then move into a debrief drill where moderators, participants, and observers compare interpretations to uncover what was heard, what was missed, and what was misunderstood. A synthesis exercise teaches you to cluster quotes, identify emerging themes, and draft insight statements that connect findings to decisions. Students close by outlining their final case study.

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