Interviewing Tips

1. Interviewing Tips

2. Preparation for Interview • All those who might shed light • Maintenance • Delivery person • Questions from Triage Question booklet • Who, what, why, when, where, and how • Primary goals are to find what happened and why it happened 

3. Techniques to Draw Out Information • Interviewee might sketch out a diagram/flow chart of how things happened • Avoid leading questions • Avoid questions that have "yes" or "no" answers • Do not put words in the interviewee's mouth • Describe technically difficult information in their own words • Encourage the interviewee to confine their comments to what they observed • Avoid hearsay • Avoid comments not in their personal knowledge/experience

4. Things to Always Consider • Be courteous, considerate and open minded • Avoid embarrassing any interviewee • Adjust your style to match the needs of the interviewee • Injured interviewees must be treated with overt diplomacy • Help timid interviewees

5. Other Tips • Be sensitive to the attitudes of strongly opinionated or biased interviewees (carefully sift after the interview) • Actively guide talkative or tangential interviewees to stick to the facts • Assure suspicious interviewees of the team's goals and confidentiality of the process • Do not dismiss interviewees who say they "don't know anything" prematurely,

6. Re-enact the adverse event or close call with each interviewee • Good way to elicit important “details” • Better understand how those perceptions match up with the actual environment • Helps with “Learned Intuition” • Pictures or diagrams may be used instead of actually visiting the scene with the interviewee • “Be careful” during simulation