How to Analyze Audience Interview Transcripts

Analyze transcripts by tagging repeats first and interesting one-offs second. A problem that shows up in three different interviews outranks a brilliant insight that appeared once. Frequency is not everything, but it is the fastest filter you have when the sample is small.

The second rule is to separate quotes from opinions. A quote is what the person said. An opinion is your interpretation of it. Keep them in different columns so you can tell later whether a conclusion came from the audience or from your own hopes.

Tag in two colors

Use one color for anything a person described as a problem, and another for anything they described as a goal. Problems tell you what to fix. Goals tell you what to promise. A strong video usually joins the two: it fixes the problem on the way to the goal.

Count how often each tag appears across your interviews. After six or seven conversations, the top three problems are usually stable. When a new interview stops adding new tags, you have enough to act, and more interviews will only confirm what you already know.

• Tag problems in one color and goals in another.
• Count repeats across every interview you run.
• Stop interviewing once new tags dry up.
• Keep raw quotes apart from your own reading of them.

Build the short list

End each analysis session with a list of five ideas and no more. Rank them by how often the problem appeared and how badly it seemed to hurt. A frequent mild annoyance can matter less than a rare problem that ruins someone's week, so read the intensity too.

Write one sentence next to each idea describing the person who has it. That sentence becomes your target viewer for the video and keeps the script pointed at a real person instead of a vague crowd.

If your analysis does not end with a numbered list of ideas, you are reading transcripts instead of deciding what to make.

Key takeaways

• Track repeated problems before interesting one-offs.
• Separate the audience's words from your interpretation.
• Stop collecting once new tags stop appearing.
• Finish every session with five ranked ideas.