The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need to carry out qualitative interviews online.
In my PhD, I've tried both face-to-face interviews and also online interviews.
I'll say that I was one of the skeptics before transferring my methods online.
Would I be able to get as good and rich data online?
I wasn't so sure. But I was very surprised to learn that you can
actually get equally rich and sometimes even superior data with online interviews.
I think when you interview someone who's in their own living room
who's in some cases sitting on their couch with a cat on their lap and with a cup of tea,
you get a completely different type of interview
than when you're in a meeting room somewhere in an organisation.
I think it really helps people to relax and make them more willing to talk
and to be quite honest.
So what are you going to do before, during, and after the online interview?
Let's find out.
[retro spy theme music]
Number one: Get the details down.
As with any interview, you need informed consent.
Before setting up anything, send through additional information
where you explain your project in layman's terms.
In this consent form and information sheet, you want to lay out how you're handling
their personal data, what it's going to be used for, and all those types of things.
But there will be specific guidelines for different institutions, of course.
Then there is the practical aspect of actually getting back these signed consent forms.
I will say that I've spent a surprising amount of time
gently reminding people to sign it and send it back to me.
You're like: "I'm going to email you this form. I hope you can fill it out before the interview."
They then never do, because they're always too busy.
So during the interview, you say: "Can you please fill out the form still?
because otherwise I can't use this data."
And then they say: "Oh, yeah, I will."
Then afterwards, they don't email you again, and you have to send them another email going:
"So - great that I could interview you, but can you please sign this form still?"
So the admin can be a bit of a drag, I think.
What type of platform are you going to use?
I usually ask my interviewees what they prefer.
However, there might also be specific requirements from your institution.
So it might be worth looking into what you are actually allowed to use.
If you're talking to someone in a different time zone,
it's very important to be aware of the time difference.
I like to use a time zone converter to make sure that I know exactly
the right time that I'll be doing the interview.
Let's just say this comes from learning it the hard way.
[music box arrangement of Brahms's lullaby]
[snoring]
[snoring and lullaby are interrupted by ringtone]
[phone vibrates]
Design a useful interview guide.
You want to encourage your interviewee to describe their experience freely and openly.
The more open-ended questions you have, the more they will be able to do just that.
If you've booked to speak to someone for an hour, let's say, then you want to make sure,
when you write your list of questions, that you can all fit them within an hour
and to leave a bit of space to go slightly off topic as well or to ask them to elaborate.
Or if you get someone who's really chatty and keeps giving really long answers,
you don't want to have to cut them off every time.
So it's good to build some extra time.
Check your tech.
Download the latest version of whatever video conferencing software you're going to use,
so that you don't have any of those awkward "updating moments" right before the interview.
Whatever tech you're using, double-check it. That's the first tip.
Always just test that it's working.
The second tip would be to have a plan B ready for anything that can go wrong.
For instance, if my voice recorder stops working, I also have my phone on the table.
In most cases, I actually record with both at the same time.
Because the worst thing that can happen is to do a whole interview
and get somebody's time for an hour and then not to have recorded it.
And not have taken notes, because I don't really like looking down all the time.
So I completely rely on my technology.
Set the scene.
You only have a 2D image to work with.
But still you're actually communicating a lot within this type of frame.
Are there any distracting elements in the background?
[clears throat]
Consider if it might even be better to just use a simple, clean backdrop.
Find a window if you have access to one and sit right in front of it or with your side to it.
That means that the quality of your webcam image will also be far better.
Next up: What does the interviewee hear?
My sound setup is really simple.
I'm just wearing the normal kind of Apple headphones, just the standard ones.
And my microphone is just this one, and I'm doing that on purpose.
One reason is that your voice will now not be in the entire room,
which gives people a bit more of a sense that it can be confidential.
But the other reason is that if my microphone is here,
you can actually hear me properly, and I don't have to yell at you.
I make sure as well that I'm in a quiet room by myself,
like not having anyone else in the room.
Ideally not having any pets in the room either.
I close the window, so there isn't much noise from outside,
because we're on the street here.
I close the door, so you don't hear
my laundry machine rumbling in the background and stuff like that.
I tell my partner: "I'm in an important interview. I really don't want to be disturbed."
[bistro samba funk music]
Build rapport.
Since you're meeting virtually, and you're just sort of starting right away,
there isn't a lot of time to establish rapport and build that kind of trust
that's needed to get a really good interview.
So don't cut the chit chat.
Have some sort of go-to topic that you can rely on
and use that as a way to sort of ease into the conversation.
So a simple question like: "How's your day been so far?" or
"Have you been really busy today?"
can really help you to get quite a lot of information about how they're arriving into this interview.
Another challenge is around how you behave in the room
and to create a certain atmosphere that seems like it's just the two of you
and it's a kind of trusted conversation, where you can say anything
and where you don't have other people listening in.
So I made a real point of not looking to other people in the room
if there were other people in the room.
Or even if my partner came in with tea, I wouldn't look at him.
Because that would break that kind of one-to-one conversation.
One of the drawbacks of online interviews is that you can't have the same eye contact.
So what you want to do is whenever you're speaking,
you look into the webcam and not down at them.
Because that ensures that every once in a while,
they get the sense that you actually have eye contact.
I know it feels strange that I'm looking at a camera rather than at your face.
But I know that for you it will look like I'm talking to you.
So I make an effort to try and talk to you and to give you that feeling.
It helps to resize the window and move it close to where the webcam is located.
Because then you're sort of naturally inclined to look more at the webcam.
You can also put a little sticker or something next to the webcam
to remind yourself to look into it every once in a while.
Yeah. [laughs] That that makes a lot of sense, definitely.
When your interviewee is answering your questions,
you want to signal that you're doing a lot of active listening.
And you can do that in many different ways.
I do a lot of nodding [laughs] to signal my interest
and to really show them that I want to hear more. I sometimes even ask:
"Oh, can you say more about that? That sounds really interesting."
That kind of validation, just me saying: "That's really interesting" -
that helps them to go like: "Oh, yeah, it really is interesting."
And they tell you a lot more.
It can be really helpful, just a simple sentence like that.
[silence]
Silences - don't be afraid of them.
If it's online, a silence can sometimes mean that you've lost the internet connection.
So whenever there's silence, people always freak out thinking:
"Oh no, my Wi-Fi is gone." So that's that's not great.
So I try to keep nodding and moving,
so that at least they see that I'm there, even though I'm quiet.
But also, a silence can really help as a prompt to let someone speak more.
So whenever they finish an answer, and I kind of feel like
there could be a lot more in this, or there's more detail, or they might give an example,
I just kind of keep nodding and just stay quiet as if i'm expecting them to keep going.
And then after a second or two, they'll start to feel so awkward
that they do keep going, and they come up with another example or another part of that story.
And that's often then where there are really interesting examples,
because they've had to dig a bit deeper and kind of think a bit more about it.
So take a beat before you answer.
Also because there is the very technical aspect of an online interview
that if you jump in, you'll accidentally be cutting off the mic of your interviewee,
which is obviously not very desirable in an online interview.
Overcome tech hurdles.
This is potentially our worst nightmare when we're doing these online online interviews:
The technology fails or crashes.
The other thing that can go horribly wrong is when your Wi-Fi drops.
That's when I then have my phone close to me,
so that I can turn on my hotspot and just keep going on my 4G.
Not great, but that's the only option.
Hopefully it'll only be a short interruption that way, and you can tell the person:
"I'm logging in again. I'll be right back."
If the connection fails completely, you'll have to arrange another time to talk.
Perhaps you can do the rest of the interview via chat or email
or simply grab the phone and do it via the phone instead.
So have some backup plans for what you'll do if the technology fails you in the situation.
Fingers crossed it doesn't, though.
[instrumental music with flute melody and vibraphone]
Another way to generate rich data is to get creative.
Getting people to draw something is also a way of engaging with a material reality
in this very digital situation.
For all my interviewees, it's sparked something different in them
I need to draw a keyboard really quickly.
And what else?
Notebook.
[flute music continues]
I hope you can see it properly. I can't see if it's in the picture.
That is a masterpiece, come on.
Paperwork.
Packages that are being delivered in between, and you're being interrupted.
There's a glass of water, which can go wrong. You can drop your glass of water on your computer,
and you might have to cancel the whole interview. Everything could go wrong.
And then there's also the things that were inside the interview.
The things that are actually on record. There's a lot not on the record, as you can see.
But things around like eye contact that we talked about.
And just general thoughts and talks.
And ethics approval and just keeping it going and all of that.
[bistro samba funk music]
When it's then time to say goodbye, it's always nice to say thank you again and be polite.
And remind the interviewee how you're going to use their input.
And often I do send another email afterwards saying:
"Oh, that was really great. Here are some final things that I want to share."
Or anything you've mentioned during the interview that you would send or whatever.
And just to thank them again for their time.
Capture your own experience.
When you're completely done: You've said goodbye.
You've pressed the "end meeting" button -
You have lots of impressions.
And you want to make sure that those are saved somehow.
Because you'll forget those more ephemeral qualities quite soon after.
[French jazz waltz]
Things that I would write down are things like:
What really struck me about this interview? What stood out?
What was different from what I expected?
But also some kind of circumstantial things like:
When we talked about this topic, the person seemed really uncomfortable.
Those types of things are very helpful for later on when you're listening through the interview
to get a bit of a richer and more nuanced picture in your brain.
And it helps you recall the memory of being in that interview situation.
They are your first impressions of the interview and of what you've been talking about
and of some of the new things that you've heard.
And if you don't write them down, you might get used to those ideas already,
and they don't stand out as much anymore.
You kind of forget that they were actually really interesting, because they just blend in
with all of the other data, and you're like: "Yeah, well, that was just the data I gathered."
All right.
Well, unless there's anything else you want to add?
Not really. I mean, we've covered pretty much everything, right?
It's been a good list of online interviewing tips.
Right. Well, then I'm going to do the very Zoom thing and wave like this.
And say thank you very much, Stella.
And take care.
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
[mouse click]
[retro spy theme music]