All direct contact with users during this project happened through unstructured interviews. This format allowed us to gather rich information while staying close to users’ real experiences, something I wanted to actively encourage throughout the research.

Given how specific some of the topics were, I invited the Product Owner or at least one Business Analyst to join the sessions. Their presence helped keep the conversation grounded when the discussion moved into complex or highly domain-specific areas. Beforehand, we aligned on the interview approach so their participation would support the flow rather than steer it.

This collaboration turned out to be a strong asset. The team quickly became comfortable asking the right follow-up questions and capturing details that later proved valuable during synthesis.