Handling the Misconceptions and Challenges of Key Informant Interviews

1. Handling the Misconceptions and Challenges of Key Informant Interviews A teleconference hosted by The Tobacco Control Evaluation Center Robin Kipke, Evaluation Associate February 26, 2009

2. Agenda Objective: Correct misconceptions and tackle challenges of doing KIIs • When and why to conduct KIIs • Who makes a useful informant • How to prepare for an interview • How to obtain an interview

3. What Is a Key Informant Interview? A key informant is someone who can “unlock” information for you about an issue An interview is a conversation with a structure and a purpose

4. Purpose of a Key Informant Interview To get understanding of an issue or culture • To capture the big picture • To get rich detail • To investigate the breadth • To test the depth • To determine the ranges & possibilities

5. What a Key Informant Interview Is Not A key informant interview is NOT • a survey • an educational visit • the same as a news interview

6. When to Conduct Key Informant Interviews Early in a campaign and/or near its end • To explore information (when you don’t know something) • To confirm information (when you want to assess what you did)

7. What Key Informant Interviews Can Do KIIs can help your project: • Get ideas for your strategy • Identify and gain access to key players • Develop relationships with stakeholders and info sources

8. When to Conduct Key Informant Interviews At the beginning of an intervention – To inform the planning of your project about • The various positions or “camps” on an issue • Potential barriers and challenges to achieving your policy goal • Cultural considerations of a target population • How best to approach a particular stakeholder group

9. When to Conduct Key Informant Interviews After an intervention – To gather process data to inform future actions • Learn how various stakeholders felt about the program or policymaking process • Reflect on what worked/didn’t work, why a policy was/wasn’t adopted, particularly effective strategies, ways to improve

10. Misconceptions about Using KIIs Misconception • That you need to ask the same questions in both pre- and post-intervention KIIs Fact • Usually not, since KIIs are most often used to collect process data about how and why things happened

11. How to Choose Informants Select people who will either: • Be affected by the proposed policy • Have the power to make policy decisions • Possess unique perceptions/points of view OR • Know a great deal about the issue/culture

12. Who Makes a Good Informant Think about the informant’s role and what you need to know • Politicians/officials/their staff • Service providers • Community leaders • Business owners • Cultural insiders

13. Diversifying Your Informant Pool Experience from the Field Roy Rosell Health Educator/Community Organizer The Asian Youth Center in San Gabriel roylife@hotmail.com or roy.rosell@asianyouthcenter.org

14. Who to Include in Your Sample Seek a variety of viewpoints – • From constituents, allies, opponents, targets • From people of differing job titles, characteristics, positions on an issue • Don’t just talk to likely supporters!

15. How to Prepare for an Interview • Use social investigation techniques • Research public records • Attend open meetings beforehand

16. Investigating Public Figures Experience from the Field Vanessa Marvin Organizing Coordinator The Center for Tobacco Policy & Organizing vmarvin@alac.org

17. www.Center4TobaccoPolicy.org

19. How to Approach a Key Informant Introduce • Yourself • Your organization • Your purpose • Your sales pitch – why s/he as key informant • How much time you’ll need

20. Obtaining an Interview Experience from the Field Denise Cintron Perales Evaluator, Perales & Associates Evaluation Services (PAES) evaluation@perales-paes.com

21. Obtaining Interviews with Policymakers • Contact officials that your project has worked with • Have project staff make the initial contact • Once informant agrees, introduce yourself & purpose of interview • Mention that you were told informant agreed to be interviewed

22. Interview Scheduling Logistics • Offer several different options for data & time • State approximately how long the interview will last • The day before the interview, send a reminder email

23. Meeting Challenges Insights from participants: How do you handle…? • Getting reluctant informants to agree to an interview • Interviewing a likely opponent

24. How to Respond to Questions in an Interview Experience from the Field Carey January Project Director Girl’s Club of Los Angeles Chair of Coalition for Smoke-free Parks

25. Formulating KII Question Guides • Map out key data points with end-use strategizing • Start with easy, non-threatening questions • Sequence questions for conversation flow • Avoid bias in the wording • Anticipate possible follow up questions

26. Resources for Doing KIIs For more help with key informant interviews • Watch a pre-recorded presentation on conducting KIIs from the TCEC website • Download end-use strategizing tools and tips on formulating interview questions from the TCEC website to help you develop your KII question guides • Call or email an evaluation associate for individual help

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