Questions to Ask in a Research Interview
Questions for conducting a qualitative research interview, moving from consent and easy openers into specific episodes, turning points and difficulties, then closing with what the participant would add.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Before we start, is there anything you want to know about how this will be used?
Why ask it
Consent given as a signature is not the same as consent given with understanding. Answering this first also settles nerves that would otherwise flatten the opening ten minutes of the recording.
Can you tell me how you first got involved with this?
Why ask it
Origin questions are easy to answer and produce narrative rather than opinion. They also date the account, which helps you place everything that comes later.
Walk me through a recent time this came up for you.
Why ask it
A single episode yields concrete detail; a general question yields the participant's theory about themselves. Ask for the most recent instance rather than the most memorable one.
What was that like at the time?
Why ask it
This separates the experience from the explanation built around it afterwards. Participants tend to jump to the lesson, and the lesson is usually the least original part of a transcript.
Who else was involved, and what were they doing?
Why ask it
Populating the scene surfaces the relationships and institutions you did not think to ask about, and those are frequently the ones that turn out to matter.
What did you try, and what happened?
Why ask it
Behavior is reported more reliably than motive. Asking what someone did produces checkable detail, while asking why tends to produce justification.
What was the hardest part?
Why ask it
Difficulty is where practice diverges from policy. If the answer matches the official account word for word, you may be hearing a rehearsed version rather than an experience.
Was there a point where things changed?
Why ask it
Turning points give your analysis structure, and most participants can locate them fairly precisely once they are prompted to look for one.
What helped, and who was it that helped?
Why ask it
Ask for the actual person or resource. Generic answers about support networks usually mean nothing specific was available.
What did you expect that turned out to be wrong?
Why ask it
Confounded expectations are where the interesting material usually sits, and they are easier to recall than abstract beliefs held at the time.
How do other people in your position see this?
Why ask it
Asking about others lets participants voice views they are reluctant to own, and it maps the range of opinion inside a group you may only sample thinly.
What do people outside get wrong about it?
Why ask it
This often produces the most quotable material in an interview, and it can show you where your own framing of the study is off.
How would you know things were going well?
Why ask it
Participants' own success criteria frequently differ from the measures used in the literature, and that gap is often worth reporting in its own right.
What would you want changed, and by whom?
Why ask it
Naming a responsible party turns a complaint into a finding. An answer that stops at the system is worth one more gentle probe.
What has changed for you since then?
Why ask it
This separates the event from its aftermath, which are often folded together in a single retelling, and it dates the account for you.
Is there anything you thought about saying earlier and did not?
Why ask it
Asked late and without emphasis, this recovers material the participant was still deciding whether to trust you with in the first half hour. Phrase it as an open door, not as an accusation of holding back, or you will get a polite no.
What would you say to someone about to go through this?
Why ask it
Advice questions produce a compressed statement of what the participant considers most important, which is useful when comparing across interviews.
How did it feel to talk through this today?
Why ask it
It flags distress you may have missed, and it gives you information about your own interviewing that you cannot get any other way.
Is there something I should have asked and did not?
Why ask it
Early in a study this is how an interview guide gets fixed. Several participants pointing the same direction means there is a hole in your instrument.
Is there anyone else you think I should speak to?
Why ask it
This builds your sample and shows who the participant treats as authoritative, which is itself a finding worth noting.
Running a Qualitative Interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Interviewing Craft
Ask for episodes, not opinions
"Tell me about the last time" produces detail you can code. "How do you generally feel about" produces a summary the participant has already given other people, usually more than once.
Let silence do the work
Counting to five before speaking again is uncomfortable and highly productive. Most of the useful second halves of answers arrive in that gap, after the polite version has been delivered.
Use their words, not yours
If a participant says pressure, do not paraphrase it as stress. Repeating their term back keeps the meaning theirs and avoids importing your framework into the transcript.
Ask what, not why
Why questions invite people to defend themselves. What happened next, what did you do, and what did you say get you the same causal information with much less self-presentation attached.
Probes That Keep an Answer Going
- Can you give me an example of that?
- What happened just before that?
- You said it was complicated. Complicated how?
- Who was in the room?
- How did you find out?
- What did you do next?
- Is that typical, or was that time unusual?
Practical Setup
Recording and consent
Confirm consent on the recording itself, say when you are starting and stopping, and tell participants they can ask you to pause or to strike something. Carry a second recorder, because primary devices fail in the middle of the best interview of a study.
Order of questions
Put easy factual openers first, sensitive material in the middle third once rapport exists, and something calm at the end so nobody leaves in the middle of a difficult subject.
Time and place
Allow half again as long as you booked, and choose somewhere the participant can speak without being overheard by a colleague, a manager or a family member.
Notes immediately afterwards
Write your impressions within the hour: what surprised you, where the participant hesitated, what the room was like. Those notes will not survive the week otherwise, and they are what make the transcript legible later.
Common Pitfalls
Leading without noticing
Questions like "so that must have been frustrating" hand the participant an answer. Ask what it was like and let them supply the adjective.
Filling silence with a second question
Stacking two questions together means you get an answer to one of them, usually the easier one. Ask one and wait.
Interviewing your hypothesis
If every probe follows the material that supports your expectation, the transcript will confirm it. Deliberately follow the answer that does not fit.
Ending abruptly when the time runs out
The last five minutes often produce the most candid material. Leave room for the closing questions rather than cutting them when the clock forces a choice.