Research interviews
Interviewing people for research purposes is not as easy as it may seem. Thorough preparation is required and many issues need to be considered. The following questions should help you to plan for a successful interview.
Preparation
Who
- Whom will you interview?
- How will you approach them?
- From whom do you need to obtain permission?
- How will you select them?
Why
- For what purposes are you interviewing?
- Exactly what do you hope to get from the interviews (that you could not get in other ways)?
How
- How will you carry out the interview? (face to face, telephone?)
- How will you record what you find? (tape, film, take notes, other?)
- How will you obtain permission to interview people?
Where
- Where will you interview people (at place of employment? Other?)
- If you are recording, is there a quiet place?
When
- How will you schedule interviews?
- How long will you need?
- How far apart will you schedule them?
What
- Sort of interview will it be (structured, semi-structured)?
- Will you (or the interviewee) need to fill out a questionnaire?
- Will you need to obtain some data before you begin the interview?
- Will you have a pro-forma to fill out/be filled out?
NOTE:
- Keep a schedule with names of people to be interviewed, dates, times, places etc. and keep this up to date. Have a copy with you when you are doing your interviews and keep a copy on file.
- If possible send interviewees a brief outline of your project/topic before your interview and include your contact details. Let your interviewees know if you require any documents, so that they can have these ready from you (eg, information about their company).
- Try the interview out with a friend and tape this to check for any problems. You may find that some questions are unsuitable or ambiguous or do not give you the sort of information you require.
- You may find that you speak too much instead of letting the interviewee speak! If recording, you will need a very good quality tape recorder. Try out the best volume at which to tape.
Conducting the interview
Most interviews go through the following phases:- Greeting, warm up. Greet appropriately, shaking hands etc.
- Setting the scene.
- Remind your interviewee of why you are there and what your topic is.
- Ask if it's alright to tape (if applicable).
- Do a trial question to check the tape.
- Remind your interviewee that the interview is absolutely confidential.
- Gather preliminary data. If you need to gather preliminary data do this first (for example, name of firm, exact spelling of person's name, title, anything else about their position).
- Doing the interview. Either record or take notes (or both). If you are doing a semi-structured interview be sure to ask probe questions and allow the interviewee to ask for clarification. Be careful not to speak too much.
- Winding down. When you have finished your question, check to see if you have the information you need. If you are not sure, you should repeat certain questions.
- Concluding the interview.
- Ask the interviewee if they have any questions of you.
- Inform them if there will be any follow-up (later interview, copy of the interview notes for endorsement, a report etc).
- Thank them for their time.
- Assure them again that the information they have given you will be kept confidential.