Interviews for your thesis

Are interviews necessary for your thesis? In that case, there are a few things to consider. You have to decide what kind of interview to conduct. You need to draw up good questions. You also have to choose an appropriate transcription method and incorporate the interview results into your thesis correctly. How do you do all of this properly? Here you will find everything you need to know about conducting and processing interviews for your thesis.

Interviews are an appropriate form of data collection in both quantitative and qualitative research. 

• Quantitative research is all about numbers and testing hypotheses. 

• In qualitative research, you primarily go into detail collecting opinions, experiences and ideas to fully understand a concept. 

In qualitative research, you usually see open-ended questions because they lead to rich data. In quantitative research, closed questions are more common.

Roughly speaking, we can distinguish between a few types of interviews. The most common are the following interview forms:

• Structured interviews: you follow a strict interview schedule with a fixed order of questions so that all interviews take place in the same way.

• Semi-structured interviews: you prepare the questions, but can deviate on the spot from your preparation during the interview (e.g. if you want to ask further questions).

• Unstructured interviews: in advance, you have only prepared a list with topics you want to ask about; the questions you want to ask are not yet known.

• Focus group: you get a group of people together to talk to each other about a topic, and you are the one to ask the questions and facilitate the conversation.

• Group interview: you interview several people at the same time about various topics, focusing more on the interaction between you and the interviewees than the participants engaging with each other.

To conduct interviews, you need to find people willing to be interviewed. Sometimes one or two interviews will suffice, for instance in a case study. There are also research methods that require a larger number of interviews. The number of interviews that is ideal depends on your research goal and research question. 

The more interviews you conduct, the greater the reliability and validity of your results. Your research results are then more likely to reflect reality.

Discuss with your thesis supervisor in advance how many interviews would be ideal for your research. Keep the time schedule in mind. Of course, the number of interviews should be realistic within the time you have to recruit respondents and conduct interviews. 

To conduct an interview, you go through several stages. Good preparation is very important. Our interview roadmap will help you do this properly. Follow these 6 steps:

1. Choose the type of interview.

2. Prepare the interview guide.

3. Practice your interview techniques.

4. Start the interview in the right way.

5. Conduct the interview.

6. Transcribe the conversation.

A good interview depends on the quality of the questions you ask. Take the time to draft good and clear questions. These tips for formulating interview questions will help you do just that. 

For example, note the following:

• Ask non-directive questions. Be objective in your questioning to avoid pressuring your interviewee into giving socially desirable answers.

• Be as clear as possible with your questions. Keep them short, be specific, avoid jargon, and only ask one question at a time.

• Ask the questions in a logical order. For example, this could be in chronological order if you ask people to describe an event. Another option is to start with questions about the problem and its causes and later ask questions about possible solutions.

• Make a good trade-off between open and closed questions. With open questions, you get richer answers; with closed questions, the answers are more limited, but the answers are more comparable. Try to achieve a balance that suits your research question.

To analyse, code, and use the interview data in your thesis, you need to transcribe the interviews first. 

We list the main points of interest in our article on transcribing interviews. Read here, for example, which transcription methods exist and which software you can use to make your life a lot easier. Are you willing to pay a small amount of money? Then, you may want to consider outsourcing your transcription.

If all goes well, interesting findings will emerge from the interviews. Processing the data from the interviews in your thesis is done as follows:

• In the method chapter, describe how you conducted the interviews. For example, indicate the interview format, explain how you arrived at the questionnaire and describe the results of any pre-test you do.

• In the results chapter, summarise the main findings from the interviews. Refer to the interview data using quotes or paraphrases. You may find the various models for your thesis, such as risk analysis or SWOT analysis, useful for your data analysis.

• In the conclusion, answer your research question based on the interview data (and any other research methods or sources). 

• In the discussion, explain what you did to ensure the reliability and validity of your study. Also, mention the possible limitations of the chosen interview method here. 

• Put the interview transcripts in the appendices. You can also include the questionnaire or topic list you used in the appendix. Refer to this in the running text of your thesis.

The quality of your data largely depends on your qualities as an interviewer. We are happy to help you tackle the interview in the best possible way. Check out our tips for useful interview techniques, such as:

• Listen more rather than speak more. Above all, let the interviewee speak.

• Ask further questions if the interviewee says something interesting.

• Above all, ask open-ended questions, as they provide richer data.

• Formulate your questions neutrally so that you don't steer the interviewee too much towards a particular answer.

• Be clear and specific with your questions.

• Avoid jargon.

• Keep an eye on non-verbal cues from the interviewee. These cues sometimes tell you more than a thousand words could. You can tell, for example, if someone does not understand something or if the interviewee is getting emotional.