Now that you have a handle on the fundamentals of interviews, the first step in preparing to conduct your interviews is to develop the list of questions and topics that you would like to cover. This list is known as an interview guide.
The format of your interview guide will differ based on the type of interview you are conducting. For a structured interview, you will want to create a specific set of questions that remains consistent across each interview you conduct. For unstructured interviews, the guide lays out topics you want to be sure to talk about, but does not have specific questions written out. For semi-structured interviews, you may write out some questions in advance, but also lay out general topics.
To begin creating an interview guide, think about how your research question engages prior research and theories, as well as how your interviewees will understand it. Before you ask other people your interview questions, take some time to answer a few questions yourself. For example, Gerson and Damaske suggest starting the process of building an interview guide by reflecting on these points: “What are the core concepts and ideas I wish to measure? What kind of information – such as a person’s experiences, actions, perceptions, emotional states, and plans – can best concretize these abstract categories? And what strategy will enable and motivate people to provide useful information?” (Gerson & Damaske, 2020, p.69)
As you think about your research topic and begin writing your interview questions, you will start to notice patterns. You may even find that some questions naturally group together, which will help you structure your interview guide.
Below are basic elements to help you prepare your interview guide, adapted from Bryman (2016) using an example found in A Practical Introduction to In-Depth Interviewing by Alan Morris (2015).
In general, the ideal interview question measures the concept you are interested in and means the same thing to all participants (Harrison, 2007). If you are able to create questions that fit these two parameters there is less of a chance of bias during the interview.
Personal Project
Write down your research topic and question. Then, write down 3-5 broad topics you would like to cover in each of your interviews. If you plan on using unstructured interviews, this is all you need to do for your guide. However, if you plan on using structured or semi-structured interviews, you will continue to add questions for each of these topics. Regardless of the type of interview you have chosen, read on to the next section to learn about formulating and asking questions!
