Write a discussion guide for AI Moderator
Overview
A discussion guide is the script your AI Moderator follows during an interview. You write the questions and topics you want covered, and the AI Moderator asks them, follows up based on what each participant actually says, and keeps the conversation on track. A good discussion guide is what makes an AI-moderated interview feel like a real conversation instead of a form to fill in.
What a discussion guide needs
At a minimum, a discussion guide should include:
- Research objectives — what you're actually trying to learn from this study, stated clearly, so both you and the AI Moderator stay focused on it
- Target participants and estimated duration — who this is for, and roughly how long a session should take
- Sections, each with a clear focus, a time allocation, and a set of questions with probes underneath them
Structure your guide into sections
Break your discussion guide into sections that move logically from easy to harder, and shallow to deep. A typical shape looks like:
- Warm-up — simple, low-effort questions to ease participants in and establish context
- Core topics — the sections that address your main research objectives, usually the largest and deepest part of the guide
- Closing — a chance for participants to add anything you haven't covered, and to wrap up naturally
Assign each section a rough duration and a conversation depth (shallow, moderate, or deep), so the AI Moderator knows how much time and probing each part deserves.
Write questions with probes underneath them
Each question in your guide should be an open-ended, conversational prompt, followed by a few probes, follow-up angles the AI Moderator can use depending on how the participant responds. For example:
What do you like most about your current experience with this product?
Probe: Is there anything that makes it particularly convenient?
Probe: Is there anything you find frustrating or inconvenient?
Probe: Has the way you use it changed over time?
The probes aren't a rigid script the AI Moderator must ask in order, they're a set of directions it can pull from depending on what the participant actually says, which is what lets the AI Moderator adapt instead of just reading down a fixed list.
Mark stimulus moments clearly
If a section involves showing participants an image, video, or prototype, mark this clearly within the guide, for example, "Show product design" as its own instruction line, separate from the questions that follow it. This tells the AI Moderator exactly when to present the stimulus, and keeps it clearly distinguished from participant-facing questions.
Keep sections proportional to what matters most
Give your most important research objectives the most time and the deepest conversation level. A section exploring first impressions of a new design, for example, usually deserves more depth than a warm-up question about general habits, reflect that in how you allocate time across the guide.
What to do next
To learn how AI Interviews work overall, see Live vs AI moderation. To set one up, see Set up an AI interview.