Structured Interview Guide

Practices

Take all interview notes in a single notes file, or store them in a single folder. We utilize a Google Doc with a heading-level-2 title for each interviewee. Our naming convention for the headers is @<date> <first-name> <last-name>. e.g. “@2024-10-14 Nolan Myers”
Record the interviews, with permission. Of course, do not record if the interviewee is not comfortable with it.
Plan for each interview to take 45 minutes, but reserve 60 on the calendar. If your organization uses speedy meetings, plan for 40 and reserve 50.

Preparation (Prior to Interview)

Add their name and date to your interview list
Put the interviewee’s LI profile as the first line in their notes. Spend ~10 minutes prior to each call to review it to understand their context. Typical things to note:
- How long have they been in their role and with the company?
- What has been their career trajectory and how might this influence the perspective?
- Do they tend to be concise or verbose?
- Do you have any common touch points — experiences, schools, or people? These can be helpful to build rapport at outset

Script

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This section is meant as a script, with the spoken words on the left. Words spoken are written in standard text. Additional context or followup questions that the interviewer may or may not ask are written in italics.

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The interview should have a central question or “theme” that it is exploring. In the script below, this is represented by [theme]. Whenever you see [theme] replace it instead with your central question.

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Preamble

[7 mins.] This allows 2 minutes for interviewee to be late. Preamble should not take more than 5 mins.

Spoken Text	Rationale and Considerations
Share some commonality or nicety, especially if you found one on LinkedIn.	Build some rapport, but briefly
Thank you for being with us today.	Always start with thanks. They are giving their time.
This interview is part of our project to address `[theme]`.

Include project name, if appropriate. | Provide context as to why you are here. | | We appreciate your input, and want to let you know that no comments will be shared with attribution. | *Establish confidentiality.

NB: do this only if you are confident you can honor this commitment!* | | Are you comfortable if we record the call? | Recordings are very helpful, but do it only when interviewee feels comfortable. |

Body

Question to Ask	Interviewer Notes and Followups
Briefly describe your organization and role. [5 mins]	*Establish rapport. Understand the context in which this person operates. Typical things to ensure are covered in their response:

For how long have they been with the company? And in this role?
What are their primary responsibilities?* | | Describe what [theme] means to you. [5 mins] | *This is a fairly general question and primarily to get their minds thinking about the theme. Interviewer

Some followup questions might include:

Can you give me an example?
What does that look like?
How have you observed us doing this differently than in other places you’ve worked?* | | Describe areas where you have seen challenges with [theme]. [10 mins] | *Here you want to find specific anecdotes or facts that will contribute to evidence.

Look for answers that give specifics around these areas:

Process
Tools
Organization / skills

Some followup questions:

Can you give me an example?
How often do you experience this?
What is the impact on your team? On the business?* | | What are the root causes of those challenges? [10 mins] | | | What would you recommend to improve the situation? [5 mins] | | | Anything else you would like to share? [3 mins] | |

Practices

Preparation (Prior to Interview)

Script

Preamble

Body

Closing