{"id":88,"date":"2015-05-22T19:15:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T19:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/?p=88"},"modified":"2015-05-22T19:20:35","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T19:20:35","slug":"anne-haines-if-she-knew-what-she-wants-librarian-mind-reading-tricks-for-fun-and-profit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/anne-haines-if-she-knew-what-she-wants-librarian-mind-reading-tricks-for-fun-and-profit\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne Haines: If She Knew What She Wants &#8211; Librarian Mind-Reading Tricks for Fun and Profit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/annehaines\" target=\"_blank\">Anne Haines<\/a>, Web Content Specialist at Indiana University Libraries, shares strategies to get at what people <em>really<\/em> need.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>4 Levels of Information Need<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Hat-tip to Robert S. Taylor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Visceral Need<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t have the words to describe the need<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Conscious Need<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Ambiguous, rambling statements<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Formalized Need<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Can form a qualified and rational statement of what user is looking for<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Compromised Need<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Phrasing question in terms of system\u00a0user thinks can help them<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Interview as Negotiation<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Iterative, collaborative<\/li>\n<li>Not adversarial or judge-y<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What We Need to Understand<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;Inquirers frequently cannot define <em>what<\/em> they want, but they can discuss <em>why<\/em> they need it.&#8221; &#8211; Robert S. Taylor<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The situation\n<ul>\n<li>The context of the question<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The gaps\n<ul>\n<li>What is it that they don&#8217;t know and need to know<\/li>\n<li>Ask people to describe what they don&#8217;t know<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The uses\n<ul>\n<li>What does the person want to be able to do after bridging this knowledge gap?<\/li>\n<li>Task-based<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Asking Questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Closed Questions<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Yes\/No<\/li>\n<li>Helpful to focus the convo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Open Questions<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Infinite set of possibilities<\/li>\n<li>Get your person talking and you&#8217;ll understand their context better<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Neutral Questions<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>AKA: sense-making questions<\/li>\n<li>Subset of open questions<\/li>\n<li>Examples\n<ul>\n<li>How much info do you need?<\/li>\n<li>What&#8217;s your deadline?<\/li>\n<li>What are your top priorities?<\/li>\n<li>What have you done so far? Where have you looked for answers?<\/li>\n<li>What do you plan to do with the info?<\/li>\n<li>What would a perfect solution look like?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Active Listening<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Slow down<\/li>\n<li>Be as present with the person as possible &#8211; don&#8217;t try to jump ahead to solving the problem<\/li>\n<li>Things to do\/say:\n<ul>\n<li>Tell me more<\/li>\n<li>Can you explain how you came to that idea?<\/li>\n<li>Loop back &#8211; &#8220;Earlier, you said&#8230;&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Resist Premature Diagnosis<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Let people finish explaining what&#8217;s going on<\/li>\n<li>Hear everything else<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t box yourself in with pre-conceived solution (will color your thinking, you&#8217;ll hear the rest of the convo through the context you decided on)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Channel Selection<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Email, Skype, IM, face-to-face meetings, etc.\n<ul>\n<li>Choose the best channel for the need (death to unnecessary meetings!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Other Tricks<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Ask for clarification<\/li>\n<li>Be deliberate and careful in how you word questions &#8211; nuances matter\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Can I help you?&#8221; vs. &#8220;How can I help?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Can I help you with something else?&#8221; vs. &#8220;Can I help you with anything else?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Anne&#8217;s resources and slides posted here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.libraries.iub.edu\/redux\/2015\/05\/22\/if-she-knew-what-she-wants-resources-follow-up\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/blogs.libraries.iub.edu\/redux\/2015\/05\/22\/if-she-knew-what-she-wants-resources-follow-up\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anne Haines, Web Content Specialist at Indiana University Libraries, shares strategies to get at what people really need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confabmn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shannon-leahy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}