Running a session — Examples

Example 1 — Turning a rescue into a finding

A participant cannot find the control that sends a saved draft. The lines below come from a session where the guide was skimmed and every pause was filled by the moderator. Rewrite the exchange so the participant works it out, and keep the guide’s timings.

Guide as run: no timings, prompts improvised.
08-35  Task: "find the send button"
Moderator: "it's in the footer, bottom right — see it?"
Participant: "ah yes, got it." [clicks]
Moderator: "and how did that feel?"

Solution

Guide as written, kept in front of the moderator:
00-03  Warm-up: "Tell me about the last time you sent a draft."
08-35  Task: three tasks on cards, read aloud, no hints.
       Card: "Send your saved draft to the customer."
35-45  Debrief: "What stood out? What did you expect to happen?"
45-50  Close: thank, incentive, anything to add.

Exchange as run:
[participant reads the card, scans the header, scrolls down, stops]
Moderator: [counts to five, says nothing]
Participant: "I would expect send up here... the menu? No. Maybe at the
bottom, where the last button was."
[scrolls to the footer, finds it]
Participant: "there it is. I did not look down there."

The second version keeps the failure, and the hesitation is now the finding: the send action was looked for in the header and the menu first, which is worth a note. The scripted guide is what lets the moderator look up rather than improvise, and the five-second count is what replaces the rescue. The usual mistake is answering the “where is it?” question directly — the session becomes a demo, and the participant’s difficulty disappears from the notes along with the evidence.