A poorly prepared interview guide leads to conversations where it is difficult to compare responses, draw conclusions, or reconstruct participants’ thought processes. A good interview guide helps structure the moderator’s work, leaves room for probing, and helps generate material that addresses the research questions.<\/p>\n
An interview guide<\/a> is a working document that translates research objectives into a sequence of topics, questions, techniques, and tasks for the participant. It is not a transcript of the conversation or a questionnaire to be read word for word. Its purpose is to ensure that key issues are covered in every in-depth interview or focus group discussion, while allowing respondents to describe their experiences in their own words.<\/p>\n In qualitative research<\/a>, a participant’s response is not merely a unit of data to be coded. The context of the statement, the order in which spontaneous associations arise, the language used to describe a problem, hesitation, examples, and exceptions are also important. For this reason, the guide should move from broad topics to specific ones. The moderator should first identify the interviewee’s natural way of thinking and only then explore specific research assumptions.<\/p>\n In an IDI<\/a>, or in-depth interview, the moderator guide supports a one-on-one conversation. The moderator can spend more time on a particular experience, clarify the sequence of events, or ask the respondent to show materials they use in their everyday life. In an FGI<\/a>, the guide must also account for group dynamics: time for individual statements, exchanging opinions, comparing different perspectives, and tasks that engage participants.<\/p>\n In both formats, the starting point is the research objectives, not a list of questions that “would be worth asking.” If the objective is to understand the process of choosing a service, the guide should cover the successive stages of that process: the initial situation, the emergence of a need, sources of information, evaluation criteria, difficulties, the decision-making moment, and the post-choice experience. Asking “Was price important?” produces a brief response. Asking “Please tell me what happened from the moment the need arose until the decision was made” makes it possible to reconstruct the actual course of events.<\/p>\n An interview guide is particularly necessary when more than one moderator is involved in the study, when different respondent segments are compared, or when the material is to be combined with quantitative data. In such projects, comparability of topics is important, but not an identical course for every conversation. Participants may bring up different issues and describe their experiences in different ways. The guide should provide a common core for the conversations rather than impose artificial uniformity.<\/p>\n It is also worth distinguishing an interview guide from a research brief. The brief describes the problem, objectives, target group, and decisions that the research findings are intended to support. The guide turns this description into actions during the conversation. It includes language tailored to participants, instructions for the moderator, the order of sections, and suggested probing questions. It is a fieldwork tool that should be understandable both to the researcher conducting the session and to those who later analyze the material.<\/p>\n Creating an interview guide is best started by breaking down the research questions into smaller areas of inquiry. A broad question such as “How do customers perceive the service process?” is too wide-ranging to be directly turned into a moderator question. It is necessary to establish which elements of the process need to be explored: expectations before contact, the first impression, the course of the interaction, difficult moments, how problems are resolved, the language used in evaluations, and comparisons with previous experiences.<\/p>\n The next step is to structure the interview guide into thematic sections. Each section should have a clearly defined objective: what the moderator wants to learn and what will indicate that they have received a sufficiently in-depth response. This makes it easier to shorten or expand the conversation depending on the situation without losing the most important data.<\/p>\n A practical guide structure may include the following sections:<\/p>\n <\/br><\/p>\n In each section, it is useful to distinguish between main questions and probes. A main question opens up a topic, while a probe helps obtain details without suggesting an answer. For example, after asking “What was your most recent contact with the service provider like?”, neutral probes can be used: “What happened next?”, “How was this step taken?”, “What made you notice it?”, or “Could you give an example?”<\/p>\n In a semi-structured interview<\/a>, marking priorities is particularly important. For each section, it is possible to indicate which issues are mandatory, which should be addressed only if they arise spontaneously, and which are supplementary. This allows the moderator to manage time without losing sight of the research objective. It is also worth noting the anticipated time for each section, while treating it as a framework rather than a rigid schedule.<\/p>\n A good practice is to treat the guide as a map rather than a list of questions to be read aloud. The moderator should know which topics are mandatory and which can be omitted when they do not add value to the conversation. This principle helps avoid two extremes: a chaotic interview in which important areas are missed and a mechanical conversation in which the participant has no room for their own narrative.<\/p>\n When constructing questions, start with open-ended questions. Requests to describe something, recall a specific situation, compare experiences, or put events in order work well. Closed-ended questions can be used as supporting questions, for example to confirm a fact, but they should not dominate. Rather than asking “Was the service convenient?”, it is better to ask “What in this process was easy for you, and what required additional effort?”<\/p>\nHow to prepare an interview guide step by step?<\/h2>\n
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