Discussion guide
The moderator creates a discussion guide based on their conversations with the stakeholders concerning the study's goals. The moderator then uses the discussion guide to structure the session, and to make sure that he covers all of the tasks with each participant.
Anatomy of a discussion guide
A discussion guide has different sections. The approximate times per section are based on a one-hour session duration, as follows:
- Introduction (5 minutes)
- Warm-up (5 minutes)
- Tasks (40 minutes)
- Post-session questions (5 minutes)
- Wrap-up (5 minutes)
Sample discussion guides are provided in the appendix.
Introduction
The introduction is used to set the stage and tone for the session, and for the moderator to build rapport with the study participant. The moderator performs the following:
- Introduces himself
- Thanks the participant for participating in the study
- Describes what will happen in the session
- Stresses that the goal is to get honest user feedback
- Explains that there are no right or wrong answers...
