How to create an interview guide?

How to create an interview guide?

Designing an interview guide in qualitative research is essential for structuring in-depth conversations that capture participants’ nuanced experiences and reflections. Seidman (2006) emphasizes a flexible, participant-centered approach to guide development, which balances broad thematic direction with open-ended questions, facilitating a natural conversational flow. Below, we outline key considerations for constructing an interview guide that promotes meaningful engagement in qualitative studies:

1. Define the research question and objectives: Clarifying the research’s focus and the specific experiences under investigation provides the foundation for an effective interview guide (Seidman, 2006). By establishing a clear scope, researchers can ensure that the guide remains aligned with the core objectives of the study.
2. Create a framework that outlines the main concepts to study: structuring interview guides by organizing questions into overarching themes rather than prescribing fixed questions. The guide should accommodate a series of themes that broadly frame the participant’s narrative. In Seidman’s three-interview series model, these themes progress from a life history focus to current lived experience, and finally to reflection on meaning. Each theme allows the researcher to understand the participant’s experiences deeply and within the context of their personal narrative.
3. Design open-ended questions about each concept: The questions have to be in everyday language, not include jargon, and reflect on operational definitions of concepts to think about how questions could be crafted about that concept. The effectiveness of an interview guide lies in its capacity to elicit detailed and authentic responses. Seidman (2006) underscores the importance of open-ended questions, which invite participants to reconstruct their experiences rather than simply answer direct prompts. Questions should encourage narrative depth, for example: “Can you describe how you first became interested in your field?”
   “What does a typical day look like for you in your role?” These non-directive questions foster participant
   agency, enabling them to emphasize details personally significant to their experience.
4. Verify the order of questions: Questions need to go from broad to more specific, or more sensitive, challenging and direct. Make sure you have opening and closing questions.
5. Add prompts and probes to questions: While open-ended questions drive the interview, it is recommended to use specific prompts to deepen understanding when necessary. Prompts such as “Can you give an example?” or “What were your thoughts at that moment?” allow the interviewer to explore topics that emerge naturally from participants’ responses, while still maintaining a non-intrusive approach.
6. Minimize directing the conversation: To capture the participant’s authentic experience, the guide should avoid leading or suggestive questions that may direct responses toward particular themes or values. Instead of prompting participants with, “Do you find your work rewarding?” researchers might ask, “How do you feel about your experience in this role?”. This non-directive approach ensures that participants provide insights shaped by their unique perspectives rather than conforming to anticipated outcomes.
7. Allow for flexibility and adapt to participant responses: It is important to maintain flexibility in qualitative interviewing, allowing the guide to adapt according to the participant’s narrative. If a participant organically addresses certain themes, the researcher should adjust questions to avoid redundancy and follow the natural trajectory of the conversation. This flexibility is particularly beneficial in phenomenological approaches, where understanding participants’ lived experiences takes precedence over rigid adherence to a predefined question list.
8. Embrace silence as a tool for reflection: The guide should remind researchers to utilize silence and pauses strategically. According to Seidman (2006), allowing participants moments of reflection can often lead to deeper, more thoughtful insights. A well-designed guide includes prompts or notes encouraging the interviewer to embrace brief silences, providing space for participants to contemplate and expand upon their answers.
9. Pilot and revise the interview guide: It is important to check the wording of questions and revise for leading questions that may elicit social desirability bias and other errors.

By following these steps, you can create a well-structured interview guide that balances consistency with the flexibility to explore participant responses in depth. By focusing on open-ended questions and thematic progression, researchers can explore the depth and complexity of participants’ lived experiences, fostering a qualitative study rich in insight and authenticity. This method respects participants’ agency in the interview process and aligns with qualitative research’s broader goal of understanding the human experience from a contextually grounded perspective.