Keeping a regular cadence of user interviews can be tough when recruiting takes manual effort every week. Lyssna gives you the tools to take the friction out of that process, from managing your availability and recruiting participants to recording sessions and sharing what you learn.
This article walks you through how to set up a continuous interview practice in Lyssna, step by step. If you're new to continuous interviewing and want context on what it is and why product teams use it, check out our blog post on continuous interviewing first.
Step 1: Create your interview study
The is the home base for your continuous interviewing program. You'll manage sessions, recruit participants, and access recordings all from one study, so you only need to complete the setup once.
Click Create study from the sidebar on your Lyssna dashboard, then select Interview from the menu.
Give your study an internal name (e.g. "Continuous discovery interviews") and click Create. This name is only visible to you and your team, not to participants.
In the Setup tab, add an external Study name. This is what participants will see in their invitations.
Customize your study description with a clear explanation of what participants should expect in the session.
Set the session duration. For continuous interviews, 15-30 minutes is typically the right length: long enough to explore one or two topics in depth, short enough to fit comfortably into a participant's day.
Specify any device requirements and whether participants need a microphone, camera, or both.
For a full walkthrough of all setup options, see Setting up your moderated study with Interviews.
Step 2: Set your recurring availability
Consistency is what makes a continuous interview practice valuable. Setting up your availability carefully means participants can book sessions without you having to coordinate every slot manually.
In the Hosts and availability tab, click Connect calendar to link your Google or Outlook calendar. This prevents participants from booking over your existing meetings.
Set a date range for your study. Choose a longer end date (several months ahead) so you're not constantly reactivating the study. You can update the end date as needed.
Select the days and times you're available each week. These will repeat automatically for the life of the study.
Add a buffer before and/or after sessions if you need time between calls. Buffers are taken into account when showing your availability to participants.
If a teammate will be joining sessions regularly, add them as a co-host and connect their calendar too – only your overlapping availability will be shown to participants.
You can check what participants will see by clicking Preview availability at the top of the Hosts and availability page.
Step 3: Add your meeting link
From the Meeting link tab, you can connect your Zoom, Google, or Microsoft Teams account. With these tools, Lyssna automatically generates a unique meeting link for each booked session, so there's no back-and-forth to set up calls manually.
If you are using another conferencing tool, you'll need to add the meeting link manually by selecting Custom link.
For more on connecting your video conferencing tool, see the relevant integration article:
Step 4: Add a screener (optional)
If you want to make sure you're talking to the right people each week, use a screener to filter applicants before they can book a session.
From the sidebar menu in your study, click Screener and toggle the feature on. You can use single-select, multi-select, short text, or video answer questions to screen participants in or out automatically.
For continuous interviews, a short screener of two or three questions is usually enough. Focus on role, product usage, or experience level – whatever's most relevant to what you're trying to learn.
Step 5: Recruit participants consistently
Recruiting is the most common reason a continuous interview practice loses momentum. When sourcing participants requires manual effort every week, it can become unsustainable. We've removed the friction that comes with interview recruitment so that you can easily find participants on a regular cadence.
Using the Lyssna panel
For teams without an existing recruiting pipeline, or for anyone who wants to talk to users outside their current customer base, Lyssna's research panel gives you access to 690,000+ participants across 124 countries, with 395+ targeting options.
To place a panel order:
Click Recruit on your study and select Lyssna panel.
Apply your demographic and targeting filters to define the type of participant you need.
Submit your order.
To avoid rebuilding your filters from scratch each week, save your targeting criteria as a saved audience. Once saved, placing a new order takes just a few clicks rather than starting over every time.
Using your own audience
If you have existing customers or users you want to speak with, you can recruit from your own audience list by sharing the recruitment link directly. Participants can view your availability and book a slot themselves, no calendar back-and-forth needed. Recruiting from your own audience is always free with Lyssna, although you'll need to manage your participant incentives outside of the platform.
Step 6: Prepare your question bank
Rather than a fixed interview script, keep a running question bank that you draw from each session. This gives each conversation structure without making it feel like a survey.
A simple format that works well:
Two or three consistent opening questions to establish context (e.g. "Walk me through how you currently handle [task]").
A bank of optional follow-up topics to dip into depending on what's relevant that week. For example, if you're working on a new feature area, you might have a set of questions around that ready to go.
One open-ended closing question to leave room for surprises (e.g. "If you could change one thing about [product or workflow], what would it be?").
Keep this question bank in a shared document that anyone joining a session can access and add to over time.
Step 7: Conduct the session
When a session is approaching, you'll receive a reminder email the day before and 15 minutes before the start time.
Join via your video conferencing tool as you normally would. You don't need to do anything special in Lyssna during the session itself so you can focus on the conversation.
A few things worth keeping in mind:
Record the session. Your video conferencing tool handles this. If you're using the Zoom integration on a paid Zoom plan, recordings are automatically uploaded to Lyssna when saved to the cloud. Otherwise, download the recording after the session and upload it manually.
Take light notes during the conversation rather than trying to capture everything. Focus on moments that surprise you or seem significant, then use our transcription feature on your uploaded recordings so you can fill in the blanks.
Encourage a teammate to join as an observer. Two people in a session means you're less likely to miss something.
For more on joining and hosting your sessions, see Conducting your study with Interviews.
Step 8: Transcribe and summarize
Once your recording is uploaded, you can generate a transcription for it to avoid spending time manually reviewing hours of footage. You can do this in one of two ways: either by uploading a file from your own transcription tool, or using Lyssna's transcription feature.
How to use Lyssna's transcription feature
Go to the Recordings page of your study and select the relevant session.
Click Begin transcription. You can leave the language set to auto-detect, or choose a specific language.
Once transcription is complete, Lyssna will also generate an AI summary alongside the verbatim transcript.
You can copy the transcript to your clipboard or download it as a .txt file from the three-dot menu in the top right of the video player.
Note: Video and transcription storage limits vary by plan. See Conducting your study with Interviews for a full breakdown.
Step 9: Share what you learned
Insights that aren't visible don't influence decisions. A lightweight, consistent sharing habit makes a bigger difference than occasional detailed reports.
After each session, aim to share a brief summary wherever your team gathers – a Slack channel, a shared doc, or your project management tool. A simple structure that works well:
Who the participant is - a sentence on role, company size, or whatever's relevant
What they love - standout positives from the session
What they'd improve – friction points or unmet needs
Other interesting insights – surprising moments or quotes worth flagging
If a participant raises something directly relevant to a feature or backlog item, attach the quote or insight to that item in your project management tool, linked to the participant, so it's captured and traceable.
Over time, look for themes across sessions. A single participant raising something is interesting. The same thing coming up across five sessions from different participants is a signal worth acting on.
Tips for keeping the cadence going
Block recurring time in your calendar for interviews before the week begins, even when no sessions are booked yet. This keeps the habit visible and protected.
Use saved demographic groups in the Lyssna panel so reordering participants takes minutes, not a standing effort.
Keep your study's date range long. Update it every few months rather than creating a new study each time.
Don't wait for the perfect topic. A session without a specific research agenda can still surface useful context. Curiosity is enough to make a session valuable.