China consumer interviews · Qualitative research · China consumer insights
How to Run Consumer Interviews in China
Plan consumer interviews in China with a recruitment example, bilingual interview prompts and a worksheet for turning accounts into product tests.
Whatson.red Intelligence · · 6 min read
Imagine a participant in a consumer interview says they wanted something convenient. What was the person doing when the old product became inconvenient? What did they try next? A brand planning a launch in China can use that sequence to decide what to prototype, explain or investigate before spending on a broader test.
This guide is for teams running one-to-one consumer interviews in China and sharing the findings with English-speaking colleagues. It includes an illustrative recruitment plan, Mandarin prompts and a worksheet for deciding what to test next.
Recruit around a decision and a recent event
Write down two decisions that different answers could lead to. A brand designing a portable coffee brewer might choose between making it easier to clean away from home and making it easier to pack. If your question is still which research method to use, start with the consumer research methods comparison. If you're hiring a research partner, put the decision and recruitment boundaries in your commissioning brief.
For the fictional brewer project, suppose the first launch test would target commuters in Shanghai and Chengdu. Recruit adults who recently made or considered making coffee away from home. Include people who adopted portable equipment, people who tried it and reverted to another routine, and people who considered it and opted out. If you screen only for owners, you may miss the obstacle that kept prospective customers from buying.
Ask candidates when and where the episode happened and what they ended up doing. Pick a recall window that fits how often the behavior occurs. Record recruitment channels and gaps. A group recruited through a specialty coffee club may describe a different set of workarounds from commuters recruited through a general panel. A few interviews in two cities can surface contrasts to investigate. Estimating how common those experiences are calls for a separate study designed for that purpose.
Reconstruct the episode before showing the product
Begin with the last relevant occasion. Follow the story from the trigger through the alternatives, the choice and what happened afterward. Ask open questions and leave time to clarify a vague answer. Introduce a prototype or product description after hearing the unprompted account, and label feedback from that part of the interview separately. The GOV.UK guide to in-depth interviews explains how a common discussion guide can leave room to follow individual stories.
| What you need to learn | Illustrative Mandarin prompt | English gloss |
|---|---|---|
| The occasion | 上次你想在外面自己冲咖啡是什么时候？当时在哪儿？ | When was the last time you wanted to brew your own coffee away from home? Where were you? |
| The options | 当时你考虑过哪些做法？ | What options did you consider at the time? |
| The choice | 最后你怎么做的？是什么让你这么选？ | What did you end up doing? What led you to choose that? |
| What followed | 后来你有没有改过做法？当时发生了什么？ | Did you change your approach later? What happened at the time? |
| What a word means | 你刚才说“麻烦”，能说说具体是哪一步吗？ | You described it as a hassle. Can you tell me which step you meant? |
Use the last probe only after the participant introduces the term. For instance, 麻烦 might refer to rinsing parts, finding a place to empty grounds or repacking a wet brewer. Each leads to a different design question. If a participant has no relevant episode, record the gap and move to a question they can answer from experience.
Pilot the language and agree how evidence will travel
Ask the moderator to pilot the guide in the participant's preferred interview language. Check whether wording such as 在外面 is understood as away from home, outdoors, or somewhere else. Revise prompts where the intended occasion and the one participants describe diverge. A University of Glasgow dissertation on luxury consumption documents piloting Chinese and English consumer discussion guides in its own study. Its procedure provides a practical example of testing both versions.
Agree who will moderate, interpret live and translate excerpts before the first session. For a decision-critical phrase, keep the original wording in controlled research notes where permitted, attach an English gloss, and document any uncertainty. Have the moderator or another qualified bilingual researcher check interpretations that could change the recommendation. If a teammate hears only a live English summary, make clear which observations they can review directly and which came through interpretation.
Explain who will observe the session, what will be recorded, who will receive it and how long it will be kept. Obtain informed agreement for the planned uses. Keep contact details apart from research notes and use participant codes in working materials. A distinctive story can identify someone even after their name is removed. Agree on storage and access before sharing recordings or transcripts with an overseas team or transcription provider. The 2025 ICC/ESOMAR International Code sets out professional principles on participation, data minimization and transfers.
Turn each account into a decision you can test
After the session, separate the reported event, your interpretation and the next test. Look for accounts that weaken the interpretation and give those accounts a row of their own. The rows below are invented for the brewer example.
| Reported episode | Possible explanation | Next test |
|---|---|---|
| One commuter described leaving a brewer at home on office days because they could not empty the grounds near their desk. | Disposal may matter more than packed size in that setting. | Compare a removable grounds cup with the existing design in a simulated office routine. |
| Another commuter described rinsing parts at work without difficulty and switching to café coffee after switching to a different train line. | An easier cleanup step may do little when the new route makes the café the simplest option. | Test the proposed use case with people whose commute and access to coffee match the launch audience. |
Use these accounts to choose what to test first. Keep the sample, unanswered questions and counterexamples visible in the findings. A positive reaction to a drawing is evidence of a reaction during the session. A prototype task can show whether someone completes a specific step under test conditions. A later pilot with observed purchases can answer a different question about behavior in that offer and channel.
If your team is deciding which customer problem to investigate before a China launch, share the category, audience and decision with Whatson.red.