What to Say
Knowing what to say, and when, is one of the biggest challenges in moderating, especially when you’re just starting out. Here are some of the phrases that we’ve found to be effective throughout a session. You’ll notice that in many cases, we show a lot of different ways to say the same thing. Try them all and see which variations feel most comfortable for you.
| Desired Effect | What to Say |
| Set expectations | “If you ask me questions, I may not really answer you or I may be vague. If I’m doing that, I’m not being unfriendly; I’m just trying to stay neutral.” |
| Provide a neutral acknowledgment | “Mmhmm.” “Okay.” “Okay, thank you.” “Okay, thanks for that.” “That’s good to know.” “That’s helpful for us to know.” |
| Turn a question around | “I want to stay neutral here, so I’m going to turn that back on you— what are your thoughts on this?” “If you were doing this at home, and I wasn’t sitting there next to you, what would you do?” “I’m not sure, but tell me more about what you’re thinking here.…” “What matters is your experience, which we can learn from. Tell me more about what you’re experiencing here.…” “My opinion isn’t important to the team—we’re here to talk about yours. What do you think?” |
| Prompt a silent/nonresponsive participant | “What are you trying to do right now? “May I ask what you’re thinking about right now?” “What are you thinking right now?” “What is going through your mind right now?” “What are your thoughts on this?” “What are your thoughts on how that worked?” “I’d like to remind you to try to think out loud as you go through these tasks. I know it may feel uncomfortable at first, but it helps us understand more about how you’re approaching the tasks.” |
| Clarify behavior | “I noticed you doing something that I couldn’t quite follow. Could you help me understand better what you were doing and why? It was when you <did thing>.…” “How did this compare with your expectations?” “What would you expect?” (If the participant encountered a limitation of the prototype): “This section isn’t built out for us today—what were you expecting to happen?” “That link isn’t working for today’s session. What would you expect to happen if you clicked it and it was working?” |
| Provide reassurance and build engagement | “There are no wrongs here; you’re here to help us.” “If we didn’t see what areas work well or not so well for you, we wouldn’t learn anything.” “Please know that your candor is appreciated. Nothing you say will hurt anyone’s feelings. You’re here to help us make the product better for yourself and future users.” “This is just the kind of feedback we want to hear.…” “Thanks so much for participating. I know it is taking time out of your busy day, but your feedback is very helpful.” “All of this has been very helpful to hear and see. Thank you for your continual feedback.” “You’re here to help partner with us to evaluate the design, so all of this is really helpful for us to see and hear.” “Have you ever tried to do this before? Tell me about your experience.” |
| Redirect or cut feedback short | “We have a lot to get through, so I may at times gently push you along so that we can make sure to cover everything.” “This is all very helpful to see and hear. Just for the sake of time, I’m going to ask you to go to the next task/go back to.…” “Thank you for going into that level of detail. For the sake of time though, I’d like you to return to attempting/answering task/question.…” “I’m sorry, I just want to interrupt you here for a second. For the sake of time I’d like you to return to the task/question, and we can revisit this topic at the end of the session if time permits.” “Let’s move on for now. I wanted to ask you about what you did earlier….” “Why don’t we stop this task here, because I wanted to ask you about.…” “Let’s stop this here and we can come back to it later. Read the next scenario.…” “That’s as far as we need to go with that. Why don’t we.…” “I’m interested in hearing more about this. I do want to make sure we cover everything we have planned, so if there is time, let’s come back to this at the end of the session.…” |
| Assist (purposeful help) | “What if I were to tell you that.…” “Let me draw your attention to this area. What are your thoughts on it being here?” “I’ll just let you know that there is a way from here to do that.…” “I will point out that you can find that functionality here. Talk to me about that versus your expectations.” “It’s good to see your thought process in doing that. I will just let you know that there is actually a different way of doing that task. I’m curious to know what you think of it <point him to correct way>.” |
| Take a break, using a mild pretext | “I apologize, but it looks like there’s something wrong with our system. Please excuse me for a few minutes while I go to the other room and see if anyone from our team knows what is going on.” “Excuse me for just a moment, but I just noticed that there’s something wrong with our equipment. Let’s take a short break so I can get it working again.” (For a user test with a multiroom setup): “It seems like we may be having technical issues. Let’s take a short five-minute break while I run nextdoor to look into it. Feel free to leave the room to get a drink or go to the restroom while I’m gone.” (For an onsite session): “I’m so sorry, but would you mind if I took a quick five-minute break to get a drink?” or “This seems like a good stopping point. Why don’t we take a quick five-minute break?” “Thank you for your feedback so far. Let’s take a quick five-minute break so I can see if any of our observers have any questions for you so far.” “I need to check on something before the next part of the session, so let’s take a brief break.” |
| Shift focus | “It looks like our prototype is not working as we planned it to, so if you don’t mind I’m going to just ask you some questions.” |
| End a session early | (If you’re skipping sections of your script, and the participant can see that there are more tasks/questions than what you’re asking): “The rest of these tasks/questions aren’t applicable to you/your role, so we’re going to skip them.” “You went through everything faster than expected, so we’re going to get you out of here early.” “That’s actually all I had for you today, so you’ll get some time back in your day! Thank you so much for your feedback, and here is your compensation.” “I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to cancel the session due to some technical difficulties. Thank you so much for coming in, and here is your compensation.” “I’m sorry, but we have to end the session early due to some problems with our equipment. Thank you so much for coming in—here is your compensation. Let me walk you out.” |
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