session · discovery & direction
Anchored interview
Thirty minutes, same week as the observation. Three to five anchored questions pointing at specific time-stamped moments. Never "what's hard about your job." The session that turns what was seen into vocabulary and reasoning.
When
- After every observation session — ideally same day, within a week at the latest.
- Not a substitute for observation. Not a way to "save time by skipping the watching."
Who
- The PO — leads. Has the time-stamps in hand.
- The Designer — listens. Particularly for vocabulary and felt-emotion language.
- The named person — same person observed.
Time-box
30 minutes. Anything longer drifts into general conversation. The discipline is the anchors — short, specific, factual.
Inputs
- The observation note (time-stamped).
- 3–5 pre-identified anchor moments.
Agenda
| Time | What |
|---|---|
| 0–3 min | Re-establish. Thank them. State the session's shape: "I have a few questions about specific moments I noticed." |
| 3–25 min | Walk the anchors, in order they happened. Per anchor: "At [time], you did [action]. What was that?" Then listen. Follow-ups only on what they said, not on what you wanted them to say. |
| 25–28 min | Workaround check: "Is there anything you do that wasn't part of the official process I just watched?" (The person often surfaces something here they wouldn't have surfaced under direct asking.) |
| 28–30 min | Close. "What did I miss that you'd want to point out?" |
Outputs
- Annotated observation note — anchor moments now have the person's explanation alongside the observer's record.
- Vocabulary list — domain words the person uses for things. "You called this an exam. Some people call it a submission. Why exam?" — drops into the Domain Immersion glossary.
- One or two newly surfaced workarounds — go into the brief.
What good looks like
The interview is mostly silence. The PO asks one anchored question, then lets the person talk for two or three minutes. The follow-ups stay anchored — "You mentioned X at that moment. What's X?" — not leading.
The vocabulary the person uses lands in the next Feature Brief verbatim. If Gal says "reconcile," the brief says "reconcile," not "verify" or "match." That word will travel into the code, the API, the analytics events — and the chain will speak Gal's language end-to-end.
Anti-pattern
The question that breaks the chain is "what features would you like?" It produces solution-shaped wish-lists that contaminate Discovery. Fix: ask only about specific moments observed. Feature wishes are answered by witnessing more moments, not by asking for features.
A second anti-pattern: agreeing with the person to be polite. "That sounds frustrating" turns the interview into emotional support. The observer's job is to understand, not to console.
See also
- Canon — Before We Build · Observation
- Area — Interview Technique
- Principle — Witnessed, not described
- Previous session — Observation session
- Next session — Direction setting (if initiative-level), Initiative kickoff (if narrowing to scope)