Interviewing Techniques

1. Interviewing Techniques Individuals and Groups Meeting 5

2. Qualitative Interviewing • Natural setting - grocery store • 30 minutes to 2 hours in length • Participant’s point of view • Single focus

3. Preparation • Begin with grand tour question • Go from general to specific • Ask respondents to talk about experiences • Use ‘tell me about’ questions • Prepare a data sheet • Record interviews when possible - no notes

4. Conducting • No personal interjections • Use prompts • Repeat what they just said • Let respondent set the agenda • Ask for meanings of emic words • Introduce objects • Summarize, give contact number, conclude

5. Analyzing • Listen during interview • Write brief summary with conclusions • Read and reread transcript texts • Develop a coding scheme • Organize categories and examples • Use analysis to structure future interviews

6. Use groups when • Topic is important for participants • Confirmation from other research is needed • Observable behavior naturally occurs in groups or group settings • Families or pairs are units of interest/study • Sociograms are useful for understanding a dynamic

7. Listening to respondents • Read between the lines • Look for underlying insights that are repeated from interview to interview • Star of the interview is the consumer • Treat participant as guest not subject

8. Interviewing ‘tricks’ • Dress like the consumer • Don’t take notes • State your purpose up front • No right or wrong answers • Keep asking why • Study talk show hosts

9. Listgening ‘tricks’ • Identify main ideas in the conversation • Listen to how people express themselves; notice non-verbals • Listen for what they don’t say • Look for patterns across interviews

10. Questioning Techniques Projective Questioning • Use questions to learn about consumer’s life If you won the lottery tomorrow, how would it change your life? If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go?

11. Questioning Techniques 2. Product and Brand Personality • Personality traits give clues to strengths and weaknesses of brand • If mustard were a star, who would play it? • If you could come back as a car, what would it be like? • What adjectives apply to Doritos?

12. Questioning Techniques 3. Laddering Attributes-----> Benefits-----> Values (features) (personal use) (needs) What product is What product means • Ask why • Ask why • Ask why