> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.adaline.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Generating user research questions
> Generate a full user interview guide for any product and persona in seconds.
Good user research starts with good questions. But writing an interview guide from scratch takes time — and it's easy to end up with leading questions or gaps in coverage. This prompt generates a complete interview guide: warm-up, behavioural, motivational, scenario-based, future-state, and closing questions, plus follow-up prompts to dig deeper. Just fill in 6 inputs and get a guide ready to run.
***
## How the prompt works
The system prompt sets the LLM up as a senior UX researcher and requires six question categories in every response. Without that structure, models return a generic list of questions instead of a guide a researcher can follow end-to-end. The user prompt takes six variables — product, persona label, persona description, current challenges, research goals, and interview focus — so every question is relevant to the specific user and product being studied.
### System prompt
Sets the LLM's role and defines the six question categories it must always include in the output.
```text theme={null}
You are an expert UX Researcher and Product Manager with 10+ years of experience conducting user interviews. Your task is to generate thoughtful, open-ended interview questions that uncover deep user insights and hidden needs.
Create a comprehensive interview guide that includes:
1. Warm-up questions: Build rapport and ease users into the conversation.
2. Behavioural questions: Understand current user workflows and pain points.
3. Motivational questions: Explore underlying needs, goals, and frustrations.
4. Scenario-based questions: Test assumptions and explore edge cases.
5. Future-state questions: Understand aspirations and ideal solutions.
6. Closing questions: Capture additional insights and feedback.
Focus on open-ended questions that encourage storytelling, avoid leading questions, and probe for specific examples. Include follow-up prompts to dig deeper into user responses and uncover unexpected insights.
```
### User prompt
Six variables that give the model enough context to generate questions specific to the user and the product being researched.
```text theme={null}
Generate user interview questions for {{product_name}} targeting {{user_persona}}:
- User persona: {{persona_description}}
- Product challenges: {{current_challenges}}
- Research goals: {{research_objectives}}
- Interview focus: {{specific_focus_areas}}
```
**User interview guide — busy working parents**
**Warm-up questions**
* Tell me about your family and what a typical weekday looks like for you.
* How do you and your partner typically handle household decisions?
**Behavioural questions**
* Walk me through the last time you made a significant family purchase. What was your thought process?
* How do you currently keep track of your family's spending? Show me if you use any tools or apps.
* Describe a recent situation where you felt stressed about money. What triggered that feeling?
* When do you typically think about your family's finances during the week?
**Motivational questions**
* What are your biggest financial goals for your family right now?
* Tell me about a time when you felt really good about your family's financial situation. What made that moment special?
* What keeps you up at night when it comes to your family's finances?
* If money wasn't a concern, what would change about your daily routine?
**Scenario-based questions**
* Imagine your child needs unexpected school supplies worth \$200. Walk me through how you'd handle that situation.
* If you had 10 extra minutes each day to focus on finances, what would you do with that time?
* Your friend asks for advice on family budgeting. What's the first thing you'd tell them?
**Future-state questions**
* Describe your ideal relationship with money and budgeting in your family.
* What would make you excited to open a budgeting app every day?
* If you could solve one financial challenge for your family, what would it be?
**Closing questions**
* What's one thing about managing family finances that you wish more people understood?
* Is there anything about your financial situation or habits that we haven't covered?
* Any questions for me about what we're building?
**Follow-up prompts**
* "Can you give me a specific example of that?"
* "How did that make you feel?"
* "What would have made that situation easier?"
* "Tell me more about why that's important to you."
* "What happens if you don't address that issue?"
***
## Import into Adaline
This prompt comes with a ready-to-import Adaline project file. It includes the prompt, dataset, and evaluators, all pre-configured.
Download & import into Adaline
***
## Evaluations and dataset
Each prompt in the library ships with a dataset and evaluators so you can test quality before deploying.
### Evaluators
Two failure modes, three evaluators: one for completeness, one for question quality, one for length.
#### Guide completeness
Checks that all six question categories are present in every output.
```text theme={null}
Goal: The interview guide must include all six question categories.
Checks:
- Warm-up questions to build rapport are present
- Behavioural questions about current workflows and pain points are present
- Motivational questions about underlying needs and goals are present
- Scenario-based questions to test assumptions are present
- Future-state questions about aspirations and ideal solutions are present
- Closing questions to capture additional insights are present
Scoring guidance:
- 1: Missing 3 or more categories.
- 2: Missing 2 categories.
- 3: All categories present but some have fewer than 2 questions or lack depth.
- 4: All categories present with solid question variety; minor gaps.
- 5: All categories fully present with multiple questions and follow-up prompts.
```
#### Question quality
Checks that questions are open-ended, non-leading, and designed to surface specific user behaviours.
```text theme={null}
Goal: Questions must be open-ended, non-leading, and designed to surface specific user behaviours and experiences.
Checks:
- Questions are open-ended (starting with "Tell me", "Walk me through", "Describe", "How", "What")
- No leading questions that assume a specific answer or outcome
- At least one follow-up prompt is included to dig deeper
- Questions reference the specific persona, product, or challenges provided
- Scenario-based questions use realistic, product-relevant situations
Scoring guidance:
- 1: Most questions are closed or leading; no follow-up prompts.
- 2: Some open-ended questions but several are leading or generic.
- 3: Mostly open-ended; a few leading questions or missing follow-ups.
- 4: Consistently open-ended with good follow-up prompts; minor issues.
- 5: All questions are open-ended, non-leading, persona-specific, and include follow-up prompts.
```
#### Response length
Guards against bloated output. An interview guide should be usable in a real session without overwhelming the researcher.
```text theme={null}
Rule: Output must be less than 1,000 tokens.
```
A good interview guide is focused and easy to follow in the moment. If it's too long, researchers won't stick to it.
### Dataset
Four product types across different industries — each row maps directly to the six variables in the user prompt.
| Product | User persona | Persona description | Product challenges | Research goals | Interview focus |
| ----------------------------------------- | --------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **BudgetWise: Personal Finance App** | Busy working parents | Working parents aged 30–45, household income $60K–$120K, managing family expenses, limited time for financial planning | Low engagement after setup, users abandon budget creation midway, difficulty categorising family expenses | Understand daily money management routines, identify barriers to consistent budgeting, discover motivation triggers | Daily financial habits, family expense decision-making, budgeting pain points |
| **HealthTrack Pro: Fitness Tracking App** | Gym-going millennials | Adults aged 22–35 who work out 3–5 times per week, mix of gym and home workouts, tracking progress toward body composition goals | Users log workouts inconsistently, low adoption of nutrition tracking, high churn after 60 days | Understand what motivates consistent logging, identify friction in the tracking flow, discover what success looks like for this persona | Workout habits and routines, motivation and accountability, barriers to daily app use |
| **CollabSpace: Remote Work Platform** | Distributed team managers | Team leads managing 5–15 people across 3+ time zones, responsible for delivery, morale, and cross-functional coordination | Teams default to Slack threads over structured workflows, async updates get missed, managers feel out of the loop | Understand how managers track team progress today, identify gaps in current tools, discover what "visibility" means to them | Daily team management routines, async communication challenges, what visibility and trust look like remotely |
| **LegalEase: Document Management** | Solo lawyers and paralegals | Independent legal practitioners and paralegals at small firms (1–5 people), handling contracts, filings, and client correspondence | Documents stored across email, Drive, and local folders, version control issues, time lost searching for files | Understand current document workflows, identify the biggest sources of wasted time, discover what a trusted system looks like | Day-to-day document handling, collaboration with clients, pain points around search and version history |