Conducting an In-depth Interview

This guide, written by Lisa A. Guion, David C. Diehl, and Debra McDonald for the University of Florida, looks at strategies and techniques for conducting in-depth interviews.  It also outlines a seven stage process for planning, designing, conducting and analysing the interviews. 

Excerpt

"In-depth interviews are a useful qualitative data collection technique that can be used for a variety of purposes, including needs assessment, program refinement, issue identification, and strategic planning. In-depth interviews are most appropriate for situations in which you want to ask open-ended questions that elicit depth of information from relatively few people (as opposed to surveys, which tend to be more quantitative and are conducted with larger numbers of people). This paper provides a brief introduction to in-depth interviewing as a tool for collecting rich information that can inform program development and evaluation."

Contents

• What is an In-depth Interview?
• Skills and Attributes of the Interviewer
• Conducting an In-depth Interview
  • Stage 1: Thematizing
  • Stage 2: Designing
  • Stage 3: Interviewing
  • Stage 4: Transcribing
  • Stage 5: Analyzing
  • Stage 6: Verifying
  • Stage 7: Reporting