Interview

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In short: Interviews are designed to help your team gather and organize valuable user feedback. Once you upload a video call transcript, automatically or manually, you can use the [Generate Insights] feature to analyze the transcript with AI, ensuring all relevant information and potential business opportunities are captured. Interviews are the foundation for uncovering patterns and actionable Insights, helping your team make data-driven product decisions.

What are Interviews?

Interviews provide valuable insights during product discovery by connecting you directly with users or stakeholders. These conversations help you understand real needs, validate ideas, and uncover opportunities to build user-focused solutions.

In Timebook, Interviews are dedicated objects designed to capture valuable feedback as part of the discovery process. They have their own module within the platform and function similarly to Tickets, but with a specific focus on gathering insights through conversations with users, stakeholders, or team members.

In Timebook, you can attach an Interview to video meetings to streamline the feedback-gathering process. Once the meeting concludes, transcripts are automatically captured and linked to the Interview. From these transcripts, you can generate Insights, as Timebook’s AI highlights key observations, themes, and opportunities to uncover valuable findings for your product decisions.

This is what an Interview card looks like in the expanded view.

As a Team Admin or Owner, you must first enable the Interview feature in your Team’s settings. You can also customize the [Interviews] module’s behavior by creating custom statuses or increasing automatization by integrating with Git.

For more information, see Interview settings

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Managing Interviews in a dedicated module

Timebook has a dedicated module for managing Interviews, providing a streamlined way to capture and organize valuable feedback. The [Interviews] module is designed to help you plan, store, and analyze conversations with users and stakeholders.

You can access Interview-related data in two ways:

• From the Discovery section: Open the [Interviews] module in the [Discovery] section of the Navigator to view all Interviews across your entire Timebook Workplace.
• From a specific Team: Open the [Interviews] module within a Team to see only the Interviews assigned to that Team, offering a more focused view.

Manage all Interviews across your Workplace or focus on specific Team only.

As a UX Designer, you can use the [Interviews] module to gather feedback directly from users, understand their needs, and identify pain points. You can design user-centered solutions that improve the overall experience and align with real user expectations.

As a Product Owner, you can leverage the [Interviews] module to capture stakeholder and user input and prioritize features based on their feedback. This helps ensure your product backlog reflects the most valuable opportunities.

The [Interviews] module holds all the relevant product discovery data, which you can customize using various layouts, filters, and grouping options. Additionally, you can save these customized views as public for all members to access or keep them private for your personal use.

We have dedicated articles that explain how to manage data views and layouts in several Timebook modules, including this one.

For more information, see Layouts & views

Creating an Interview

You can create Interview objects directly in the dedicated module to build a list of upcoming conversations. This ensures an Interview becomes your Team’s resource and can be attached to a specific Meeting as needed. Alternatively, a more natural approach is to create an Interview object while scheduling a Meeting. This ensures the Interview is automatically linked to the Meeting and captures the transcript once the Meeting concludes.

You can create new Interviews directly in Timebook, but if you already have data in a .csv file, you can import it instead. During the import process, you can map columns from your file to Timebook properties to ensure your data is structured correctly.

For more information, see Importing data into Timebook

To create an Interview for a specific Meeting:

This is how you create an Interview using a Meeting card.

1. In your calendar, in the Agenda module, create a new Meeting.
2. Find the [Interview] section and click the [Create Interview] button.

3. Give your new Interview a meaningful name and description. You can also assign it to a selected Team.

4. The new Interview is now attached to the Meeting. Click [Go to Interview] to open the Interview’s card.

If you create an Interview using the method above and don’t reassign it, it will be stored in the [Created by me] section of My Work. An Interview assigned to a specific Team can be found in the [Interviews] module of that Team.

You can link existing Interviews to Meetings directly from the Meeting’s card.

Use the [Interview] section of the selected Meeting's card and click the [Add] button. Then select [Add existing] and choose an Interview object from the list of all Interviews not currently linked to any meetings.

For more information on Meeting creation, see Meeting

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Interview cards

In Timebook, each Interview has its own card that displays all the options and properties you can use to manage it. In different layouts, you can also use cards to move your Interviews around. For instance, you can drag and drop an Interview card to:

• Mark the status and progress of the Interview in the Board layout.

• Change the Interview’s position in the List layout.

After you open an Interview card, you can manage and navigate using the options in the top bar.

The top bar of an Interview card gives you plenty of additional options.

Options available in the top bar

1. [Navigation arrows] These arrows help you navigate between recently opened objects. Use the arrows to quickly return to the previous object and then move back to the original one. This is especially useful when navigating between linked objects or parent and sub-objects.

2. [Parent object indicator] If your Interview has a defined parent object, we will show the parent’s type and name here. You can click the indicator to open the parent object’s card.

3. [Item ID] This field shows the unique number of your Interview in Timebook. Click the ID field to copy it for future reference.

4. The following options are available in the top-right corner of the card:

   • [Collapse/Expand] This button lets you show or hide the right-side drawer. The drawer contains all the properties of your Interview, such as status and creation details. Expand the drawer to modify properties or collapse it to focus on the description or attachments.

   • [Copy link] Use this button to copy a link to your Interview for quick sharing with others.

   • [Watch] If you’re not the creator or assignee but still want to stay informed, you can watch an object to track changes. You can also assign others as watchers. Once you start watching, you’ll receive notifications about all important updates. All your watched objects are easily accessible in the [Watched] tab of My Work.
   • [...] Use this additional menu for more options. You can [Duplicate] your Interview to create an identical copy in the same location, [Link parent] to select a parent object for your Interview, or [Delete] it if it’s no longer needed.

You can safely close an Interview card by clicking out of it. We will save all the changes you made to the Interview.

Interview card: Sections

When you look at the left side of an Interview card, you’ll notice several sections. Each section has a specific purpose: to help you describe your work, categorize it, or add supporting resources. The [Transcript] and [Insights] sections are particularly important as you can generate interview Insights with AI and manage them.

You can collapse or expand Interview card sections to focus on what’s relevant.

Here’s an overview of the sections of an Opportunity card and their purpose:

Name

You can edit this field at any time to rename your Interview. Next to this field is a switch that lets you change the type of your Interview. Click the icon next to the name to select a different type.

Tags

This section allows you to categorize your Interview using tags. Tags help you find and identify objects in Timebook, as you can filter or group content by tags in various modules.

You can [Add tags] using the dedicated button or remove them by hovering over a tag and clicking [X]. For more information, see Tags

Description

This is where you provide more details about your Interview. Enter text here, or press “/” to access advanced options. Use them to format your description, link other Timebook elements, or insert embedded content from external sources.

These text-formatting options are similar to those available in Timebook Documents. For more information, see Blocks

Transcript

Use this section to upload and manage a transcript for your Interview. The transcript can be captured automatically from the recording of the related Meeting. But you can also upload a transcript file manually.

See below for more information on handling transcripts in Timebook.

Links & attachments

This section is where you can support an Interview with links to external resources or attachments, such as files or Timebook Documents. Click the [+] button and choose the type of resource you want to add. Next, provide the link and a brief description.

Each linked resource type is marked with a dedicated icon, so you can quickly distinguish Figma links from Loom links, for example.

Insights

Unlike other card sections available in other Timebook objects, the [Insights] section is unique to Interviews. It displays all Insight objects that were AI-generated from the Interview’s transcript or manually assigned to it. Here, you can use the [+] button to create Insights or link existing ones with the [Link] button.

For more information on the Insight object and its specifics, see Insight

Most of the sections presented above are not exclusive to Interview cards.

Cards of other object types in Timebook, such as Work Items or Tickets, have nearly identical designs.

Interview card: Tabs

When you look at the right side of an Interview card, you’ll notice several tabs. They allow you to further define your Interview, provide an update, and track changes over time.

Use the tabs on the right to make the most of the Interview card.

Here’s an overview of the Interview card tabs and their purpose:

Tab name	How to use it
Properties	In this tab, you can view and edit various properties of an Interview, such as assigning it to a specific Team or updating its Status. For more information, see our separate article dedicated to Properties This tab also includes the [Scheduled Interview] section, which shows details of the Meeting to which your Interview is attached. If the Interview isn’t linked to a Meeting, this section remains hidden. You’ll also find here the [Interview recording] section, which becomes available only after the Meeting ends. You can then use it to view or copy the link to the Meeting’s video recording.
Comments	This tab allows Workplace members to communicate, share updates, and collaborate directly within the Interview. They can ask questions, provide updates, or offer feedback, making it a central communication hub. You can mention others using the @ symbol and notify specific people directly. For more information, see Comments
Activity	This tab tracks all actions and changes made to this Interview, providing a detailed history of events. It displays them in chronological order, showing when changes were made and by whom. The information in this tab is generated automatically, usually including status updates, reassignments, and comments.

We put all the tabs in a drawer, so you can hide them by clicking the [Collapse/Expand] button at the top of your Interview card.

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Managing Interview transcripts

The [Transcript] section on Interview cards allows you to manage the meeting transcript and capture valuable feedback:

• If your Interview is linked to an upcoming Meeting, the transcript will be uploaded automatically once the Meeting ends.
• If you link your Interview to a past Meeting that already has a transcript, it will be automatically added to your Interview.

• If the Interview isn’t linked to a Meeting, you can manually upload a .txt or .vtt file with the transcript from your device. See below for more information.

Use the […] menu on the attached transcript file to download, replace, or delete it. You can also click on the transcript file to preview its contents.

Once the transcript is uploaded, the [Generate Insights] button will appear, enabling you to analyze the transcript using Timebook AI capabilities. The AI identifies user pain points and ideas for improvement, generating actionable Insight objects to help you make informed product decisions.

Use Timebook AI capabilities to generate Insights from Interviews with little effort.

Insights generated from the transcript can be found in the [Insights] section at the bottom of the Interview card.

You can also take control by creating or linking Insights manually in the same section. Whether you want to capture additional context or summarize ideas not included in the transcript, you have the flexibility to do so.

Uploading transcript files

The method for uploading transcripts to Interview objects in Timebook depends on the app used for video recording. Follow the instructions below to ensure transcripts are properly uploaded and available in your Interview objects in Timebook.

To add a Zoom transcript to a Timebook Interview:

1. Verify that your Zoom account has the appropriate pricing plan and that your Cloud Recording settings are correctly configured. For more details about supported plans and recording options, refer to this Zoom support page.
2. In Timebook, create a Meeting and:

   • Create an Interview object for your Meeting, as explained above.
   • Enable the [Video call] toggle for the Meeting and select [Zoom] as the video call option.

3. In Zoom, when the video call starts, make sure to click [Record to cloud].

4. Once the call ends, its transcript will be automatically uploaded to the Interview object linked to the Timebook Meeting.

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To add a Google Meet transcript to a Timebook Interview:

1. In Timebook, create a Meeting and enable the [Video call] toggle. Select [Google Meet] as the video call option.
2. After scheduling the Meeting, edit it to create an Interview object, as explained above.
3. When the video call starts in Google Meet, enable transcript capturing. For detailed steps, refer to this Google Meet support page.
4. Once the call ends, open the corresponding Meeting in Timebook. Click the [Go to Interview] button to access the Interview object you created in Step 2.

5. In the [Transcript] section of the Interview, click the [+] button and select [Google Drive]. Locate the transcript from your Google Meet call, select it, and confirm. The transcript will be added to the Interview object in Timebook.

You can manually upload a transcript file to an Interview object, no matter its source.

Keep in mind that Timebook only supports .txt and .vtt file types for transcript uploads.

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Related articles

Interview settings

Insight

Meeting