Why Asking Users What They Want Fails: 3 Proven Interview Questions

User research is the first step in a user‑centered design process, aiming to align users' goals and needs with business objectives. Directly asking users what they want often yields unreliable results, so the article shares practical interview techniques.

"The primary principle of user research: never ask users what they want." – Erika Hall, Just Enough Research

Conducting user interviews is cheap, effective, and fast—typically five interviews are enough. However, high‑quality interviews require skill. As Erika Hall notes, asking users what they want only reveals their imagined solutions, not the underlying problems.

Don’t Create Barriers in Your Interviews

Simply asking users what they want makes interviews harder and leads to incorrect viewpoints. Instead, focus on uncovering why users struggle with existing tools to design new features or improve current ones.

During my time at Kissmetrics, I spent extensive time talking with users about the tools and methods they use to solve problems. I distilled three highly effective questions that consistently yield useful insights:

What problem are you trying to solve?

How are you currently solving that problem?

What could help you do it better?

Question 1: What problem are you trying to solve, and why?

To uncover the root causes of product usage issues, we keep asking "why" until we truly understand the user's pain points. Gathering background information—team size, organizational structure—helps frame the research scope.

Understanding the exact problem lets product, PM, and R&D teams align on priorities and avoid building unnecessary features.

Question 2: How are you currently solving that problem?

Clarifying workflows and organizational context reveals where improvements can be made. Users often employ work‑arounds that, with minor product tweaks, could be streamlined.

For example, at Kissmetrics we learned that customers preferred email summaries over third‑party apps, leading us to enhance our daily email reports.

Question 3: What could help you do it better?

This question surfaces opportunities for product optimization and validates or refutes existing assumptions. It encourages users to describe pain points in their workflow rather than suggest design solutions.

"Designing a product is extremely hard; often only after launch do people know what they want." – Steve Jobs

Using these three core questions enables teams to efficiently verify hypotheses and deliver lasting value rather than quick patches.