Guide to Interviewing

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Guide to Interviewing
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Contents

• Types of interviews
• Three steps in successful interviewing
• The interview schedule
• The interview guide
• Conducting the interview
• Rapport
• Questioning
• Interview review
• The interviewee
• Dos and donts
• Further assistance

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Interviews
Interviews are in essence guided dialogues to
gain information, made effective by using a well
prepared interview guide.
Some examples are

• Requirements gathering interviews
• Post implementation review interviews
• Job and team selection interviews
• Performance review interviews
• Exit interviews

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Three steps in successful interviewing

• Preparation produce an interview schedule and
  interview guides.
• Execution conduct the interviews
• Review write up the interview notes

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Steps in the interview process
Preparation
Execution
Review
Interview
Interview guides
Interview notes format
Interview schedule
Who you are going to interview, why, when and
where?
What questions are you going to ask?

• What results were obtained?
• Information found
• Decisions
• Actions

• Structure
• Rapport
• Listen
• Probe
• Clarify

An interview guide should be created prior to all
interviews to ensure the interviews are focused
and efficient and enable comparison and
summarisation.
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The interview schedule
An interview schedule is helpful, to track who is
going to be interviewed, when and why.
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Preparing the interview schedule

• Identify what the objectives of the interviews
  are, what information you need to find out and
  therefore what areas of the business you need to
  obtain information from.
• Identify who needs to be interviewed to obtain
  this information.
• Create an interview schedule, allowing time to
  review and record notes between interviews.
• Book the interviews and record them in the
  schedule.

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To make the most out of an interview, a well
thought through interview guide is extremely
helpful.
The interview guide
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Preparing the interview guide

• Determine the objectives of the interview.
• Plan the structure of the interview.
• Prepare interview questions.
• Prepare additional notes if they assist. For
  example having an organisation chart helps in
  clarifying roles and responsibilities.

The interview guide enables standardisation of
interviews for effective comparison and
summarisation
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Guidelines for structuring an interview
Focused Many interviewees tend to go off on
tangents during interviews. Your interview guide
should clearly state the boundaries for your
interview. These should be stated generally at
the beginning with more specific instructions to
refocus when appropriate. Quantifiable Open
questions tend to produce long answers that are
difficult to quantify and compare. If you need
measured responses ask the interviewee to assign
a value to their answer so direct comparisons to
be made. For example How reliable is the current
system, what score would you give it out of
ten? Complete Check that the guide addresses all
the objectives of the interview and have a
colleague review it.
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Interview execution
Interviews are exceptionally rich sources of
information. However, no two interviewees are
alike some tend to ramble, others are suspicious
and curt, some will need only the slightest
encouragement to speak their minds, while others
will have to be guided along. The interviewers
job is to conduct the interview to gather the
information required, which takes skill, practice
and structure. Once you have concluded your
interviews, they must be summarised to yield the
big picture. Your questions should therefore
allow for valid comparison and summarisation of
your interviewees viewpoints.

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How to conduct the interview
Introduction

• Conduct at their place of work where possible
• Always state the reason for the interview and how
  it will be conducted
• Put the interviewee at ease
• Ask the interviewee if they agree to you taking
  notes

Body

• Listen to the answers and request clarification
  if necessary
• Avoid making criticisms or taking sides
• Keep control of the interview refocus the
  interviewee if they are rambling or clarify if
  they misunderstood the question
• Stay focused and follow your interview guide
• Allow the interviewee to ask questions

Wrap-up

• Thank the interviewee
• Advise them what the next steps are and the
  timeframe

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Build rapport

• Your interview needs to balance the building of
  rapport and collecting of required information.
• Introduction
• Gain rapport first. Explain the context, set the
  tone, and make the interviewee feel at ease. The
  introduction serves to
• Introduce yourself
• Gauge the interviewees style, expectations and
  concerns
• Confirm the timeframe
• Sequence the interview items
• Items should be ordered by importance and
  sensitivity. The more sensitive your interviewee,
  the more important it is to avoid an
  inquisitorial interview tone. A non-threatening
  format for interviews involves the careful
  arrangement of interview topics
• General before specific
• External before internal
• Historic before current

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Listen and question

• Listen
• To reassure the interviewee you are listening
  and to gain information
• use non-verbal cues such as head nods to show you
  are listening.
• wait until the current question is answered
  before preparing the next one
• listen for emotions and attitudes as well as
  facts
• interrupt only if you sense avoidance of
  answering the question or if the interviewee has
  drifted too far from the topic
• request clarification and ask follow on questions
• Ask open questions
• To initiate discussion on a broad subject and to
  encourage a comprehensive explanation
• use clear, direct phrasing that asks a single
  question
• ask how, what or when but avoid the intimidating
  why question
• Ask closed questions
• To elicit a specific reply
• use this type of question sparingly to avoid
  appearing as an interrogator
• ask in order to understand rather than impress
• be concise

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Open questioning
Examples So what do you enjoy about the role?
Are there any other issues I should be aware
of?
Advantages
Disadvantages

• Puts interviewee at ease
• Interesting for interviewee
• Provides depth of detail
• Reveals other areas of enquiry

• You may lose control
• May use up too much time
• Interviewer may appear unprepared
• Harder to analyse later
• Lower reliability of data

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Closed questioning
Examples Is the new form better or worse than
the old form? Is it Mary or Jane who enter
the application details? Do you stamp the form
before or after the details are recorded?
Advantages
Disadvantages

• Efficient use of time
• Easy to compare interviews
• Higher reliability of data
• Less interviewing skill needed
• Focuses interviewee

• Can be boring for interviewees
• Doesnt provide the opportunity to qualify
  answers
• You may miss other areas

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Probe questioning
Probe questioning is honing in on a particular
area of interest and drilling down to obtain more
detail. It includes asking for more information
to clarify a vague phrase or statement made by
the interviewee such as quite high or often
late. Probe questioning needs to be balanced
with open and closed questioning to avoid the
interview seeming like an interrogation.
Examples How does that happen? How did that
change impact your department? What
specifically do they do as a result of that?
Advantages
Disadvantages

• Provides data on new aspects
• Supplies detail in context
• Shows interest in conversation

• Can appear threatening

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Paraphrasing

• Paraphrasing is a technique used to confirm or
  clarify something the interviewee has said or
  implied. There are three levels of paraphrasing
• The first level confirms or clarifies expressed
  thoughts and feelings, for example so there
  are three factors that determine the present
  situation
• The second confirms implied thoughts or feelings,
  for example so you would really like to change
  this situation
• The third surfaces core thoughts or feelings, for
  example you are afraid that it might make
  things worse for you or so you think the
  strategy is wrong (Note that with paraphrasing
  of feelings you can trigger a strong emotional
  response particularly with this third option )

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Interview notes are valuable when sharing
information with other team members.
Interview review
A standard interview note format is useful in
orienting interviews to results
Key Steps
Format

• Interview Notes
• Interviewees
• Interviewers
• Location
• Date
• KEY FINDINGS
• BACKGROUND AND SITUATION
• DISCUSSION NOTES
• NEXT STEPS

• Write interview notesas soon as possible after
  the interview
• Outline key findings,note emerging hypotheses
• Consider how findings fit with earlier evidence
• Identify gaps to befilled in subsequentinterview
  s

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The interviewee may be

• Assuming no possible improvement
• Assuming they have the full picture
• Assuming knowledge on your part
• Describing work out of sequence
• Covering up their own failings
• Exaggerating
• Scoring off others
• Overwhelmed by you
• Protecting others
• Exaggerating the immediate problem
• Overestimating the importance of the job
• telling you what they think you want to hear

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The interviewee can be

• Inarticulate
• A jargoneer
• A familiarist
• An obstructionist
• Too familiar with the job

Shy Loud A deceiver A hypochondriac An empire
builder
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Adjust your style to suit the interviewee

• The nervous interviewee
• Be very explicit in setting the scene, tell why
  you are there and what they can expect. Establish
  rapport and make sure you are relaxed and
  confident
• The non-talker
• Make a special effort to build rapport and find
  common language and experiences. Avoid closed
  questions, use open questions to draw them out
• The angry/hostile interviewee
• Do not tolerate threatening behaviour.
• If anger is directed at you
• admit your mistake if you are wrong
• stay calm, avoid getting angry in return
• If anger is directed at others
• do not get involved and do not taking sides
• correct misinformation tactfully ie do not
  challenge honestly held opinions

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Poor interviewing behaviour
Examples

• Did not make an appointment
• Arrived late
• Was rude
• Exhibited one upmanship
• Did not explain the purpose of the interview
• Did not explain the scope of interview
• Used jargon
• Became confrontational
• Was inconsiderate
• Talked down to the interviewee
• Abruptly ended the interview
• Did not explain what happens next

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Do not

• Arrive without warning
• Forget interviewees name or role
• Show off
• Criticise
• Interrupt
• Be impatient
• Use coarse language
• Fidget, lounge or appear bored
• Go over time without agreement from interviewee
• Fail to thank the interviewee for their time

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Do

• Create rapport
• Make notes
• Be sincere
• Be objective
• Be courteous
• Verify your findings
• Separate fact from fiction
• Pitch the interview at the right level
• Keep within the scope of the interview
• Establish the option to ask follow up questions
• Wrap up the interview and thank the interviewee
  for their time.

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Further assistance
For additional supporting guides refer to

• Guide to communicating
• Guide to requirements gathering
• Guide to conducting meetings and RAP sessions