Contextual Inquiry
Contextual inquiry is a field-research method in which a small team visits people in the place where they work, watches them do their normal tasks and asks about what it sees while it happens. The method comes from the work of Karen Holtzblatt and colleagues from the late 1980s and is the research step of Contextual Design, which she developed with Hugh Beyer. The half-day procedure described here follows the Atlassian Team Playbook: a tour, a group interview, shadowing of individuals and a team debrief.
Facilitation script
- 1
Arrival and introductions: explain the purpose, confirm the agenda and what may be photographed or recorded.
10 min - 2
Tour of the workspace, noting layout, tools and artefacts.
25 min - 3
Group interview on team workflows, roles and a typical week.
30 min - 4
Shadowing, first person: observe normal work, then ask about what you saw and check your interpretation.
45 min - 5
Shadowing, second person, with a different observer leading if possible.
45 min - 6
Thank the hosts, explain next steps and leave.
5 min - 7
Team debrief the same day: compare notes, cluster observations into themes, record findings and open questions.
45 min
Tips
Treat the person you observe as the expert and yourself as the apprentice: ask them to show you, not to tell you.
Pay attention to workarounds such as handwritten lists, spreadsheets beside the official system and sticky notes on monitors, because they mark where the current tools fail.
Hold the debrief the same day, since observations lose detail overnight.
Common pitfalls
Turning the visit into a sit-down interview in a meeting room, so you hear what people say they do and never see what they do
Bringing too many colleagues; five observers around one desk change the behaviour you came to see
Asking leading questions or pitching solutions on site, which makes the customer polite and agreeable and yields nothing true
Photographing screens or documents without clear permission, which can expose confidential or personal data and end the relationship
Postponing the debrief by a week, after which each observer remembers a different visit and the notes cannot be reconciled
Variations
A remote version uses screen sharing while the person works and asks them to show their desk and tools on camera; it captures software use well and the physical environment poorly. With a single participant, drop the group interview and spend the time shadowing. Several visits to different customers, each followed by its own debrief, can be combined in an affinity mapping session to find patterns across sites. Classic Contextual Design runs each session as a one-to-one interview guided by four principles: context, partnership, interpretation and focus.
Where it fits
When to use it
Early discovery, when the team does not yet know which problems matter to users
A product is used differently from how it was designed and nobody can explain why from the usage data
The work you design for depends on its surroundings: other people, paper, interruptions, physical space
Engineers and designers have never seen a customer use the product and argue from assumptions
Before a design sprint or roadmap decision, to ground it in observed behaviour
When not to use it
You need numbers, such as how many users have a problem; use a survey or product analytics
You want to test whether people can use a specific design. Run a usability test with tasks instead
The customer cannot allow observers on site for confidentiality, safety or privacy reasons; use remote User Interviews instead
The task you care about happens rarely or unpredictably, so a visit would not catch it; ask for a diary or a retrospective interview
There is no time or commitment to act on findings, which wastes the customer's goodwill
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is Contextual Inquiry?▾
Contextual inquiry is a research method in which you observe and interview people in their own work environment while they carry out real tasks. It reveals habits, workarounds and constraints that people do not mention in an ordinary interview. The findings feed product and service design.
How is contextual inquiry different from a user interview?▾
A user interview relies on what people recall and report, usually away from their work. Contextual inquiry takes place where the work happens and puts observation first, with questions tied to what was just seen. It takes more effort and gives a more accurate picture of behaviour.
How long does a contextual inquiry take?▾
Atlassian gives a run time of 180 minutes for the visit and debrief, plus roughly an hour of preparation. The schedule on this page, with two people shadowed for 45 minutes each, comes to just under three and a half hours. Shadowing each person takes 30 to 60 minutes. Plan several visits to different customers before drawing conclusions.
How many people should go on a contextual inquiry visit?▾
Two to four. One person leads the conversation, one takes notes, and a third can take photographs where permitted. Larger teams crowd the workspace and make people self-conscious.
Can contextual inquiry be done remotely?▾
Partly. Watching someone work through screen sharing shows how they use software, and you can ask them to show their desk on camera. You lose most of the physical surroundings and the interactions with colleagues, so treat remote sessions as a supplement.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Karen Holtzblatt and Hugh Beyer (Contextual Design); procedure after the Atlassian Team Playbook.