Listening Deeply
Listening deeply is a powerful skill. Most people are surprised to learn how much their own inner voice and emotions distract them from truly hearing another person. This course teaches how to pay rapt attention. And it teaches when and why to do it.
Self-paced course
Closed captions
Last updated June 2026
Join Indi’s Slack community
6 month access
About the course
Listening is the foundation for inclusivity, for new opportunities to support more people, and also for powerful team efficiency. Having clear techniques for understanding a person’s interior cognition–for developing cognitive empathy–allows professionals the foundation for later finding patterns that will reveal gaps and inclusive, intentional direction for your solutions.
If you prefer:
There is a book that covers the same concepts, Time to Listen.
Course Sections:
Section 1 – Build Awareness
1.1 Meaningful Direction
1.2 Purpose Definition
1.3 Thinking Styles Definition
1.4 Preoccupied Listening
1.5 Deep Listening
1.6 Listening Deeply Frees You
1.7 That Word “Listen”
1.8 Assumptions or Empathy
1.9 Topics, Concepts, Layers
1.10 Interior Cognition
1.11 Getting Past Expression
Section 2 – Listening Session Techniques
2.1 Starting a Session
2.2 The Germinal Question
2.3 How a Session Flows
2.4 Pull Tabs
2.5 Ask – What Went Through Your Mind
2.6 Ask – More About That
2.7 Ask – Fill in the Blank
2.8 Ask – Reflection
2.9 Ask – Why vs. Because
2.10 Pin to a Place & Time
2.11 Clarity – Find the Roots
2.12 Clarity – Passive Into Active
2.13 Avoid These Techniques
Section 3: Transitions & Safe Space
3.1 Shifting Topics
3.2 Instances of the Purpose
3.3 Ending a Session
3.4 Pay Rapt Attention After
3.5 Safe Space & Trust
3.6 Host a Safe Space – Recognize the Mood
3.7 Host a Safe Space – Show You Are Listening
3.8 Host a Safe Space – Avoid Judging
3.9 Host a Safe Space – Bring Warm Personality
3.10 Signals of Fading Safety
3.11 Exit an Unsafe Session
Section 4: Handling Complexity
4.1 Self-Care
4.2 Triggers & Thresholds
4.3 Sensitive Contexts
4.4 Fabrications & Lies
4.5 Complaints & Objections
4.6 Generalizations & Habits
4.7 Derailing & Recovery
4.8 Technical Difficulties
4.9 Planting the Seed
4.10 Preview – Data Synthesis
4.11 Preview – Opportunity Maps
Who is this for?
Everyone.
If you work with other people, you need this course. Listening deeply will do four things:
- Prepare you to take the following courses:
- Raise the bar on your collaboration skills
- And the outcomes of that collaboration
- Reduce strife and misunderstanding
- Generate stronger ideas that will support:
- A broader variety of people
- How people see their own context
- Growth of your solution, brank, and market share
- Build trust relationships
- Between collaborators
- Between team lead and each team member
- Give the gift of feeling heard
- Product Lead, Design Lead, Content Lead
- Design Strategist
- Entrepreneur, Founder
- Ideas Person
- Researcher, Quant, Qual, Mixed Methods
- Software Engineer, Product Engineer
- Marketing
- Stakeholder
- Director
- Board Member
- Advisor
Note: If you are a researcher: a listening session is very different than an interview. It has been described as liberating, terrifying, and humanizing. Hundreds of people have embraced the joy and potency of listening deeply. Come join us!
Note: If reading is more your style, the book Time to Listen covers the same material as this course.
Course Features
- 46 videos, in 4 sections
- Total video time: 11.25 hours
- Demos and examples
- Practice, reflections & quizzes
- Closed captions
- Listen w/ or w/out the screen
Price levels – Listening Deeply
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Testimonials
I would highly recommend it to start thinking differently about how people make decisions. It’s a lot deeper than simply I find this easy to use or I like this better. This is about understanding how people think and feel and learning to improve my skills as a listener. The…
— Steven Grieshaber (UX Researcher – Ex JPL/NASA), 26-Aug-2026
Read moreIt goes without saying, the material of the course itself has been revolutionary to my user research and product discovery approach.
— Mazen Abusharkh, 27-Apr-2026
It’s very detailed but self paced.
— NA, 3-Jul-2026
Indi is an absolute gem! She’s brilliant at teaching you the insights you need to go beyond frantic analysis and endemic assumptions about customers. Instead, she guides you to take a step back and really listen to people. You’ll learn to separate yourself from the solution space and lift yourself…
— Ryan Tessier, 7-Jun-2025
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The content is excellent, simple yet profound, not heavy at all. It will give you a different perspective when it comes to listening to people. Putting it into practice in the Practice Group is a way of consolidating what you gradually digest from the self-paced course. I would also add…
— Fausto Camacho, 29-Apr-2026
Read moreI’ll be honest, this approach is both liberating and terrifying at first – as someone who’s been doing some version of in-depth interviewing for a long time, diving in without research questions and an interview guide feels like cliff diving!
But the results are better. The conversations focus on topics…— Melissa Tullio, 25-Feb-2025
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: If I have questions about the course content, will Indi answer them for me?
A: Asking a question in the Slack community will give Indi, her team, and many other Slack members a chance to see the question and respond to it.
Q: Do the recordings qualify me for Indi’s Problem Space Certification Program?
A: Not quite. You will also want to join the Live Practice series for each course. In these Live Practice meetings, you get to work on exercises together with Indi and others. This is where we discuss nuances of context and share experiences that help others prepare to conduct their own research. Live Practice meetings give you a chance to double your knowledge and demonstrate your understanding.