A step-by-step interview plan

Conducting interviews for your thesis is a skill in itself. Fortunately, it is a skill that anyone can learn. Asking the right interview questions and preparing well for your interview will get you a long way. This step-by-step plan will help you conduct a successful interview.

First, decide what kind of interview suits your research. Most researchers opt for a semi-structured interview. You then work with a pre-established questionnaire, but during the interview, you have the freedom to respond to new ideas that come up. For instance, you can dig deeper into a topic and ask more questions, or deviate from the established (order of) questions for other reasons. 

Another possibility is the structured interview, where all the questions and their order have already been determined in advance. This usually works well in quantitative research. 

You can also opt for an unstructured interview, where you determine the questions on the spot. However, you need to have the interview topics clearly laid out in advance. 

A focus group is another option. This means you act as a moderator and get a group of respondents to talk to each other about one specific topic.

No matter what kind of interview you conduct, it is always important to prepare for the interview. In structured interviews, you should have all the questions and the order you will ask them already figured out. In semi-structured interviews, a rough questionnaire is sufficient. Have you opted for an unstructured interview? Then your preparation will consist of a topic list instead.

Want to prepare well for the interview? Then consider the following:

• Focus on your research objective. What information do you want to get from the interviews? Make sure your interview questions match that. 

• Prepare good interview questions or a topic list in advance. Our tips for interview questions will help you do this. For instance, your questions must be concrete, clear yet not too guiding. 

• Have the interview questions reviewed by your supervisor. You can also conduct a mock interview to check whether the questions are clear enough.

• Decide whether or not you want to record the interview. This is often more convenient than taking notes. Also, think about the recording equipment you want to use. Make sure you have good equipment and test it beforehand. It would be a shame if the sound quality turns out to be very poor.

Conducting a good interview is a matter of practice, practice, and practice. See if you can interview someone before the real interview for your thesis. This way, you can master things like the questioning process.

More generally, it is useful to read up on effective interview techniques. After all, how you do as aninterviewer determines what information you can extract during the process. Check out our tips for useful interview techniques to prepare for the interview. 

For instance, it is important not to speak too much yourself, but more so to let the interviewee speak. Furthermore, ensure your questions are well-phrased. For example, avoid questions that are too long or ambiguous

Before conducting the interview, you introduce yourself and the study you are conducting. You also briefly tell the interviewee about the interview. Cover, at the very least, these topics:

• Tell the interviewee briefly who you are and what you study. 

• Give a brief introduction to the study. Make sure the participant is well informed, but dont give too much away about the purpose of the study or expected findings. Otherwise, you are likely to get socially desirable answers.

• Let it be known that there are no wrong answers. Respondents may therefore say whatever comes to mind. Also indicate that the respondent can always ask for clarification if something is not clear. 

• Ask if the respondent wants to remain anonymous. If so, also guarantee anonymity and tell the respondent what steps you are taking to achieve this.

• Obtain informed consent. Let respondents know that they may interrupt you at any time to ask a question or end the interview. They do not have to give a reason for doing so.

• Ask for permission to record. Are you recording the interview? Then get the person to give their permission for this in writing. In doing so, also indicate how you will process and store the audio recordings.

The moment has finally come for you to conduct the interview for your thesis. Ask the questions you have prepared, or formulate questions on the spot using your topic list. Let the interviewee speak as much as possible. 

Also, make sure respondents feel comfortable. It helps to look the other person in the eye (rather than taking notes all the time). In doing so, respond regularly to what the other person says. Not by sharing your views too extensively, but just by confirming what the other person says ("I understand that", "Yes, for sure" or "That seems difficult to me"). 

Further, show understanding and be empathetic when the other person raises a sensitive issue. 

Does the respondent mention anything interesting? Then feel free to ask more about it. That's where questions like these can come in handy:

• "Interesting. Can you tell me more about that?"

• "Why do you think that?"

• "How did you deal with that?"

• "How was that for you?"

• "What did you do then?"

• "What did you think of that?"

• "How exactly did that happen?"

Want to make sure you understand the interviewee correctly? Then use conclusions to briefly summarise and show them how you interpret their answers. If you have misunderstood something, the respondent can immediately correct you. 

Did you make audio recordings while conducting the interview? Then, it is useful to transcribe the interview. In other words: to write out the conversation. With the interview written out on paper, you can better analyse or code the interview data. The transcript also makes it possible to cite quotes or paraphrase them in your thesis. Several existing tools can help you transcribe.

Want to be well prepared when conducting interviews? Check out our overview article on interviewing. Here, we have compiled all our important tips and ideas for you. 

Also, read our articles on various models for your thesis. These can help you with the next step of analysing the interview data.