Interview

As explained in Effective Platform Engineering

An interview is a guided conversation for collecting detailed information about a person’s experiences, views, needs, or problems.

An interview is a guided conversation for collecting detailed information about developers’ experiences, views, needs, or problems. In platform engineering, interviews add context that deployment metrics and survey responses cannot provide alone. section 10.1.3

Use interviews to:

• Investigate frustrations revealed by quantitative feedback, such as unclear workflows or missing documentation. section 10.1.3
• Understand developer workflows, pain points, requirements, and user-experience needs. section 10.2.4
• Involve developers, team leads, and operations personnel in platform evolution so improvements align with user needs. section 10.1.3

Investigating platform frustration

A developer reports frustration with a platform feature. An interview follows up on the experience and reveals that unclear workflows or inadequate documentation—not necessarily the feature itself—caused the problem. The platform team can then target the relevant improvement and reassess adoption and satisfaction. section 10.1.3

Figure 10.3 Feedback loop ecosystem for the platform engineering team, enabling comprehensive end-user-driven development

Use the feedback-loop ecosystem to place interviews alongside surveys, community forums, and advisory groups rather than treating them as an isolated research method. section 10.1.3

How Effective Platform Engineering covers it

How deep it goes

Explains interviews through participants, purposes, and feedback-loop integration, but does not specify questioning protocols or analysis procedures.

Examples

Uses one-on-one and group interviews with developers, team leads, and operations personnel to investigate frustration, documentation, and workflows.

What it assumes

Assumes familiarity with developer workflows and platform metrics while teaching interviews as qualitative research alongside surveys.

What you can do after

Apply interviews to diagnose platform problems and inform improvements aligned with user needs, adoption, and satisfaction.

How it connects

Connects interviews with surveys, observational studies, developer experience, usability, feedback loops, and platform product management.

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Also explained in

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  Collaborative Software Design: How to facilitate domain modeling decisionsAn interview is a structured conversation in which one person elicits information, experiences, or perspectives from another person.
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  Design for DevelopersA user interview is a one-on-one research conversation that explores a user’s behavior, attitudes, beliefs, needs, or experiences.
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  Tech Startup ToolkitAn interview is a structured conversation in which an organization evaluates a candidate's qualifications, behavior, or fit for a role.
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  Grokking Relational Database DesignAn interview is a structured conversation for eliciting information from people about their work, requirements, or practices.
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  Everyday Data VisualizationA structured conversation conducted to learn a person's needs, experiences, knowledge, or opinions.
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  Lead Developer Career GuideA formal or semi-formal conversation conducted to gather information from a participant.

Compare how 7 books explain interview →

Related concepts

• researchused by · Research is the systematic investigation of a subject through gathering and evaluating information or evidence to develop understanding or answer questions.
• feedbackproduces · Feedback is information about the results, quality, or effects of an action or system that can inform subsequent evaluation, decisions, or behavior.
• unstructured conversationincludes · An unstructured conversation is an open-ended, exploratory discussion guided by participants and observations rather than predetermined questions or a fixed sequence.
• requirements analysispart of · Requirements analysis is the systematic process of eliciting, clarifying, assessing, and documenting the needs and constraints a system or product must satisfy.
• continuous improvementpart of · Continuous improvement is an ongoing process of evaluating outcomes and making successive changes to improve a system, process, or result.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Effective Platform Engineering. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.