how to conduct an interview for research paper

Using an interview in a research paper

Consultant contributor: Viviane Ugalde

Using an interview can be an effective primary source for some papers and research projects. Finding an expert in the field or some other person who has knowledge of your topic can allow for you to gather unique information not available elsewhere.

There are four steps to using an interview as a source for your research.

• Know where and how to start.
• Know how to write a good question.
• Know how to conduct an interview.
• Know how to incorporate the interview into your document or project.

Step one: Where to start

First, you should determine your goals and ask yourself these questions:

• Who are the local experts on topic?
• How can I contact these people?
• Does anyone know them to help me setup the interviews?
• Are their phone numbers in the phone book or can I find them on the Internet?

Once you answer these questions and pick your interviewee, get their basic information such as their name, title, and other general details. If you reach out and your interview does not participate, don’t be discouraged. Keep looking for other interview contacts.

Step two: How to write a good question

When you have confirmed an interview, it is not time to come up with questions.

• Learning as much as you can about the person before the interview can help you create questions specific to your interview subject.
• Doing research about your interviewee’s past experience in your topic, or any texts that they have written would be great background research.

When you start to think of questions, write down more questions than you think you’ll need, and prioritize them as you go. Any good questions will answer the 5W and H questions. Asking Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How questions that you need answered for your paper, will help you form a question to ask your interviewee.

When writing a good question, try thinking of something that will help your argument.

• Is your interviewee an advocate for you position?
• Are they in any programs that are related to your research?
• How much experience do they have?

From broad questions like these, you can begin to narrow down to more specific and open-ended questions.

Step three: The interview

If at all possible, arrange to conduct the interview at the subject’s workplace. It will make them more comfortable, and you can write about their surroundings.

• Begin the interview with some small talk in order to give both of you the chance to get comfortable with one another
• Develop rapport that will make the interview easier for both of you.
• Ask open-ended questions
• Keep the conversation moving
• Stay on topic
• The more silence in the room, the more honest the answer.
• If an interesting subject comes up that is related to your research, ask a follow-up or an additional question about it.
• Ask if you can stay in contact with your interview subject in case there are any additional questions you have.

Step four: Incorporating the interview

When picking the material out of your interview, remember that people rarely speak perfectly. There will be many slang words and pauses that you can take out, as long as it does not change the meaning of the material you are using.

As you introduce your interview in the paper, start with a transition such as “according to” or other attributions. You should also be specific to the type of interview you are working with. This way, you will build a stronger ethos in your paper .

The body of your essay should clearly set up the quote or paraphrase you use from the interview responses,. Be careful not to stick a quote from the interview into the body of your essay because it sounds good. When deciding what to quote in your paper, think about what dialogue from the interview would add the most color to your interview. Quotes that illustrate what your interviewer sounded like, or what their personality is are always the best quotes to choose from.

Once you have done that, proofread your essay. Make sure the quotes you used don’t make up the majority of your paper. The interview quotes are supposed to support your argument; you are not supposed to support the interview.

For example, let’s say that you are arguing that free education is better than not. For your argument, you interview a local politician who is on your side of the argument. Rather than using a large quote that explains the stance of both sides, and why the politician chose this side, your quote is there to support the information you’ve already given. Whatever the politician says should prove what you argue, and not give new information.

Step five: Examples of citing your interviews 

Smith, Jane. Personal interview. 19 May 2018.

(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2018).

Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal communication, November 3, 2018).

Reference list

Daly, C. & Leighton W. (2017). Interviewing a Source: Tips. Journalists Resource.

Driscoll, D. (2018 ). Interviewing. Purdue University

Hayden, K. (2012). How to Conduct an Interview to Write a Paper . Bright Hub Education, Bright Hub Inc.

Hose, C. (2017). How to Incorporate Interviews into Essays. Leaf Group Education.

Magnesi, J. (2017). How to Interview Someone for an Article or Research Paper. Career Trend, Leaf group Media.

How to conduct qualitative interviews (tips and best practices)

Last updated

18 May 2023

Reviewed by

Miroslav Damyanov

However, conducting qualitative interviews can be challenging, even for seasoned researchers. Poorly conducted interviews can lead to inaccurate or incomplete data, significantly compromising the validity and reliability of your research findings.

When planning to conduct qualitative interviews, you must adequately prepare yourself to get the most out of your data. Fortunately, there are specific tips and best practices that can help you conduct qualitative interviews effectively.

• What is a qualitative interview?

A qualitative interview is a research technique used to gather in-depth information about people's experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions. Unlike a structured questionnaire or survey, a qualitative interview is a flexible, conversational approach that allows the interviewer to delve into the interviewee's responses and explore their insights and experiences.

In a qualitative interview, the researcher typically develops a set of open-ended questions that provide a framework for the conversation. However, the interviewer can also adapt to the interviewee's responses and ask follow-up questions to understand their experiences and views better.

• How to conduct interviews in qualitative research

Conducting interviews involves a well-planned and deliberate process to collect accurate and valid data. 

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to conduct interviews in qualitative research, broken down into three stages:

1. Before the interview

The first step in conducting a qualitative interview is determining your research question . This will help you identify the type of participants you need to recruit . Once you have your research question, you can start recruiting participants by identifying potential candidates and contacting them to gauge their interest in participating in the study. 

After that, it's time to develop your interview questions. These should be open-ended questions that will elicit detailed responses from participants. You'll also need to get consent from the participants, ideally in writing, to ensure that they understand the purpose of the study and their rights as participants. Finally, choose a comfortable and private location to conduct the interview and prepare the interview guide.

2. During the interview

Start by introducing yourself and explaining the purpose of the study. Establish a rapport by putting the participants at ease and making them feel comfortable. Use the interview guide to ask the questions, but be flexible and ask follow-up questions to gain more insight into the participants' responses. 

Take notes during the interview, and ask permission to record the interview for transcription purposes. Be mindful of the time, and cover all the questions in the interview guide.

3. After the interview

Once the interview is over, transcribe the interview if you recorded it. If you took notes, review and organize them to make sure you capture all the important information. Then, analyze the data you collected by identifying common themes and patterns. Use the findings to answer your research question. 

Finally, debrief with the participants to thank them for their time, provide feedback on the study, and answer any questions they may have.

• What kinds of questions should you ask in a qualitative interview?

Qualitative interviews involve asking questions that encourage participants to share their experiences, opinions, and perspectives on a particular topic. These questions are designed to elicit detailed and nuanced responses rather than simple yes or no answers.

Effective questions in a qualitative interview are generally open-ended and non-leading. They avoid presuppositions or assumptions about the participant's experience and allow them to share their views in their own words. 

In customer research , you might ask questions such as:

What motivated you to choose our product/service over our competitors?

How did you first learn about our product/service?

Can you walk me through your experience with our product/service?

What improvements or changes would you suggest for our product/service?

Have you recommended our product/service to others, and if so, why?

The key is to ask questions relevant to the research topic and allow participants to share their experiences meaningfully and informally. 

• How to determine the right qualitative interview participants

Choosing the right participants for a qualitative interview is a crucial step in ensuring the success and validity of the research . You need to consider several factors to determine the right participants for a qualitative interview. These may include:

Relevant experiences : Participants should have experiences related to the research topic that can provide valuable insights.

Diversity : Aim to include diverse participants to ensure the study's findings are representative and inclusive.

Access : Identify participants who are accessible and willing to participate in the study.

Informed consent : Participants should be fully informed about the study's purpose, methods, and potential risks and benefits and be allowed to provide informed consent.

You can use various recruitment methods, such as posting ads in relevant forums, contacting community organizations or social media groups, or using purposive sampling to identify participants who meet specific criteria.

• How to make qualitative interview subjects comfortable

Making participants comfortable during a qualitative interview is essential to obtain rich, detailed data. Participants are more likely to share their experiences openly when they feel at ease and not judged. 

Here are some ways to make interview subjects comfortable:

Explain the purpose of the study

Start the interview by explaining the research topic and its importance. The goal is to give participants a sense of what to expect.

Create a comfortable environment

Conduct the interview in a quiet, private space where the participant feels comfortable. Turn off any unnecessary electronics that can create distractions. Ensure your equipment works well ahead of time. Arrive at the interview on time. If you conduct a remote interview, turn on your camera and mute all notetakers and observers.

Build rapport

Greet the participant warmly and introduce yourself. Show interest in their responses and thank them for their time.

Use open-ended questions

Ask questions that encourage participants to elaborate on their thoughts and experiences.

Listen attentively

Resist the urge to multitask . Pay attention to the participant's responses, nod your head, or make supportive comments to show you’re interested in their answers. Avoid interrupting them.

Avoid judgment

Show respect and don't judge the participant's views or experiences. Allow the participant to speak freely without feeling judged or ridiculed.

Offer breaks

If needed, offer breaks during the interview, especially if the topic is sensitive or emotional.

Creating a comfortable environment and establishing rapport with the participant fosters an atmosphere of trust and encourages open communication. This helps participants feel at ease and willing to share their experiences.

• How to analyze a qualitative interview

Analyzing a qualitative interview involves a systematic process of examining the data collected to identify patterns, themes, and meanings that emerge from the responses. 

Here are some steps on how to analyze a qualitative interview:

1. Transcription

The first step is transcribing the interview into text format to have a written record of the conversation. This step is essential to ensure that you can refer back to the interview data and identify the important aspects of the interview.

2. Data reduction

Once you’ve transcribed the interview, read through it to identify key themes, patterns, and phrases emerging from the data. This process involves reducing the data into more manageable pieces you can easily analyze.

The next step is to code the data by labeling sections of the text with descriptive words or phrases that reflect the data's content. Coding helps identify key themes and patterns from the interview data.

4. Categorization

After coding, you should group the codes into categories based on their similarities. This process helps to identify overarching themes or sub-themes that emerge from the data.

5. Interpretation

You should then interpret the themes and sub-themes by identifying relationships, contradictions, and meanings that emerge from the data. Interpretation involves analyzing the themes in the context of the research question .

6. Comparison

The next step is comparing the data across participants or groups to identify similarities and differences. This step helps to ensure that the findings aren’t just specific to one participant but can be generalized to the wider population.

7. Triangulation

To ensure the findings are valid and reliable, you should use triangulation by comparing the findings with other sources, such as observations or interview data.

8. Synthesis

The final step is synthesizing the findings by summarizing the key themes and presenting them clearly and concisely. This step involves writing a report that presents the findings in a way that is easy to understand, using quotes and examples from the interview data to illustrate the themes.

• Tips for transcribing a qualitative interview

Transcribing a qualitative interview is a crucial step in the research process. It involves converting the audio or video recording of the interview into written text. 

Here are some tips for transcribing a qualitative interview:

Use transcription software

Transcription software can save time and increase accuracy by automatically transcribing audio or video recordings.

Listen carefully

When manually transcribing, listen carefully to the recording to ensure clarity. Pause and rewind the recording as necessary.

Use appropriate formatting

Use a consistent format for transcribing, such as marking pauses, overlaps, and interruptions. Indicate non-verbal cues such as laughter, sighs, or changes in tone.

Edit for clarity

Edit the transcription to ensure clarity and readability. Use standard grammar and punctuation, correct misspellings, and remove filler words like "um" and "ah."

Proofread and edit

Verify the accuracy of the transcription by listening to the recording again and reviewing the notes taken during the interview.

Use timestamps

Add timestamps to the transcription to reference specific interview sections.

Transcribing a qualitative interview can be time-consuming, but it’s essential to ensure the accuracy of the data collected. Following these tips can produce high-quality transcriptions useful for analysis and reporting.

• Why are interview techniques in qualitative research effective?

Unlike quantitative research methods, which rely on numerical data, qualitative research seeks to understand the richness and complexity of human experiences and perspectives. 

Interview techniques involve asking open-ended questions that allow participants to express their views and share their stories in their own words. This approach can help researchers to uncover unexpected or surprising insights that may not have been discovered through other research methods.

Interview techniques also allow researchers to establish rapport with participants, creating a comfortable and safe space for them to share their experiences. This can lead to a deeper level of trust and candor, leading to more honest and authentic responses.

• What are the weaknesses of qualitative interviews?

Qualitative interviews are an excellent research approach when used properly, but they have their drawbacks. 

The weaknesses of qualitative interviews include the following:

Subjectivity and personal biases

Qualitative interviews rely on the researcher's interpretation of the interviewee's responses. The researcher's biases or preconceptions can affect how the questions are framed and how the responses are interpreted, which can influence results.

Small sample size

The sample size in qualitative interviews is often small, which can limit the generalizability of the results to the larger population.

Data quality

The quality of data collected during interviews can be affected by various factors, such as the interviewee's mood, the setting of the interview, and the interviewer's skills and experience.

Socially desirable responses

Interviewees may provide responses that they believe are socially acceptable rather than truthful or genuine.

Conducting qualitative interviews can be expensive, especially if the researcher must travel to different locations to conduct the interviews.

Time-consuming

The data analysis process can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, as researchers need to transcribe and analyze the data manually.

Despite these weaknesses, qualitative interviews remain a valuable research tool . You can take steps to mitigate the impact of these weaknesses by incorporating the perspectives of other researchers or participants in the analysis process, using multiple data sources , and critically analyzing your biases and assumptions.

Mastering the art of qualitative interviews is an essential skill for businesses looking to gain deep insights into their customers' needs , preferences, and behaviors. By following the tips and best practices outlined in this article, you can conduct interviews that provide you with rich data that you can use to make informed decisions about your products, services, and marketing strategies. 

Remember that effective communication, active listening, and proper analysis are critical components of successful qualitative interviews. By incorporating these practices into your customer research, you can gain a competitive edge and build stronger customer relationships.

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Qualitative Research 101: Interviewing

5 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Undertaking Interviews

By: David Phair (PhD) and Kerryn Warren (PhD) | March 2022

Undertaking interviews is potentially the most important step in the qualitative research process. If you don’t collect useful, useable data in your interviews, you’ll struggle through the rest of your dissertation or thesis.  Having helped numerous students with their research over the years, we’ve noticed some common interviewing mistakes that first-time researchers make. In this post, we’ll discuss five costly interview-related mistakes and outline useful strategies to avoid making these.

Overview: 5 Interviewing Mistakes

• Not having a clear interview strategy /plan
• Not having good interview techniques /skills
• Not securing a suitable location and equipment
• Not having a basic risk management plan
• Not keeping your “ golden thread ” front of mind

1. Not having a clear interview strategy

The first common mistake that we’ll look at is that of starting the interviewing process without having first come up with a clear interview strategy or plan of action. While it’s natural to be keen to get started engaging with your interviewees, a lack of planning can result in a mess of data and inconsistency between interviews.

There are several design choices to decide on and plan for before you start interviewing anyone. Some of the most important questions you need to ask yourself before conducting interviews include:

• What are the guiding research aims and research questions of my study?
• Will I use a structured, semi-structured or unstructured interview approach?
• How will I record the interviews (audio or video)?
• Who will be interviewed and by whom ?
• What ethics and data law considerations do I need to adhere to?
• How will I analyze my data? 

Let’s take a quick look at some of these.

The core objective of the interviewing process is to generate useful data that will help you address your overall research aims. Therefore, your interviews need to be conducted in a way that directly links to your research aims, objectives and research questions (i.e. your “golden thread”). This means that you need to carefully consider the questions you’ll ask to ensure that they align with and feed into your golden thread. If any question doesn’t align with this, you may want to consider scrapping it.

Another important design choice is whether you’ll use an unstructured, semi-structured or structured interview approach . For semi-structured interviews, you will have a list of questions that you plan to ask and these questions will be open-ended in nature. You’ll also allow the discussion to digress from the core question set if something interesting comes up. This means that the type of information generated might differ a fair amount between interviews.

Contrasted to this, a structured approach to interviews is more rigid, where a specific set of closed questions is developed and asked for each interviewee in exactly the same order. Closed questions have a limited set of answers, that are often single-word answers. Therefore, you need to think about what you’re trying to achieve with your research project (i.e. your research aims) and decided on which approach would be best suited in your case.

It is also important to plan ahead with regards to who will be interviewed and how. You need to think about how you will approach the possible interviewees to get their cooperation, who will conduct the interviews, when to conduct the interviews and how to record the interviews. For each of these decisions, it’s also essential to make sure that all ethical considerations and data protection laws are taken into account.

Finally, you should think through how you plan to analyze the data (i.e., your qualitative analysis method) generated by the interviews. Different types of analysis rely on different types of data, so you need to ensure you’re asking the right types of questions and correctly guiding your respondents.

Simply put, you need to have a plan of action regarding the specifics of your interview approach before you start collecting data. If not, you’ll end up drifting in your approach from interview to interview, which will result in inconsistent, unusable data.

2. Not having good interview technique

While you’re generally not expected to become you to be an expert interviewer for a dissertation or thesis, it is important to practice good interview technique and develop basic interviewing skills .

Let’s go through some basics that will help the process along.

Firstly, before the interview , make sure you know your interview questions well and have a clear idea of what you want from the interview. Naturally, the specificity of your questions will depend on whether you’re taking a structured, semi-structured or unstructured approach, but you still need a consistent starting point . Ideally, you should develop an interview guide beforehand (more on this later) that details your core question and links these to the research aims, objectives and research questions.

Before you undertake any interviews, it’s a good idea to do a few mock interviews with friends or family members. This will help you get comfortable with the interviewer role, prepare for potentially unexpected answers and give you a good idea of how long the interview will take to conduct. In the interviewing process, you’re likely to encounter two kinds of challenging interviewees ; the two-word respondent and the respondent who meanders and babbles. Therefore, you should prepare yourself for both and come up with a plan to respond to each in a way that will allow the interview to continue productively.

To begin the formal interview , provide the person you are interviewing with an overview of your research. This will help to calm their nerves (and yours) and contextualize the interaction. Ultimately, you want the interviewee to feel comfortable and be willing to be open and honest with you, so it’s useful to start in a more casual, relaxed fashion and allow them to ask any questions they may have. From there, you can ease them into the rest of the questions.

As the interview progresses , avoid asking leading questions (i.e., questions that assume something about the interviewee or their response). Make sure that you speak clearly and slowly , using plain language and being ready to paraphrase questions if the person you are interviewing misunderstands. Be particularly careful with interviewing English second language speakers to ensure that you’re both on the same page.

Engage with the interviewee by listening to them carefully and acknowledging that you are listening to them by smiling or nodding. Show them that you’re interested in what they’re saying and thank them for their openness as appropriate. This will also encourage your interviewee to respond openly.

Need a helping hand?

3. Not securing a suitable location and quality equipment

Where you conduct your interviews and the equipment you use to record them both play an important role in how the process unfolds. Therefore, you need to think carefully about each of these variables before you start interviewing.

Poor location: A bad location can result in the quality of your interviews being compromised, interrupted, or cancelled. If you are conducting physical interviews, you’ll need a location that is quiet, safe, and welcoming . It’s very important that your location of choice is not prone to interruptions (the workplace office is generally problematic, for example) and has suitable facilities (such as water, a bathroom, and snacks).

If you are conducting online interviews , you need to consider a few other factors. Importantly, you need to make sure that both you and your respondent have access to a good, stable internet connection and electricity. Always check before the time that both of you know how to use the relevant software and it’s accessible (sometimes meeting platforms are blocked by workplace policies or firewalls). It’s also good to have alternatives in place (such as WhatsApp, Zoom, or Teams) to cater for these types of issues.

Poor equipment: Using poor-quality recording equipment or using equipment incorrectly means that you will have trouble transcribing, coding, and analyzing your interviews. This can be a major issue , as some of your interview data may go completely to waste if not recorded well. So, make sure that you use good-quality recording equipment and that you know how to use it correctly.

To avoid issues, you should always conduct test recordings before every interview to ensure that you can use the relevant equipment properly. It’s also a good idea to spot check each recording afterwards, just to make sure it was recorded as planned. If your equipment uses batteries, be sure to always carry a spare set.

4. Not having a basic risk management plan

Many possible issues can arise during the interview process. Not planning for these issues can mean that you are left with compromised data that might not be useful to you. Therefore, it’s important to map out some sort of risk management plan ahead of time, considering the potential risks, how you’ll minimize their probability and how you’ll manage them if they materialize.

Common potential issues related to the actual interview include cancellations (people pulling out), delays (such as getting stuck in traffic), language and accent differences (especially in the case of poor internet connections), issues with internet connections and power supply. Other issues can also occur in the interview itself. For example, the interviewee could drift off-topic, or you might encounter an interviewee who does not say much at all.

You can prepare for these potential issues by considering possible worst-case scenarios and preparing a response for each scenario. For instance, it is important to plan a backup date just in case your interviewee cannot make it to the first meeting you scheduled with them. It’s also a good idea to factor in a 30-minute gap between your interviews for the instances where someone might be late, or an interview runs overtime for other reasons. Make sure that you also plan backup questions that could be used to bring a respondent back on topic if they start rambling, or questions to encourage those who are saying too little.

In general, it’s best practice to plan to conduct more interviews than you think you need (this is called oversampling ). Doing so will allow you some room for error if there are interviews that don’t go as planned, or if some interviewees withdraw. If you need 10 interviews, it is a good idea to plan for 15. Likely, a few will cancel , delay, or not produce useful data.

5. Not keeping your golden thread front of mind

We touched on this a little earlier, but it is a key point that should be central to your entire research process. You don’t want to end up with pages and pages of data after conducting your interviews and realize that it is not useful to your research aims . Your research aims, objectives and research questions – i.e., your golden thread – should influence every design decision and should guide the interview process at all times. 

A useful way to avoid this mistake is by developing an interview guide before you begin interviewing your respondents. An interview guide is a document that contains all of your questions with notes on how each of the interview questions is linked to the research question(s) of your study. You can also include your research aims and objectives here for a more comprehensive linkage. 

You can easily create an interview guide by drawing up a table with one column containing your core interview questions . Then add another column with your research questions , another with expectations that you may have in light of the relevant literature and another with backup or follow-up questions . As mentioned, you can also bring in your research aims and objectives to help you connect them all together. If you’d like, you can download a copy of our free interview guide here .

Recap: Qualitative Interview Mistakes

In this post, we’ve discussed 5 common costly mistakes that are easy to make in the process of planning and conducting qualitative interviews.

To recap, these include:

If you have any questions about these interviewing mistakes, drop a comment below. Alternatively, if you’re interested in getting 1-on-1 help with your thesis or dissertation , check out our dissertation coaching service or book a free initial consultation with one of our friendly Grad Coaches.

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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Research Methods Guide: Interview Research

• Introduction
• Research Design & Method
• Survey Research
• Data Analysis
• Resources & Consultation

Tutorial Videos: Interview Method

Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research

Goals of Interview Research

• Preferences
• They help you explain, better understand, and explore research subjects' opinions, behavior, experiences, phenomenon, etc.
• Interview questions are usually open-ended questions so that in-depth information will be collected.

Mode of Data Collection

There are several types of interviews, including:

• Face-to-Face
• Online (e.g. Skype, Googlehangout, etc)

FAQ: Conducting Interview Research

What are the important steps involved in interviews?

• Think about who you will interview
• Think about what kind of information you want to obtain from interviews
• Think about why you want to pursue in-depth information around your research topic
• Introduce yourself and explain the aim of the interview
• Devise your questions so interviewees can help answer your research question
• Have a sequence to your questions / topics by grouping them in themes
• Make sure you can easily move back and forth between questions / topics
• Make sure your questions are clear and easy to understand
• Do not ask leading questions
• Do you want to bring a second interviewer with you?
• Do you want to bring a notetaker?
• Do you want to record interviews? If so, do you have time to transcribe interview recordings?
• Where will you interview people? Where is the setting with the least distraction?
• How long will each interview take?
• Do you need to address terms of confidentiality?

Do I have to choose either a survey or interviewing method?

No.  In fact, many researchers use a mixed method - interviews can be useful as follow-up to certain respondents to surveys, e.g., to further investigate their responses.

Is training an interviewer important?

Yes, since the interviewer can control the quality of the result, training the interviewer becomes crucial.  If more than one interviewers are involved in your study, it is important to have every interviewer understand the interviewing procedure and rehearse the interviewing process before beginning the formal study.

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• Next: Data Analysis >>
• Last Updated: Aug 21, 2023 10:42 AM

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Interviewing

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Interviewing is a great way to learn detailed information from a single individual or small number of individuals. It is very useful when you want to gain expert opinions on the subject or talk to someone knowledgeable about a topic.

Types of Interviewing

Several different types of interviews exist. You should choose one based on what kind of technology you have available to you, the availability of the individual you are interviewing, and how comfortable you feel talking to people.

Face to Face Interviews: Face to face interviews are when you sit down and talk with someone. They are beneficial because you can adapt your questioning to the answers of the person you are interviewing. You will need recording equipment for the interview, and it is highly recommended that you bring two recording devices with you in case one fails.

Phone Interviews: Phone interviews can be used when you need to interview someone who is geographically far away, who is too busy to meet with you to talk, or who does not want to use video or internet-based technology.

Email Interviews: Email interviews are less personal than face-to-face or phone interviews, but highly convenient for most individuals. You may not get as much information from someone in an email interview because you are not able to ask follow-up questions in the moment or play off the interviewee’s responses. However, email interviews are useful because they are already in a digital format.

Setting Up an Interview

When setting up an interview, be sure to be courteous and professional. Explain to the person being interviewed who you are, what you want to talk them about, and what project you are working on. Don’t be discouraged if not everyone you contact is willing to be interviewed.

Interview Do's and Dont's

When conducting interviews:

• Do be careful of the types of questions you ask. See the page on Creating good survey and interview questions for more information.
• Do start the interview with some small talk to give both yourself and the person you are interviewing a chance to get comfortable.
• Do bring extra recording equipment in case something happens to one of your recording devices.
• Do pay attention to what is being said during the interview and ask thoughtful follow-up questions.
• Do come to the interview prepared. You should learn as much as you can about the person you are going to interview before the interview takes place so that you can tailor your questions to them.
• Don't pester or push the person you are interviewing. If the interviwee does not want to talk about an issue, you should respect that desire.
• Don't stick to your questions rigidly. If an interesting subject comes up that relates to your research, feel free to ask additional questions about it.
• Don't allow the person you are interviewing to continually get off topic. If the conversation drifts, ask follow-up questions to redirect the conversation to the subject at hand.

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How to Conduct Interviews for Research

Last Updated: July 7, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jeremiah Kaplan . Jeremiah Kaplan is a Research and Training Specialist at the Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy at Arizona State University. He has extensive knowledge and experience in motivational interviewing. In addition, Jeremiah has worked in the mental health, youth engagement, and trauma-informed care fields. Using his expertise, Jeremiah supervises Arizona State University’s Motivational Interviewing Coding Lab. Jeremiah has also been internationally selected to participate in the Motivational Interviewing International Network of Trainers sponsored Train the Trainer event. Jeremiah holds a BS in Human Services with a concentration in Family and Children from The University of Phoenix. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 30,138 times.

If you’re putting together a news report, a documentary film, or gathering oral history for any kind of personal project, you’ll likely need to perform 1 or more research interviews to gather the information you need. While these interviews can be relatively informal (unless they’re being broadcast live), you’ll need to make a few preparations beforehand, including having a written list of questions to ask. Let the interviewee answer the questions as they see fit, and guide the interview so that all of your questions are adequately answered.

Laying Groundwork for an Interview

• For example, if you’re interviewing a local biologist about declining frog populations, read up on what types of frogs and frog predators inhabit the area, and find out how much of the frog population has died off.

• If you set up the interview over the phone or via email, say something like, “Thank you for agreeing to answer a few questions. I’m mostly interested in asking you about your extensive knowledge of the publishing industry. I have about 10 questions, but I don’t think this will take more than 30 minutes.”

• If you’re conducting the interview over the phone, find a time when you and the interviewee are both free.

• Don’t tell yourself that you’ll remember the interview! If you don’t record the questions and answers, you’re likely to forget details.

Writing and Asking Effective Questions

• “How did you get your start in the industry?”
• “What’s your favorite type of book to see published?”
• “What would you recommend for any young men or women who’d like to get into publishing?”

• For example, if you ask something like, “Do you think the city planners have done a good job of laying out the new downtown area?” the subject can just answer “yes” or “no.”
• Instead, ask, “What do you think are some of the strengths and weaknesses of the ways the city planners laid out the new downtown area?”

• For example, avoid a question like, “Isn’t it true that the publishing industry refuses to pay women as much as it pays men?”
• Try asking instead: “What are your views on what some people perceive to be a gender pay gap in the industry?”

• For example, avoid asking, “Do pay-to-print or vanity presses hurt the fiscal state of big publishing houses?”
• Instead, ask something like, “Are there any trends within publishing that you think are harmful to the industry overall?”

Behaving During the Interview

• If you'd rather not ask immediately before the interview, ask the interviewee to fill out a consent form a week before the interview takes place. If the subject refuses to give their consent, you'll be unable to legally do the interview.
• For a sample consent form, look online at: https://managementhelp.org/businessresearch/consent-form.htm .

• If the interviewee lingers too long on a specific question, try moving things along. Say something like, “I appreciate your insights. I’d like to turn to a different topic at this point: what’s the best college major for a career in publishing?”

• For example, even if the interviewee says something surprising like: “I think it’s good that the frogs are dying!” avoid jumping up or shouting “What!?”

• For example, say that the interviewee says, “I became interested in city planning after a friend was killed in a poorly-designed intersection.” It would be inappropriate to say, “So what?” or “That sucks.” Instead, say something like, “I’m sorry to hear that; it’s a real tragedy.”

• This would also be a good time to scroll through the audio or video file that you recorded and make sure that it’s all clear and audible.

Expert Q&A

• Always speak clearly when you ask questions and speak to the interviewee, especially if you’re recording with a tape recorder. Ask the interviewee to do the same. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Give your interviewee enough time to answer each question. Don’t rush them on to answer another question while they’re still thinking of an answer for the first one. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Always interview your subjects face-to-face when it’s possible. If a face-to-face interview is impractical, a telephone interview is a decent substitute. Avoid conducting interviews over email except as a last resort. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.csus.edu/indiv/o/obriene/art116/readings/guide%20for%20conducting%20interviews.pdf
• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/research-interview
• ↑ https://managementhelp.org/businessresearch/interviews.htm
• ↑ https://aultman.libguides.com/c.php?g=974169&p=7042440
• ↑ https://guides.lib.vt.edu/researchmethods/interviews
• ↑ https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/research-interview

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How To Write An Interiew Paper: Ultimate Guide

While you’re in school and studying different subjects, it can be tricky to understand each assignment’s needs and depths, especially long-form research papers that might count for a large percentage of your total grade. Writing an interview paper can involve a lot of research, require a lot of time and effort to find and schedule interviews with the right people, and write an engaging and easy-to-read piece. So here’s your ultimate blueprint on how to write an interview paper!

What Is An Interview Paper?

How to write an interview paper, the step-by-step guide on writing an interview paper, how to start an interview paper, how to write a conclusion for an interview paper, how to format an interview paper, checklist of essentials for an impressive interview paper, topics for an interview paper.

An interview paper is an intriguing but complex assignment to write about a topic that incorporates interviews and perspectives of different people on the issue. These interviews are usually with people who are stakeholders in a problem or the general public that has been inevitably affected by a country’s policy or about a particular case that caused havoc. In addition, it can also be a descriptive piece elaborating on the personal experience or anecdote of one person.

It’s definitely a learned skill and requires a lot of effort into cultivating precise questions networking to find the best people to interview (they can range from being your family members who were involved in a particular issue or have stark opinions on your topic to policymakers and governors who contributed to either passing or striking a specific act), and finally putting it all together to communicate the varying perspectives effectively without bias.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview paper example :

With the recent upsurge in mental health and psychology, many experts in the field are celebrating the increased awareness but also worry about the dissipation of false information. Especially with social media, information is communicated from one part of the world to another within seconds. It can lead to the misuse of terms and psychological context, leading to severe harm and damage. Dr. Rosen Luis, a professor of abnormal psychology at the University of Georgia, elaborated upon the issue of false information being spread on social media in a personal interview conducted last year. “As social media penetrates the global world at a more rapid rate than anything else in the world, sensitive information like that regarding mental health can easily be misused or leveraged in incorrect circumstances due to the lack of supervision on growing platforms. Social media also creates unrealistic expectations about how a mental illness should look. There’s no one distinct way a disorder manifests in everybody and can lead to different lifestyle changes for different people.” (R. Luis, Phone Interview, Jun 22, 2021)

So you might be thinking about how to write a paper based on an interview and what are the different components of such a paper? Well, a lot goes into an article of this kind, so it’s essential to break it down into separate elements so you can tackle each with great effort and accuracy to cultivate a solid assignment and fetch a top grade!

If you have the freedom to choose your topic for the assignment, it is essential that you pick up a contentious concept that is the center of debate and leads to some civil discourse. An interview paper needs to be backed with air-tight research and credible interviews taken ethically and incorporate direct, in-depth questioning and sources.

Now you may be wondering how to include an interview in a research paper, mainly because interviews often look like scripts instead of concrete research material, so it’s important to note that while your discussions will be long-form and extensive, you’ll have to pick and choose responses from your different interviews to use as quotes or credible backing for your statements within the content of the paper.

If you have no desire to get all those knowledge or experience a long tiring writing process, you can use an opportunity to buy cheap dissertation online .

To make the writing process easier, you should be absolutely sure in what to do in each step. Here is a list of steps you need to take to get a perfect interview paper.

• Step 1 – Selecting the ideal topic for your paper : The topic you end up choosing for your interview paper can genuinely make or break your grade. It’s best not to look at generalized ideas or concepts that have been established as facts, as it’s unlikely that such topics will have a large-scale difference of opinion. Searching for a good case could begin with looking for issues that cause healthy discussion, differ within groups of different cultural, political, social, or economic backgrounds, and are essential conversations to have. It’s vital to ensure that the topic doesn’t cause a threat to someone’s rights, identity, or existence.
• Step 2 – Ideation and Research : Now that you’ve established your topic and a basic crux of your thesis statement, you can begin ideating the direction you want to take your paper. For instance, you choose capital punishment and its use to decrease long-term crime patterns in Singapore (known to have one of the highest percentages of the executed population via capital punishment), you’ll think about whether you want to talk about its history, grassroots change, crime statistics and also decide who all you’ll want to interview. A big part of writing an interview paper is finding people from diverse backgrounds with conflicting opinions to give your readers a 360-degree view on the issue.
• Step 3 – Crafting your interview questions : After having decided your topic and doing in-depth research about the same, it’s time to curate a set of interview questions that are brief, to-the-point, and extract the information you require for your assignment. Crafting good open-ended questions is a learned skill and will improve with the number of interviews you prep for. Ensure that all your questions are about the topic, fact-checked, and easy to understand for the interviewee.
• Step 4 – Taking the interviews : Once the interview blueprint is ready, you’ve to schedule and conduct interviews with the people you’re choosing to talk to (it is preferred that you conduct interviews in-person, so it is as personal and direct as possible). Be sure to ask your questions clearly and record the interviewee’s responses using a recording device so you can precisely transcribe the answers afterward. It’s crucial that your interviewee feels comfortable talking to you about the topic, especially if it is something very sensitive and personal. Good interview ethics also involve letting your respondent know they can communicate if they want something they spoke about to be scratched out of the interview.If you’re planning on using published interviews, you can skip the third and fourth steps and pick up essential quotes from the already published interviews. Remember to cite the quotes in the correct format so that you don’t get into any unnecessary plagiarism issues.
• Step 5 – Creating an outline : With regards to the obtained interview responses, you’ll create a very detailed skeleton for the interview paper, so you know precisely which idea goes where. This will help you when you finally get down to writing the actual essay, as you’ll be able to keep track of your different ideas, quotes, and sources and establish an engaging flow. You can also spend some time writing transitionary sentences that you’ll use when you move from one paragraph to the next.
• Step 6 – Writing the paper : Now that you’re done with all the back-end research, interviewing, and outlining, you’ve to sit down and fill in the gaps to produce a stellar essay. You have all the elements you need to decrease your distractions, be charged up, and just write it out. Contrary to popular belief, writing is actually a learned skill. Even if you don’t believe you’re as good with words as others, learning a few tips and tricks can easily elevate your writing to a notch above. Using precise and appropriate vocabulary, leveraging analogies, metaphors, and other language elements to convey your ideas, and having perfect grammar and syntax are some of the ways you can better your writing.

The basics of any paper are a thesis statement, introduction, body, and conclusion. You would’ve formulated your thesis statement while ideating the direction you wanted to take your paper in, and through the outline, you’ve hopefully followed the one-idea, one paragraph to give rise to a well-constructed body. Here’s some guidance on the two components that determine the first impression and last impression your reader has of the paper:

The introduction of your interview paper is the first thing that the reader looks at, so it’s crucial to hook the reader to keep them engaged to follow through with reading the paper. You can include:

Your thesis statement Intriguing data about your topic A quote from one of your interviewees Citing any information that’s been in the news with regards to your topic

The purpose of a catchy introduction is to connect the idea at hand to the reader’s life and intrigue them enough to learn more about the issue.

For example , if you’re writing on the capital punishment topic, beginning with an alarming statistic to depict the dire need to start a serious conversation about its effectiveness or ineffectiveness could hook the reader very well:

“ Juxtaposing the modern ideals of reformation and change, over 400 individuals have been giving the death penalty in Singapore since 1991″

Like any research paper, a firm conclusion is a must in a well-written interview paper. Since your paper will deal with some contrasting ideas, summarizing all the perspectives while shedding more light on the thesis statement will hook your reader to think about the information and views brought up in your essay long after they finish reading. Though this is one of the many assignments you’ve to write for school, interview papers dealing with conflicting real-life issues also contribute to social change via beginning civil discourse and fact-oriented discussion on important causes.

• Step 7 – Citing the sources : It’s vital that after you finish the contents of your essay, you spend time formatting your interview paper in the correct format and cite all of your sources in the needed manner (e.g., MLA, APA, etc.). It’ll help provide credibility to your arguments, show that you delved into air-tight research for your topic, and protect you from any coincidental issues in plagiarism checkers.
• Step 8 – Revision : It’s believed that looking at your paper, especially one you’ve spent hours on, with a fresh set of eyes, gives you a better perspective on things to change and helps you spot any missed grammar and style errors. You can finish your draft, take a nap, get back to the assignment and make the changes, read it aloud to make any mistakes more noticeable, or even ask a friend to have a read-through.

It’s essential that you know the interview paper format to be able to present a well-written, researched, and formatted assignment for an excellent grade. So here are some steps on how to write an interview paper in APA format –

If you’re citing a personal interview that you conducted in the course of writing the piece, here’s the format to follow:

Include the name of the interviewee and their qualifications, job description, and experience Mention the purpose of involving them in your research paper Incorporate a couple of quotes from their interview Cite the interview in the correct APA format

For, e.g., – (Interviewee first name initial & last name, interview format, date of interview)

If you’re citing an already published interview of someone in the field, the way you format the quotes in the paper and the bibliography should follow the format of the document in which you found the interview. Say you found an interview of a renowned politician in a social science journal that followed the MLA format; you must follow the same and cite the social science journal as your source.

To have peace of mind that you’ve done everything you needed for the perfect interview paper, here’s a short checklist you can quickly run through before submitting your assignment

Included all interviewees point’s of view Remained neutral while elaborating on others’ opinions even if you have a solid personal perspective on the subject Followed the one-idea, one-paragraph rule and included well-written transitory sentences Utilized precise and high-level vocabulary and sentence structure Proofread the essay to rid it of any grammar or syntax inconsistencies Used the correct format to cite sources within the paper and in the bibliography

• What role do you think your genetics play in your character compared to your upbringing?
• Are beauty standards unrealistic?
• Is social media connecting or disconnecting people?
• Should abortion be a topic of policy?
• Should age-old prisons be reconstructed to fit modern ideas of reformation and change?
• Do nursing homes contribute to the well-being of the older generation?
• Should marijuana be legalized?
• Should the same humanitarian and crime laws apply in times of war?
• Should gun rights be ubiquitous?
• Is capital punishment leading to grassroots change?
• Should society be capitalist, socialist, or an amalgamation of both?
• Should cloning be legal?
• Is the concept of marriage as idolized as it used to be?
• Is choosing to be child-free selfish?
• Should the rich pay more tax?
• Are our immigration policies outdated in a globalized world?
• Should celebrities be more accountable for their actions than the average person?
• Are companies doing enough to contribute to climate change effects?
• Should holistic therapies be considered certified medical treatments?
• Should upbringing be gendered?
• Is having kids in a time of such turmoil ethical?
• Should prostitution be legalized?
• How should racism or homophobia be combated on an individual level?
• College degrees and their relevance in the digital age
• Going vegan v/s consuming meat: What’s better for the climate?
• How important is your religion to you?
• Are money and happiness correlated?
• How much does early-child development affect one’s mental health into adulthood?
• Is stealing ever okay?
• Are arranged marriages still as popular?

Not Interested in Writing Paper by Yourself?

Getting started with an interview paper can feel intimidating, mainly since it entails so much work – in-depth research on the topic and the history of debate behind it, setting up and curating tailored interviews with people relevant to the topic, and so much more. While you juggle several courses and assignments and other extracurricular work at high school or college, it can be challenging to submit well-written papers that will put you at the top of your class.

Impressing your professor isn’t an easy task. Still, you can do it by hiring expert help that will assist you with your writing assignments and produce work that the accomplished writers will curate as per your needs, that too at highly affordable rates!

You’ll be able to buy and order a custom interview paper that will be ideated and written by thesis writing service for a cheap cost. It’s an efficient and cost-effective way to stay on top of your work, learn from experts in the field, and wow your teachers with a well-written interview paper!

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Twelve tips for conducting qualitative research interviews

Affiliations.

• 1 Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.
• 2 Department of Education, Stockholm University , Stockholm , Sweden.
• 3 Primary Health Care Unit, Institute of Medicine, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg , Sweden.
• PMID: 30261797
• DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2018.1497149

The qualitative research interview is an important data collection tool for a variety of methods used within the broad spectrum of medical education research. However, many medical teachers and life science researchers undergo a steep learning curve when they first encounter qualitative interviews, both in terms of new theory but also regarding new methods of inquiry and data collection. This article introduces the concept of qualitative research interviews for novice researchers within medical education, providing 12 tips for conducting qualitative research interviews.

• Data Collection / methods
• Interviews as Topic*
• Qualitative Research*
• Research Design*

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Unpacking User Interviews: Turning Conversations into Insights

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How to conduct user interviews: Step by step + best practices

It’s time to sit down and listen up to what users have to say about your product.

Now that you’ve made the decision to run user interviews, there’s likely one big question on your mind: how can you conduct user interviews in a way that guarantees the in-depth insights you need? you rich, descriptive feedback and in-depth insights?

While interviews may seem like sitting down for a chat, there’s more to this UX research method than meets the eye. Pushing beyond a simple conversation can garner you rich, descriptive feedback to inform practical UX decisions.

In this chapter, we’ll share how to conduct user interview in six key steps, to ensure you’re making the most of your users’ time and responses. We’ll also cover off some industry best practices to elicit the most valuable, actionable responses from your participants.

Uncover quality, qualitative insights in a matter of moments

Maze simplifies the interview process by facilitating remote moderated interviews, with a suite of AI-powered tools to help organize interview names and automatically analyze your results.

How to conduct user interviews: step-by-step

Interviewing users is a lot like ice skating—it looks easy, but requires careful planning, practice, and balance.

From recruiting the right participants, preparing interview questions, navigating the conversation, and, perhaps most importantly, analyzing the responses—conducting interviews is a detailed process.

We’ve outlined the six key steps on how to structure user interviews to help you get the insights you need from your user interviews .

1. Set your goals

Start by defining what you want to achieve from this research process. Are you launching a product and want to understand user expectations? Are you validating a new functionality or feature for your product? Are you collecting customer feedback to optimize the user onboarding experience?

These research objectives will guide your research in the right direction and ensure everyone’s on the same page. What’s more, all other aspects of planning this research—like the type of users you interview and the questions you ask—are closely tied to your objectives.

Hillary Omitogun , UX Research Consultant and Founder of HerSynergy Tribe , shares how she prepares for user interviews:

“I always start with a research plan . This has clear goals that align with the business's north star. I also create an interview guide. This includes questions I plan to ask, which are typically gathered from myself and team members, like a PM or designer. It also outlines how many people I'll be interviewing and who they are.”

Let’s look at a quick example of a good research goal:

Imagine you're building an AI-powered design tool to simplify and accelerate the UX design process . You want to test your assumptions about user behavior and refine your foundational ideas for this app with user interviews. So, the objectives of your user research process will be to identify:

• The shortcomings of current design tools
• Primary use cases for AI-powered design features
• Users’ expectations from an AI design solution

With goals like these, you’re looking at holding semi-structured, generative user interviews to find out more about user experiences and expectations.

💡 Head to Chapter 1 to learn more about the different types of user interview and which is right for your research project.

2. Prepare your interview questions

Once you're clear on the research project's purpose, you can start outlining your interview scenario. This will include a basic script for how you want an interview to pan out. Divide this plan into segments for every theme or topic you want to cover.

Coming up with the right research questions involves a lot of effort—and your first set of questions likely won’t be the same as the questions you ask your last interviewee. You have to constantly refine the questions based on people's responses to get valuable insights, so consider question creation a continuous effort.

Haley Stracher , Design Director and CEO of Iris Design Collaborative , notes what to be wary of when you’re drafting user interview questions:

“Avoid asking leading questions at all costs. I use a lot of unbiased and open-ended questions like ‘how did this feel to you?’, instead of ‘did you like this process?’ This will get you the best data you’re looking for and avoid any cognitive biases creeping in.”

✨ Not sure where to start with user interview questions? Check out the Maze Question Bank for over 350 ready-to-go research questions, tried and tested by our own research team.

3. Recruit participants for your user research

When you’ve done this initial legwork, it’s time to find the right candidates for your interviews. Before you start searching and recruiting research participants , study your target audience and create ideal user personas for your product.

These fictional personas will tell you the characteristics to look for when shortlisting candidates. They'll also help in filtering out those who don't fit the bill, saving you the effort of interviewing the wrong users.

You can also go back to your goals and define the types of target users you want to interview. For example, if you want to introduce your product to a new market, you can interview prospective customers that fit your personas to understand their expectations for your product. However, if your goal is to assess the effectiveness of your self-serve support setup, then you have to talk to your existing users.

Here's the tricky part: finding the right users that match your defined personas. There are many ways to recruit participants for UX research , including:

• Spreading the word in relevant communities with project details and incentives
• Amplifying the message on social media channels and among your network
• Leveraging guerilla testing tactics to approach your target audience
• Checking out participant databases or working with recruitment agencies

An example post calling for research participants

For example, the Maze Panel offers a quicker and more convenient option to find testers for research. You can browse a massive pool of over 280 million participants and narrow your search based on demographic and campaign engagement metrics.

What’s more, with Reach , you can go beyond recruitment to implement your complete outreach workflow from start to finish. Analyze individual profiles, create and send custom recruitment campaigns, and make your research process a breeze.

4. Introductions and build rapport

Before conducting your interviews, ask participants to fill out a research consent form. UX research ethics and best practices require informed consent to ensure participants have a complete understanding of their role in the study, its expected outcomes, and how their contributions will be used.

Once you’ve taken this written consent, you can start the interview by introducing yourself and sharing more context about the conversation.

Without delving into too much detail, briefly explain what the interview is for and your role in this project. Then, start with some lighter questions to learn more about each participant before moving on to your main points.

Pay attention to your body language, whether it's an in-person interview or a remote one. Your actions can make a huge difference in the interviewee's comfort and confidence. Consider these pointers when chatting with interviewees:

• Open with a smile and shake hands with interviewees (if in person, of course)
• Call interviewees by their names to build a connection
• Share some info on yourself to put them at ease e.g. your job role
• Be mindful of your body language and how it influences their perception of you

Overall, you want to maintain relaxed eye contact, nod frequently, and use empathetic, person-centered language.

5. Conduct the interview

This is what you’ve been working toward—it’s interview time. Both you and your participant should be ready to move into the interview stage after some introductions and chit chat.

Switching from small talk to the interview should be seamless—you don’t want participants to suddenly feel like they’re under pressure.

Ease into the interview; it’s even worth considering whether there’s a way you can link your first question to some expected small talk. This way, you know you’re consciously transitioning into the interview, but the interviewee feels it’s a natural progression of the conversation.

How your interview will pan out depends on the type of interview you’re conducting. If it’s structured you’ll likely rattle through the questions one at a time, but if it’s unstructured it’ll feel more like an open conversation. If it’s semi-structured, you’ll find yourself somewhere between these two.

Before starting, I make it a point to set clear expectations and answer any questions the participants might have.

Hillary Omitogun , UX Research Consultant

It’s a good idea to keep your interview goals front and center when conducting interviews. You can’t get interview moments back—and you don’t want to find yourself wishing you’d asked an insight-packed follow-up question once you’ve completed the interview.

As with the introductions, keep your body language and tone positive and open. Keep participants engaged by using their name from time to time, and try to keep the interview as conversational as possible.

🛑 Remember to hit record Taking notes is a great way to ensure you don’t miss anything throughout the interview, but don’t overdo it—you don’t want interviewees to feel like they’re under a microscope, and getting too stuck on notetaking can mean you lose rapport or miss important follow-up questions.

Recording your interview is an easy way to keep track of everything that’s been said, and allows you to be present in the moment, before going over the participant’s answers with a fine-tooth comb after the interview. It also means you have a permanent record of the interview, can share it with colleagues, and can use user interview tools to speed up analysis.

Alternatively, if you prefer pen and paper, Hillary suggests inviting a colleague to take notes during the interview: “In the past, I’ve had a PM or designer join user interviews to help take notes. I have a note-taking guide and template I share ahead of time—note-taking isn’t as simple as just relaying what the user said in the interview.”

6. Wrapping up

As a final step, debrief participants about the interview and thank them for participating. You can also encourage them to ask any follow-up questions about the project or get additional information.

This is also a good time to confirm the participant’s continued consent. Although they gave it at the start, they now know the full context of the interview and are in a better position to give complete, informed consent.

You should also discuss the next steps at this stage—like the incentive you promised or the project timeline. This quick debriefing round aims to keep them informed about the study and end on a positive note.

💡 What’s next?

We cover user interview analysis in Chapter Four—jump ahead to learn how you can turn your user interview data into actionable insights.

6 Best practices for conducting user interviews in UX research

The steps above are how you conduct user interviews, but running user interviews isn’t just about going through the motions—you’ll need to work within a framework of UX interview best practices to ensure you’re getting quality insights.

Think of the six steps to conduct user interviews as the seeds you plant, and these six best practices as the fertilizer sprinkled on top to enhance growth and make sure those plants are as vibrant as possible!

Here’s how to fertilize your user interviews to ensure they produce the in-depth, focused customer insights you’re looking for.

1. Get consent

Getting participants' consent is non-negotiable in UX research interviews. This written consent has a twofold purpose: first, it informs users of what they're interviewing for and how their data will be used, and secondly, it ensures researcher accountability when it comes to protecting participants.

Researchers of any kind have a duty to protect research participants from any type of psychological or physical harm. During user interviews, you’re held to the same ethical standards as any other researcher; obtaining informed consent is a key step in the user interview process.

2. Prepare, prepare, prepare

Nobody wants user interviews to fall flat—it’s a time and energy investment for both researchers and participants. Whether it’s clear notes to yourself, pre-prepared user interview questions or visual aids, ensuring you’re fully prepared is crucial for conducting successful user interviews.

One example is focusing your interview around journey flow. Journey flows are visualizations of a process users go through in order to complete a task with your product, service, or platform. Angling your user interview around a journey flow provides structure to the interview, and helps you pinpoint each decision a user makes from initial product contact to feature interactions.

An example journey flow

3. Respect your user’s time

Interviews require considerable time and effort from both sides. Even after participants have agreed to the interview, make sure to confirm specifics like the topic of the interview, where it will be hosted (online or in-person), the expected time commitment, interview process, and any other details.

This does two things:

• It makes your interviewee feel respected and at ease, increasing the honesty and openness of their answers
• It increases the chance of your interviewee participating in follow-ups and future UX research projects

4. Make your interviewee comfortable

A good way to elicit authentic responses is to make users feel relaxed during the interview. Instead of hosting the session as a strict interview, carry it out like a relaxed conversation. Acknowledge user responses to help them feel confident and comfortable. Interviews can put participants under pressure—do your best to put them at ease.

That being said, Hillary highlights balancing warmth with remaining impartial:

“At the start of my career, I tried to be friendly by offering positive feedback like 'Oh, good information.' I realized this could unintentionally lead or bias the participants' responses, encouraging them to just repeat what they think I want to hear.”

5. Watch participant body language

While a user will be verbally answering your questions, be sure to pay close attention to subtle cues they communicate through body language. You want to understand what users do, not just what they say.

Reading body language complements verbal responses, giving you a clearer picture of your interviewee’s experience. It helps you identify the emotions that accompany the user's answers and gauge how comfortable or receptive they are during the interviews.

Here are a few body language signs, and what they can mean:

• Averted eye contact: Indicates your interviewee feels bored, deceived, or uninterested
• Raised eyebrows: usually reflects a state of surprise, uncertainty, or fear
• Mirroring: If a interviewee mimics your body language, it's a sign of rapport and agreement, indicating the interviewee is comfortable and engaged

⚠️ Read social cues with caution Being mindful of nonverbal cues is helpful but it's crucial not to overestimate them. Our stereotypical understanding of body language doesn’t take into account neurodiversity, cultural differences, or even simple nerves.

For example, many neurodivergent people may avoid direct eye contact or fidget, but this doesn’t mean they’re not listening or feel bored. An anxious user may stutter their words, but it’s not a reflection of their feelings about the product.

6. Offer incentives to participants

For many UX teams , preparing a questions list and conducting a user interview won’t be the most challenging part of the process—the challenge will be recruiting the right participants for the job. Offering an incentive will entice and encourage users to partake in your interview process.

When choosing a reward for users, consider the complexity of your interview and participant demographics. A 30-minute interview on general customer feedback won’t warrant the same reward for an hour-long stint, delving into in-depth usability issues.

Some incentives to choose from include online vouchers, product discounts, exclusive access to new features, or a free trial for a paid plan.

Bonus best practice: Avoid leading questions

Leading questions guide your interviewees toward specific answers through suggestive question phrasing. This leads to inaccurate insights and unsuccessful user interviews.

We’re talking more about this in the next chapter of this guide, which focuses on writing user interview questions that get insights. However, we couldn’t fail to mention it here—as it’s a crucial aspect of successful user interviews.

How to select the right tool for user interviews

User interviews are a very accessible research method—it’s part of why they’re so valuable. In their simplest form, they require little more than a pen, some paper, and an inquisitive mind.

However, one thing's for sure—a user interview tool makes user interviews a whole lot easier, especially when done at scale. From organizing participants, automating admin tasks and recording interviews, to generating transcripts, analyzing conversations, and creating reports—a great selection of user interview tools can take your interviews to the next level.

Here’s what to add to your wishlist when browsing the options (which you can do in chapter five):

• Tools with participant management options: If you don’t have enough users to conduct interviews at scale, a good tool will help you find the right participants for your studies and hone in on your target audience with filter capabilities. Top-tier tools will also help you build a database of participants, making it easy to reach them with targeted research campaigns.
• Tools to record and transcribe interviews: Recording and automatic transcription are two of the most useful benefits of interview tools; helping you capture, store, and review user responses. This qualitative data is the basis for your insights, so you won’t be able to reach actionable findings without a transcription or a high-quality audiovisual recording.
• Tools to uncover and report on insights: An engaging data-report is more than just a cherry on top of your painstaking user interview efforts. It’s what draws stakeholders to buy in to your research. With customization and data visualization options, a good interview tool will make your data easy to read, setting your team on the right path to implementing solutions.

A single tool won’t make or break your interviews, but find the right match will certainly aid you on your journey towards actionable insights—and you’ll get there a lot faster, too.

Up next: Writing and asking user interview questions

Conducting user interviews isn’t about running through a list of questions and hoping for the best—the way you approach the user interview process is key to increasing the quality of insights you collect. Stick to these steps and best practices, and you’ll be well on your way.

Next up in our user interviews guide, we’ll be diving deep into your interview questions. Read on for the different types of user interview questions, how to ask them, and how to write your own.

Frequently asked questions about how to conduct user interviews

How long should a user interview take?

The timeframe of an interview is generally between 30 and 60 minutes. This gives you enough time to make introductions, delve into key concepts, and ask follow-up and probing questions for relevant and helpful responses. However, the length of a user interview will ultimately depend on your chosen subject matter’s complexity

How do you conduct a good user interview?

Conducting a good user interview involves setting up your goals, recruiting participants, creating a list of questions, making introductions, and building rapport to help interviewees feel at ease. Finally you’ll ask the questions you’ve prepared with follow-ups to extract descriptive insights from your interviewee.

How to write user interview questions

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10 Common Interview Questions and How to Answer Them

Have a job interview coming up? Interview preparation is key. Before going, review the most common interview questions, plan your responses, and research the company so you can walk into that room prepared.

When you land an interview, you’re probably excited and wondering about the most common interview questions. To prepare for your interview and make a great first impression, you can explore this list of 10 common interview questions and plan your responses to them. 

1. Tell me about yourself. 

This warm-up question is your chance to make an impactful first impression. Be prepared to describe yourself in a few sentences. You can mention: 

Your past experiences and how they relate to the current job

How your most recent job is tied to this new opportunity

Two of your strengths

One personal attribute, like a hobby or an interest

The majority of this response leans on your past work experience, with a small dash of your personal life added at the end of the response. Keep your answer to two to four minutes.

2. Why do you want to work for this company?

The answer to this interview question should include specifics about the company, so you’ll need to do some pre-interview research. If, for example, the company is known for its collaborative culture, you could point out successes you’ve had while collaborating with a team. 

Look for company-specific information on their website and social channels. Pay attention to the company’s mission statement, values, and the "About us" section. Explore employee-specific posts on social media to learn about the company’s culture or outreach programs. Combine this information with relatable skills to show your preparedness and enthusiasm for the company. 

3. Why are you leaving your current role?

When asked about leaving a previous job, be honest but positive. Even if you left a job under trying circumstances, keep your response short and upbeat. Here are some suggestions:

I’m looking for a company that better aligns with my values. 

I’m excited to find a company where I can grow my career. 

I’ve decided to go down a different career path.

My position was downsized, but I’m looking forward to a new opportunity. 

I’m excited to explore a culture in line with my personality. 

I’m ready to take on a new challenge with an innovative company. 

I’ve aspired to work for this company and seized the chance to apply.

4. What is your biggest weakness?

When it comes to identifying weaknesses, think about some conflicts you’ve had to overcome. Maybe it’s difficult for you to take criticism, collaborate, or make public presentations. Take these challenges and frame them with a solution. For instance, you learned to take feedback to better a project, collaborate to elevate a product’s offerings, or use presentations as a way to build your confidence. 

5. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Your greatest achievement should be something specific, like bringing a new video game to a saturated market despite a lack of resources. Discuss a work-related triumph as a way to humbly mention your achievements rather than listing awards or accolades. This achievement should also align with the company’s mission, goals, or the position’s objectives.

6. Tell me about a difficult situation you’ve faced and how you handled it. 

This question is really asking about your character during moments of stress. Think of a time when you faced an impossible deadline, had to choose sides, or navigated interoffice turmoil. Explain the problem, how you stayed calm, and focus on the solution that produced a resolution. 

7. Give an example of how you’ve gone above and beyond your role requirements. 

While you might be tempted to mention the extra hours you put in or the additional tasks you take on, it’s best to showcase your skills with a story. Talk about the innovative methods you deployed to revive a stalled project or roles you filled when your team was downsized.   

8. What are your salary expectations?

Salary talks can be sensitive, but they’re necessary. Research a competitive salary before you go into your interview so you don’t aim too high or low. You can use tools like a Salary Calculator or Salary Data & Career Research Center (Canada) to get baseline compensation. Remember to mention years of experience or specific certifications that enhance your value.   

9. Where do you see yourself five years from now? 

Another common interview question looks at your five-year plan. You should promote your commitment to the company while looking toward growth opportunities.  

More specifically, you can craft a response that explores your:

Position-related goals

Potential experiences within the company over the next five years

Possible certifications, skills, or achievements you might obtain

Aspirations for growth within the role 

10. Do you have any questions for us? 

Typically, this is the last question of the interview, and it might be tempting to say, “No. I’m all set.” However, this question allows you to show your interest in the position. Some questions you could ask include:

What are the day-to-day tasks involved in this role?

How do you evaluate the progress of this role? 

What ongoing educational or training opportunities could I pursue in this role?

Where do you see the company in five years?

How would you describe the company culture?

How to prepare for an interview

Before your interview, you should do a few things in preparation. To make a great first impression, you should research the company, practice your responses to common interview questions, and run through a practice interview. For more specific tips, take a look at this pre-interview checklist:  

1. Research the company.

Start your research on the company website. Look over their mission statement, values, and history. Next, check Google News for any articles that include the company. Comb through the company’s social accounts, paying particular attention to the product- or employee-related posts. Also, read the LinkedIn profiles of the company’s key players and, if possible, the profile of your hiring manager. 

2. Understand company work culture.

Take some time to learn about the company culture by looking at employee photos on social media and checking out the company's news coverage. You might see team-building events on its Facebook Page or news coverage of a recent fundraiser, which can help you understand the culture. You can also check for employee testimonials on business rating platforms like Glassdoor.

3. Prepare your answers.

Take some time to review the most common interview questions and practice your answers. You don’t want to sound rehearsed, so write down a few bullet points for each question and talk through them a little differently each time. 

4. Practice the interview.

Ask a friend or family member to role-play with you. Go through the standard interview questions, and practice your greeting and exit. Wear the outfit and shoes you plan to wear during the practice to ensure you’re comfortable.

5. Ask for feedback. 

Ask your mock interviewer to give you feedback. Maybe you slouched in the chair, nervously bounced your knees, or got stuck on a particular interview question. The person helping you can give you some tips to improve your interview skills.  

Next steps 

In addition to role-playing, you might consider taking an online class or two to improve your interview skills. Prepare for a successful job search with the Interviewing and Resume Writing in English Specialization from the University of Maryland. Learn at your own pace and practice your interviewing skills with other job seekers from around the globe. 

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