Actionable Insights: Airbnb’s Research Leader Shares 5 Ways to Ask the *Right* Questions
Bad habits lead to late nights. Image by Manan Chhabra.
Airbnb research leader Sara Sodine Parr’s job is to ask the right questions. To find out what users think and need, and use that intel to inform how products are designed, built, and improved.
If this sounds easy, it’s not. In fact, you’re probably asking the wrong questions as we speak. Here she shares five ways to ask the right questions of your audience, so you can turn their answers into new products, ideas, and initiatives.
1. My favorite question is actually not a question. It's starting with the words, “Tell me.”
Tell me about this behavior that you did. Or tell me more about this idea that you just shared. “Tell me” gets people to elaborate on what's going on. It’s the best way to not lead people, because the more that you say, the more you can impact or influence how they respond.
2. Avoid asking “Why?”
That is the most obvious question to ask—and it’s what people default to—but “Why?” sets off a trigger for the person you're interviewing to make up some rationalization for what they're doing or feeling. Instead of asking “Why?” I try to ask “How?” or “When?” or “What?”. It elicits a more specific and truthful response.
3. People are overly optimistic about what they're going to do in the future.
People are also appeasing, so they say what they think you want to hear. Maybe you interview them to understand what their problems are, but they answer to try and make you happy and tell you they like your product or idea.
4. Don’t talk to users to validate your ideas. Validating your ideas is easy because people are optimistic and appease you by default. If you go into it with that goal, you're almost always going to come out with your idea validated. I try to focus on getting people to open up about their problems.
5. Finally, focus on past behaviors.
Instead of asking, “What do you think about this today?”, ask them to take themselves back to the last time they did some action and walk you through what happened. That forces them to think about what happened in real life. You ground them in some sort of truth.
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