How to Turn User Interviews into a Requirements Document in 2026: A Complete 5-Step Guide

Have you ever been in this situation: you've done three interviews, the recordings are sitting on your phone, your notes are scattered across three different chat apps, and when it's time to write the requirements document, you have to listen to everything from scratch?

The problem usually isn't that you don't know how to interview—it's that you didn't choose the right recording tool.

My decision point is simple: will you need to look back at this interview data later? If yes, you need to keep the recording. If you need to find things quickly, you need to be able to import existing audio, understand Chinese, and turn transcripts into deliverable documents.

This article compares Tinrec and Granola in the interview context. Both focus on not requiring a meeting bot to join your meetings, but when it comes to turning interviews into requirements documents, the differences are bigger than you might think.

Tinrec vs Granola | Quick Overview

• Tinrec: An AI meeting notes and collaboration tool for individuals and teams. It supports live recording, bot-free online meeting transcription, audio/video file import, and real-time translation, and produces summaries, chapters, action items, mind maps, and AI Q&A.
• Granola: A bot-free AI meeting notes tool that transcribes in real time via your desktop's system audio and microphone, then combines that with your handwritten notes to generate meeting content. It supports viewing, copying, and searching live transcripts.
• Key differences: Granola does not support uploading pre-recorded audio files and does not save meeting audio. Tinrec keeps recordings, can import existing audio files, and extends post-meeting outputs to reports, tables, and documents.
• Pricing overview: Granola offers a free Basic plan, Business at USD 14 per user per month, and Enterprise at USD 35 per user per month. Tinrec's personal plan ranges from free to annual, and the team plan is USD 29.80 per paid seat per month or USD 199 per paid seat per year (about USD 16.58 per month).

Below, we compare step by step along the 5 steps from interview to requirements document.

Dimension 1 | Capture It: Can the interview recording be kept for later review and verification?

Granola generates live transcripts and supports viewing, copying, and searching, but it does not save meeting audio. If you're halfway through writing the requirements document and you're not sure what a certain sentence meant, you can only go back to the transcript text—you can't replay the tone and context of the moment.

Tinrec, on the other hand, keeps recordings, and audio can go into the team recycle bin. The current retention period is 30 days, and it can be restored before permanent deletion begins. For interview research, being able to replay the original recording means you can verify the interviewee's exact words, rather than just trusting the transcription.

Anyone who has done interviews knows this feeling: for the same question, the interviewee's hesitation, additions, and corrections often carry more information than a single line in the transcript.

→ This dimension: Tinrec wins clearly.

Dimension 2 | Put It In: Can existing interview audio files be imported?

Granola is designed primarily for live meeting notes and does not support uploading pre-recorded audio files. That means the batch of previous interview recordings on your phone can't be dropped into the same place for unified organization.

Tinrec supports audio and video file transcription, so you can import existing interviews and historical recordings together. In the team plan, file and web imports use team shared import minutes, and each paid seat provides 2,000 minutes of team shared import quota per month.

If your requirements document needs to cross-reference what multiple interviewees said, being able to put old data into the same database is often more critical than transcription speed.

→ This dimension: Tinrec wins.

Dimension 3 | Hear It Accurately: Chinese, mixed Chinese-English, and real-time translation

Tinrec covers Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and multilingual meeting scenarios. It supports real-time translation, which can be viewed by original text, translation, or bilingual mode, and it also lets you maintain industry terminology with team hotwords. Granola is primarily designed for English meeting notes.

Note that no tool should promise a fixed accuracy rate externally. Actual transcription results are affected by recording quality, background noise, accents, overlapping speakers, and specialized terminology. For important sections, it's best to verify by replaying the recording.

→ This dimension: When interviews are conducted in Chinese, Tinrec is a better fit.

Dimension 4 | Turn It into a Document: From transcript to deliverable output

The output of a requirements interview is usually not a transcript, but a document you can take into a discussion. After transcription, Tinrec provides summaries, chapters, key points, and action item extraction, can generate mind maps, and supports AI Q&A around meeting content. When you need to deliver, you can export to Notion, Google Docs, OneNote, Dropbox, and other tools, or use Agent post-processing to generate reports, tables, and documents.

Granola's strength is combining your handwritten notes with AI to produce meeting content that is closer to your personal thinking, while also offering Q&A and integration capabilities.

In practice, a requirements document needs to separate original statements, context, and follow-up actions. The more output formats you have, the more room you have to reorganize.

→ This dimension: Tinrec wins.

Dimension 5 | Use It: Team collaboration, data retention, and cost

Tinrec's team plan is a separate team space, not multiple people sharing one personal account. Pay attention to the difference between roles and seats: roles determine who can manage the team, members, audit, and settings; seats determine whether a member can record, upload, edit, import/export, and use team resources. Members without a seat but with valid status can still view, play, and read team data.

For interview projects, this means the data belongs to the team. When a member leaves, is removed, or loses their seat, they need to hand over the team resources they are responsible for to other valid members, and the data does not leave with the individual. The team plan also provides invite links, usage analytics, audit logs, team hotwords, and an audio recycle bin.

Granola offers shared folders, user and enterprise management. Basic is free, Business is USD 14 per user per month, and Enterprise is USD 35 per user per month.

On pricing, Tinrec's team plan offers a first eligible trial of 7 days, 1 free seat, and 300 minutes of team shared import quota. The team monthly plan is USD 29.80 per paid seat per month, and the annual plan is USD 199 per paid seat per year, about USD 16.58 per month. Each paid seat provides 2,000 minutes of team shared import quota per month. Under an active team plan and active seat, live recording is currently not deducted by minutes. The personal plan ranges from free to weekly to Pro monthly and annual, so you can choose flexibly based on your tasks. Prices, currencies, and promotions are subject to the official purchase page.

→ This dimension: Tie. Both can get you started for free, and the trade-off at paid tiers depends on how much Chinese transcription, recording retention, and team governance you need.

What unique advantages does each have?

On Tinrec's side:

• No meeting bot needed: The desktop version directly captures your computer's system audio, so when handling online meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, etc., you don't need to invite an extra bot into the meeting.
• Interview data is traceable: Recording retention plus the team audio recycle bin means important information can be verified against the original audio.
• Complete import and output: Existing audio files can be transcribed, and after the meeting you can export in multiple formats or use Agent post-processing to generate reports, tables, and documents.
• Solid team governance: Members, roles, seats, usage analytics, audit logs, and team hotwords are all in one space.

On Granola's side:

• Handwritten notes plus AI enhancement: Suitable for people who already have their own note-taking rhythm; AI enhances content along your notes.
• Context accumulation across meetings: Emphasizes understanding context across consecutive meetings and offers a free Basic plan to start at zero cost.

Summary: Which one should you choose?

• Interviews need to be replayed afterward to verify the interviewee's exact words → Tinrec (Granola does not save meeting audio)
• You already have a batch of interview recordings to organize together → Tinrec (supports audio/video file import)
• Interviews are conducted in Chinese or mixed Chinese-English → Tinrec (Chinese and multilingual, real-time translation, team hotwords)
• You want to directly produce deliverable reports, tables, and documents → Tinrec (Agent post-processing and multi-format export)
• You need the team to view together and data to stay with the team when members change → Tinrec team plan
• You already have a fixed handwritten note-taking habit and only need note enhancement for English meetings → Granola is enough

In one sentence: For most people who need to turn interviews into requirements documents, Tinrec is the more complete choice. I recommend starting with the free plan and trying transcription and summarization on one of your own interview recordings.

FAQ

Q1: Do I need to get the interviewee's consent before recording? Yes. Recording and transcription involve personal data and local regulations. You should obtain the interviewee's consent beforehand and handle audio files according to your team's or organization's policies.

Q2: Can Tinrec directly generate a requirements document? It can turn interview recordings into transcripts and generate summaries, chapters, action items, reports, tables, and documents as material for writing a requirements document. The scope and priorities of the requirements still need human judgment and confirmation.

Q3: Is the free plan enough? The personal free plan lets you try basic quotas for recording, importing, summarization, and transcription. If you only occasionally organize one interview, the free plan is enough. If you have intensive interviews or courses in the short term, consider the weekly plan. If you have steady needs every week, Pro or the annual plan is more suitable.

Q4: Can all team members edit the team's meeting data? Valid members without a seat can view, play, and read team data, but recording, uploading, editing, and importing/exporting require a seat. The team plan currently focuses on team-level sharing, not file-level granular permissions.

Q5: Can you guarantee transcription accuracy? We do not recommend promising a fixed accuracy rate. Actual results are affected by recording quality, noise, accents, overlapping speakers, and specialized terminology. For important content, it's best to verify using transcript timestamps and recording playback.

Q6: Can team audio be recovered after deletion? After audio enters the team recycle bin, it can be restored before permanent deletion begins. The current recycle bin retention period is 30 days. Action items are not covered by the recycle bin.

References

• Requirements Interview / Requirements Specification / Work Item Control Table - HackMD
• 2. Early Stage and Requirements Interview · monoame_web_strategy
• 3. Requirements Elicitation · Software Requirements and Functional Specification - Taking an Online Bakery Website as an Example
• Requirements Analysis by Treating Customers as Partners | iThome
• What I Learned and Gained from User Interviews | A Piece of Design | apo design - Design Co-writing Blog