Tellet uses an AI interviewer to conduct and analyse your research, bringing together the depth of qual with the scale of quant. It’s really effective right out of the box, but Tellet isn’t designed to replace humans; like all tools, there are techniques to get the most out of it. 

Here are nine tips for putting together your survey in Tellet that’ll get the most out of your time with participants.

Make your goals clear

Which is also great advice for life, but we’ll stick to market research for now. When setting up your survey, Tellet asks you to fill in an objective: a clear definition of what you want to learn. The more specific your objective, the better.

For example, instead of aiming to “understand customer satisfaction”, go for ”identify factors in our checkout process which influence customer satisfaction”.

Add useful context

It’s all in the details. Use the context field to prep your Tellet interview with essential information, such as specific product names. This makes for a higher-quality interview, as the AI interviewer has been briefed with some real-world specifics – just like you would brief a researcher.

Use open-ended questions

If you’re used to writing questions for traditional quantitative surveys, this part can be pretty freeing. Tellet can pull all sorts of useful insights from rich, detailed responses, so we find the best questions are those that encourage your participant to tell a story.

Try beginning your questions with “How”, “What”, “Why”, or “Share" and let your participants tell you everything you need to know (and usually more).

Avoid double-barrelled questions

In AI interviewing, as with TV cop interrogations, sticking to one question at a time gets you clearer answers. So instead of asking “Where were you on the night of the heist, and how long have you known Jimmy ‘The Rat’ McGee?”, keep it clear with questions like “How do you feel about getaway drivers?”

Speak their language

We don’t mean ‘French’, although Tellet can do that automatically too. No, in this case, we mean: how would you speak if your participant was in the room, to help them feel at ease?

We get our best results when we write questions with a conversational tone. The more natural and inviting the conversation, the richer the responses you’ll get. For example, instead of “Describe the initial product usage experience”, try ”What was your experience like when you first used the product?"

Sequence wisely

Imagine you’re meeting up with a friend you haven’t seen in six months. Your first question would probably be ‘How have you been?’ rather than ‘Does Jamie from accounts still do freestyle rapping in the office kitchen?’

The same applies when writing your questions in Tellet. Start broad, then zoom in. This eases participants into the conversation, gradually delving into specifics for richer context. And yes, Tellet can also get insights from freestyle raps.

Conduct a dry run

Before sharing your discussion guide with participants, test it with your colleagues. This can highlight unclear questions, or areas where the flow might be improved. And let’s not forget: typos can strike at any time. Together we can defeat them.

Seek participant feedback

At the end of the interview, ask participants for feedback on their experience, and use it to continually improve the performance of your interviews. Don’t forget – Tellet can give you insights for this feedback too!