10 tips for semi-structured qualitative interviewing

Many qualitative researchers spend a lot of time interviewing participants, so here are some quick tips to make your semi-structured interviews go as smoothly as possible:

1. Let your participants choose the interview location.
2. Remember your participants are helping you, and think about what they expect to get out of the interview experience.
3. Interviews are conversations, not interrogations.
4. Create a topic guide and memorise it, but keep it to hand.
5. Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions.
6. Use open body language and encouraging cues.
7. Write notes about the interview, even if you don't use them.
8. Write up the interview as soon as you finish.
9. Return to difficult issues that came up during the interview.
10. Say thank you to your interviewees!

We go into more detail on each of these points below, but you may also like to check out our video tips on semi-structured interviews:

Let your participants choose the interview location

If you want your interviewees to be comfortable in sharing sometimes personal or sensitive information, make sure they can do it in a comfortable location. For some people, this might be their own house, or a neutral territory like a local cafe.

If they choose their own home as the interview location, we've got some additional advice on that here:

Handling qualitative interviews in other people’s homes

There are multiple reasons you might consider a participant’s private residence to be the right interview location…

Quirkos Qualitative Research BlogCathy Gibbons

Giving participants the choice can help build trust, and gives the right impression: that you are accomodating them. However, make sure you make it clear that you need a relatively quiet location free from interruptions: a pub that plays loud music will not only stop you hearing each other, but usually makes recordings unusable!

Of course, if you are considering your transcription options for noisier recordings, you might like to check out our comparison of automated transcription services.

Remember that your participants are helping you

Be polite and courteous, and be grateful to them for sharing their time and experiences. This always gets interviews off on the right foot. Also, try and think about participants' motivations for taking part. Do they want the research to help others? Are they looking for a therapeutic discussion? Do they just like a chat? Understanding this will help you guide the interview, and make sure you meet their expectations.

An interview is a conversation, not an interregation!

Interviews work best when they are a friendly dialogue: don't be afraid to start with some small talk, even when the tape is running. It turns a weird situation into a much more normal human experience, and starting with some easy 'starter for 10' questions helps people open up. Even a chatty "How did you hear about the project?" can give you useful information.

How can I get people to talk in qualitative interviews?

I once did some auto-ethnography in nightclubs. I didn’t have difficulty getting people to share their stories with me even though we had to take turns shouting into each other’s ear. So what is going on, what’s getting in the way of talking and sharing?

Quirkos Qualitative Research BlogCathy Gibbons

Memorise your interview topic guide, but keep it to hand

Knowing all the questions in your topic guide can really help, so group them thematically, and memorise them as much as you can. It will really help the flow of information if you can segue seamlessly from one question to another relevant one. However, it's always useful to keep a print-out in front of you, not just for if you forget something, but also to make you seem more human, with a specific role. Joking about remembering all the questions is a great icebreaker, and it gives you something to look at other than the participant, to stop the session turning into a staring match!

How to create a semi-structured interview guide

How ‘structured’ should your semi-structured interviews be? Find out how to use an interview guide to get the best out of your semi-structured interviews.

Quirkos Qualitative Research BlogDaniel Turner

Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions

Don't assume you know anything. In these kinds of interviews, it's usually not about getting the right answer, but getting the respondent's view or opinion. Asking 'What do you mean by family?' is really useful if you discover someone has adopted children, step-sisters and a beloved family dog that all share the house. Don't make any assumptions; let people tell you what they mean. Even if you have to ask something that makes you sound ignorant on a specialist subject, you could discover that someone didn't know the difference between their chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

When interviewing, use open body language and encouraging cues

Face the participant in a friendly way, and nod or look sympathetic at the right times. Sometimes it's tempting for the interviewer to keep quiet during the responses, and not put in any normal encouraging noises like "Yeah", "Hmm" or "Right" knowing that these will break up the flow of the interview transcript. But these are important cues that people use to know when to keep talking, so if you are going to drop them, make sure you make positive eye contact, and nod at the right times instead!

Write interview notes, even if you don't use them

It always helps me to scribble down some one-word notes on the topic guide when doing an interview. This can help focus your thoughts, and remind you about interesting things that the participant mentioned that you want to go back to. But it also helps show that you are listening, and makes sure that if the recording goes wrong, you still have something to fall back on.

Write up the interview as soon as you finish

Just take 15 minutes after each interview to reflect on the main points that came up, how open the respondent was, and any context or distractions that might have impaired the flow. This helps you think about things to do better in the next interview, and will help you later to remember each interview as vividly as you can.

Return to difficult issues that came up during the interview

If a particular topic is clearly a difficult question (either emotionally, or just because someone can't remember) don't be afraid to leave the topic and come back to it later, asking in a different way. It can really help with recall to have a break talking about something easier, and then approach the issue sideways later on.

Say thank you to your interviewees

Remember to follow up: send a nice card after the interview, don't be like a date they never hear from again! Also, try and make sure they get a summary of the findings of the study they took part in. It's not just about being nice, but to make sure people have a good experience as a research subject, and will want to be involved in the next project that comes along, which might be yours or mine!

I hope these tips have been helpful! Don't forget Quirkos makes your interviews easy to transcribe and analyse, as well as a visual and engaging process. Find out more and start a free trial from our website. Our blog is updated regularly with articles like this, and you can hear about it first by subscribing to our blog updates.