Interviewing involves to two types of skills. The first is questioning skills. By asking the right types of questions in the right sequence, you can elicit more complete information from informants than likely without these techniques.

The other is rapport building skills. These skills help you build rapport with your informant so that they trust you and freely give you information. In fact, when you develop a sufficiently strong rapport with informants, they contact you when they have information they think you might be interested in).

The following procedure suggests how you might plan for and conduct an interview. Following this procedure should help you elicit the desired information from your informants and develop a good rapport with them.

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Before the Interview

1. What is your purpose? Concretely state the type of information you hope to get by the end of the interview. Suppose, for example, that you were asked to prepare information for end users of a new software application and plan to interview the chief designer of the application.

By the end of the first interview, you might want to know what the application is and the five tasks that users are most likely to perform with it. Similarly, suppose you are developing the internal policies guide for a medium-sized retailer and you plan to interview the human resources manager. By the end of the interview, you might want to know the policies that need to be addressed and how they will be administered.

2. What types of things do you need to ask so informants reveal the desired information? List the broad topics for 3 to 7 questions. If you have more questions than that, you probably need to schedule a second interview. Suppose once again that you are preparing information for end users of a new software application and your goal is finding out which tasks will most commonly perform with the application. Your topic areas might include:
• Most common tasks
• Character sketches of typical users
• How users currently perform these tasks
• How easily will users be able to learn these tasks
• The most likely "tough spots"
3. Present these topics as questions. When writing questions, focus on "open" questions. Open questions require more than a single word as an answer and therefore more likely to elicit information from informants. Open questions usually begin with words like what, why, and how . Avoid closed questions, questions that only require an answer of a single word. Any question that requires a yes or no answer is an example of a closed question.

Consider the question about the most difficult tasks for users to learn. An example of a closed question is:

X Are there any tasks that users might find difficult?

The informant might respond yes, but you will have to ask another question to find out which tasks are difficult. In contrast, this open question is likely to elicit the sought-after information on the first try:

Y Which tasks do you expect users to have most difficulty with?

This list of questions is called an interview guide.

When writing questions, also consider these suggestions:

• Avoid "double-barrelled" questions, that is, questions that really ask two things at once, such as "Are you a technical communicator and do you exercise regularly?"
• Avoid negatives in questions; focus, instead, on the positive
• Be careful using technical terminology in questions; make sure that your informant will understand the term or be prepared to provide a clear, succinct definition
4. Contact the informant and schedule an appointment for the interview. A first interview should take about 1 to 2 hours. Later, when you build a rapport, you can meet for a longer period of time. When scheduling the interview, tell the informant what your goal is. The informant can review any appropriate documents and make copies for you, if appropriate.
5. Review your interview guide.
6. Determine how you plan to record information--audiotape or notes--and make sure you have the appropriate equipment or materials before the interview.

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At the Interview

1. Be prompt. Appearing late for an interview, especially a first interview, interferes with your ability to build trust with an informant. If you are going to be late, call to let the informant know. Most informants understand that some delays cannot be avoided.
2. Be prepared. Walk in with all materials ready to use (other than quickly setting up the tape recorder, if you use one).
3. If you plan to record the interview, first ask the informant if he or she minds your doing so. Only after the informant provides permission should you turn on the tape recorder.
4. Begin the interview by repeating the purpose. Ask questions. Start with your first question.
5. Although you have an interview guide, consider straying from it if the informant is providing you useful information.

As the informant responds to your questions, make sure that you clearly and completely understand the responses. If you do not, ask your informant to clarify points that seem unclear, amplify points that seem ambiguous, and to verify points (for this purpose, you might use closed questions, such as "Did you say that...")

6. Actively listen to what the participant says. People provide you with information when they believe that you are listening to them. Whenever possible, use the informants own words as a means of reflecting back the informants’ responses and of encouraging further discussion. For example, suppose the informant told you that "users are really going to love this product."

You respond. "Really going to love this product?"

"Oh yes," the informant replies, and continues to explain how.

7. Do not exceed the time limit for the interview. Instead, ask the informant if you may continue beyond the scheduled time or schedule an additional interview.
8. Before closing the interview, summarize the main points with the informant to verify that you correctly understand the information provided.

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After the Interview

1. Write a thank-you note to acknowledge your appreciation for the interview.
2. Transcribe your notes and assess whether you actually whether or not you got the information you wanted. If not, identify the information that’s missing and determine whether you want to interview the informant again or seek the information from another source.

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(c) Copyright. 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. Saul Carliner. All rights reserved.