User interview questions: best examples for UX research

User interview questions work best when they ask about specific, real behavior rather than general opinions. A question like would you use a feature like this produces a polite, unreliable guess. A question about the last time someone actually faced the underlying problem produces a real answer grounded in something that actually happened.

Generative questions: understanding the problem

Walk me through the last time you tried to [accomplish the relevant task]. What happened?
What do you currently do to work around this, that you wish you did not have to?
What almost stopped you from solving this problem at all?
If this problem disappeared tomorrow, what would actually change in your day?

Evaluative questions: testing a specific solution

Show me how you would try to [complete a specific task] using this.
What did you expect to happen when you did that?
Where did you hesitate, or have to stop and think?
How does this compare to how you solve this problem today?

Questions that uncover unmet needs

What is the most annoying part of your current process, that nothing has fixed yet?
Tell me about a time you gave up on solving this, and just lived with the problem.
What would need to be true for you to switch away from what you use today?

Why the follow-up matters more than the opening question

These questions are entry points, not a fixed script. The most useful part of a user interview is almost always the follow-up: when someone mentions something unexpected, pursuing that thread rather than moving to the next scripted question is what turns a routine interview into a real finding. This is true whether the interview is run by a human researcher or an AI moderator trained to probe adaptively.

Key takeaways

Good user interview questions ask about specific past behavior, not hypothetical future intent.
Generative questions explore the underlying problem. Evaluative questions test a specific solution. Keep the two separate within a study.
The most valuable insight usually comes from adaptive follow-up, not the initial question list.
AI-moderated interviews can apply the same adaptive probing consistently across every conversation, at a scale a single interviewer cannot match.

Frequently asked questions

What makes a user interview question good?

A good question asks about a specific, real experience rather than a hypothetical or general opinion, and leaves room for the participant to explain their reasoning.

Should you ask users if they would use a new feature?

This kind of hypothetical question is generally unreliable, since people are inconsistent predictors of their own future behavior. It is usually more useful to ask about how they currently handle the underlying problem the feature is meant to solve.

How many questions should a user interview include?

A tight guide of 8 to 12 core questions works well, as long as the interviewer or AI moderator has room to follow up beyond the list when something unexpected comes up.

Can AI-moderated interviews ask effective user research questions?

Yes. An AI moderator can run a structured interview guide and adapt its follow-up in real time based on what a participant says, applying the same probing discipline across every conversation.

User research process: step-by-step framework for teams
Generative vs evaluative research: what UX teams get wrong
Prototype testing questions: examples for product research