Interview techniques
Interviews with key individuals are often an excellent means of gathering information. They allow for greater two-way dialogue than questionnaire-based surveys.
Key points
Use interviewers with experience and skill. Make sure they understand the topic thoroughly so they can quickly recognise and probe relevant themes that arise in discussion.
Allow sufficient time to carry out the interviews, analyse the results and write them up.
Prepare guidelines to ensure that the questions asked are relatively consistent across all interviews:
- for a structured interview, provide a specific set of questions
- for an unstructured interview, provide a list of topics or issues to be covered.
Write up each interview as soon as possible (preferably on the same day).
Your summary should accurately reflect the views and feelings of the person being interviewed. With complex issues, it is a good idea to check the accuracy with the interviewee.
