seek to understand

Balancing the facets of a semi-structured interview

There are a lot of moving parts to a semi-structured interview. The things you can control: your interview protocol. Things you can't control: the people who you are interviewing. Humans are fickle creatures. We say one thing and behave in a whole different manner. here are some things I try to keep in mind as I execute the qualitative parts of my work.

Try to balance keeping it casual with being consistent in how you frame your questions

Your primary responsibility during a qualitative interview is to get the data, but the way you go about it offers some room for flexibility. For me, my biggest temptation is to keep the interview so causal so the participant feels relaxed, but I frequently remind myself, “You’re not a bartender, you're collecting data.”

But the reason I often times find myself thinking as a bartender is because they bring a welcoming atmosphere, creating an environment for sharing. Some bartenders make the best psychologist, and there’s many psychological parallels in a semi structured interview.

The consequence of being too informal is not asking stakeholders questions using the same language. People might interpret a question we ask differently, resulting in inconsistent data. The danger with being too formal is people don’t feel comfortable and don’t give answers that reflect their whole experience.

The middle of the venn diagram is a place where you create consistency in your semi-structured protocol and at the same time, let just enough personality show that people trust you.

It’s not the questions you come ready to ask, it’s the responses you didn’t know you needed.

If someone wants to tell you about the bunion on their foot, they will find a way to tell you about the bunion on your foot. When I was first starting out doing semi-structured interviews, I was so worried about not asking the right question that it would keep me up at night. I would look over and over our question objectives, but I wish someone had told me that if someone thought something was really important, they would share it.

Now, don’t read this and think the research objectives are a waste, because only through good questions do stakeholders gain the context to communicate what may seem like an outlier. But overall, I’ve found that if someone wants to tell me about their dog in the hospital, seemingly unrelated, they will find a way.

And oftentimes it’s the weird side-story that helps me understand the big picturer picture surrounding the challenge.

Arrange yourself with purpose

When you’re getting ready to set up a room either in person or virtually for an interview, think about how the way you’re positioned in the room can help add value to your conversation.

In Person

When someone walks through the door to the interview space, what are they going to see? Trick question! It should be your smiling face. Try to place yourself facing the door. This is helpful for two reasons, 1) it allows you give people a warm greeting. 2) It also allows you to see if someone is outside hovering or looking for the room. Pro-tip, if you’re waiting for your next interview, keep a door open to signal to people they can come on in.
Make sure your interviewee isn’t facing a window or an area where they can be distracted. You want to make sure you keep your stakeholders attention as easily as possible. I try to position people away from a door or window so they can’t see people walking by.
If the chairs available to you have adjustable heights, make sure the chairs are about even. Don’t set yourself too high in a chair or too low. It will either make yourself look intimidating or small. And if you can’t help it because you’re tall, then see if you can heighten a chair.

Virtually

Your background matters. It has the opportunity tell a story, wether or not you know it. If you come for an interview with me, and I have a bar cart and some family photos behind me, you might think I love a happy hour and value my family. These might be great things to communicate and sometimes even can be conversation openers.
However, I would caution anyone who thinks their messy room is a suitable background.
Virtual backgrounds can be distracting depending on the program, so also take that into account.
And finally, don’t forget to show some grace if the person you’re working with has an interruption or distraction. While we’re all much more proficient when it comes to virtual meetings today than we were 18 months ago, there’s still an opportunity for things to go array.

People will cry

I work with an interesting demographic of people: employees. They come in all shapes and sizes, genders, ages and race. The “human” part of human-centered never ceases to amaze me. People share stories where work was a real challenge for them, where the people they were working with were a challenge. When you’re an individual contributor, your opinion isn’t regularly considered in big organizational decisions, and sometimes that feeling bubbles up in tears. Humans need human connection, and it’s a privilege to listen to understand, and to take an entire workforces stories and compile it into meaningful insights for their leaders to understand.