Do less to get more meaningful things done — I did one thing today. I did one thing today, and I feel happy and accomplished. Had I tried to do five things, or even three, I probably wouldn’t have finished anything. So I just focused on doing this one thing today. It’s so easy to get lost in meetings…

The familiarity with what you grew up with — Two months ago, I went from being unemployed to working full-time. And despite having lost autonomy over 40 hours of my week, I decided to hold on to all my beloved hobbies: meditation, writing, reading, seeing friends, bouldering, dancing, and attending social dance parties. This required some serious planning and…

I realized I’m doing quite well mentally. What should I do with this extra capacity? — “How’s the therapy going?” my friend asked while walking me to the tram stop after we’d been to see the Barbie movie and gone for a coffee. …

What it’s like to suck at retaining interests — Sometime ago, my mom sent me a text saying that they’ll bring the binoculars the next time they visit. The binoculars? “The ones you wanted to bring to Helsinki, so you could go birdwatching.” Birdwatching? I had no memory trace about my supposed foray into birdwatching. Or I did once…

How to turn research questions into interview questions — Creating an interview guide is simple: Open a new document and write down questions on what you would like to learn from your customers. Or that’s what many people think. They think they can just ask research questions from their customers. But: research question ≠ interview question Research questions tell…

Why you should collect specific stories about past behavior in interviews and how to do it — I’ve only interviewed one job candidate in my life, but I’ve interviewed many more customers and users. That’s why my cousin’s recent job interview experience didn’t perplex me as much as it perplexed her: “For every question, they wanted me to share concrete examples. Every question. I struggled to come…

Tips for building rapport, going with the flow, and uncovering hidden gems — I often bring along another team member to users interviews.* But I usually let them say very little, except for introducing themselves at the beginning and asking a few questions at the end. I do this because I’m afraid they’ll ruin the interview. Sounds harsh, but when I let them…

Preparing for customer interviews in a way that fosters trust among stakeholders — I was once asked in a job interview how I prepare for customer and user interviews. …

When co-interviewing isn’t the answer — Bringing along colleagues to user interviews is a great way to spread human-centricity across the organization. It’s so simple and effective that I wrote an entire article on why you should never interview users alone. Now I’m going to do the opposite: I’m going to read the small print through…