10 Things That Make or Break a Qualitative Interview

Are you a student and you have to do a qualitative interview or a focus group interview for your thesis or study project? Feeling nervous and don’t know where to start? In this short article, we’ll give you the best tips & tricks to get the best out of your interviewees. The advice is split into 3 categories: before the interview, during the interview and after the interview.

1) Find a suitable indoor location for the interview. Make sure the place is quiet and private. Otherwise, your interviewee won’t feel comfortable and you run the risk of having a poor audio recording.

2) Test your equipment beforehand. No matter what you use, a phone, a recorder or a microphone – give it a solid quality test before bringing it to the interview. “Nothing can go wrong”, “It was working just fine” – are phrases we commonly hear from students, who are frustrated with their own gear on the day of the interview. You don’t want to lose your professionalism in the eyes of the interviewee, so prepare well.

P.s – don’t have a good voice recorder yet? Check out this guide on best voice recorder for interviews for some recommendations.

3) Briefly describe how are you going to treat the data collected from the interview. If you’re recording the interview, make sure to ask the interviewee’s permission!

4) Quickly describe the structure and key topics that are going to be addressed during the interview. Also, don’t forget to mention its duration and try not to go past that time limit.

5) Human memory isn’t that great. If possible, record the entire interview and take useful notes along the way.

6) You want to obtain rich, saturated information about a subject you’re investigating. That’s why you should avoid asking “yes/ no” questions.

7)  ALWAYS remain calm and neutral. You’re the researcher, who’s just collecting the data. Avoid your personal judgments, criticism or strong emotional reactions, despite what the interviewee says.

8) Keep your questions simple and precise. Adapt your language style to the one of the interviewee and forget all the jargon.

9) Avoid double-barreled questions – questions that raise 2 topics, but allow for only 1 answer. For example: How satisfied are you with the quality of education and on-campus facilities in your university?

10) Make sure to thank the interviewee for his time and input. If he/she has any questions or is interested in learning outcomes of your project, leave some of your contact details.

Bonus tip: What happens after the interview? Hours and hours wasted of transcribing text? Not anymore! We have developed a powerful transcription software, that will do the job for you with a 95% accuracy! Learn more about our transcription services.

Find out more on how to save time with your research interviews.