How to Conduct an Effective Interview

1
How to Conduct an Effective Interview
2
Before the Interview

• Familiarize yourself with the guide
• Set a clear time and place to meet
• Take all materials you will need with you to the
  interview

3
Familiarize yourself with the guide

• In order to have a productive interview, both you
  and the interviewee need to be comfortable. The
  best interviews usually happen when the
  interviewer thinks of the interview as a guided
  conversation with the interviewee. One way that
  you can become more relaxed for the interview is
  to become familiar with the interview script.
  Read it over several times so that you can use it
  more as a reference than a script during the
  interview.

4
Set a Clear Time and Place to Meet

• Agree on a specific time and location for the
  interview - make sure you are on time or early!
• When setting up the interview, remember that it
  is helpful to conduct the interview in a private
  setting, free from too many distractions
• Since the interviewee is generously giving their
  time to participate, make sure you respect their
  time constraints. Ask for a specific amount of
  time for the interview (30-60 minutes).

5
Take all materials you need with you

• Making sure you have everything you need for the
  interview will help it to go smoothly. You may
  need to remember
• The interview guide
• A recording device (audio or video)
• Paper and pen (to take notes and as a back-up if
  the recorder does not work)
• Your business cards - so they can contact you if
  needed after the interview
• The contact information for the World Inquiry, in
  case they have further questions or want to learn
  more about the project

6
During the Interview

• Be aware of the room set up
• Use the guide as a guide, not a script
• Keep listening
• Enjoy yourself!

7
Be aware of the room

• Try to make the room free from distractions,
  close the door if needed
• Make sure you are both comfortable and can hear
  each other easily. You may need to move your
  chair to facilitate this.
• If you are recording, make sure that the recorder
  is unobtrusive, but in a place that can pick up
  the conversation
• If you are video-taping, make sure that the
  interviewee is not back-lit -- that is sitting
  in front of a window or something else that will
  make them hard to see on the video

8
Use the guide as a guide

• Remember a good interview is only a good
  conversation
• While the guide is meant to serve as a framework
  for the interview, you may need to add follow-up
  questions and other additions when you feel it
  will be helpful in soliciting more details from
  the interviewee
• Remember that a major goal of the interview is to
  get the story of a golden innovation (which is a
  new, innovative business practice) that is going
  on in the world, and so you want to get as many
  concrete details as possible. To do this, you
  will want to add some probing follow-up questions
  that you feel will help guide the interviewee
  toward sharing more details about their stories.

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Helpful phrases

• That is really interesting, can you tell me more
  about that?
• What a good story, I would like to hear more of
  the details about
• Is there anything else you can tell me
  regarding?

10
Keep listening

• In addition to using such follow-up questions,
  you may hear the interviewee mention something
  during an answer that sparks your interest or
  curiosity. They may be talking about a golden
  innovation, and mention something else that could
  be another golden innovation. Keep your ears and
  mind open, and feel free to ask more questions or
  go back to something the interviewee mentioned
  earlier or only in passing. You may want to say
  things like
• That sounds like another good story, I would
  like to go back to that in a minute.
• You mentioned ____ earlier, lets spend some
  time talking about that for a moment.
• I am really curious about a topic you mentioned,
  can you tell me more about ___?

11
Enjoy yourself!
These interviews are fun and often very
meaningful for both the interviewee and the
interviewer. Remember to have fun, and smile!
Your non-verbals will help set the stage for a
great interview.
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After the interview

• Thank your interviewee
• Ask them if they have any questions for you
• Leave them your name and contact information, as
  well as information about the World Inquiry