structured interview questions research

Structured vs. unstructured interviews: A complete guide

Last updated

7 March 2023

Reviewed by

Miroslav Damyanov

Short on time? Get an AI generated summary of this article instead

Interviews can help you understand the context of a subject, eyewitness accounts of an event, people's perceptions of a product, and more.

In some instances, semi-structured or unstructured interviews can be more helpful; in others, structured interviews are the right choice to obtain the information you seek.

In some cases, structured interviews can save time, making your research more efficient. Let’s dive into everything you need to know about structured interviews.

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• What are structured interviews?

Structured interviews are also known as standardized interviews, patterned interviews, or planned interviews. They’re a research instrument that uses a standard sequence of questions to collect information about the research subject. 

Often, you’ll use structured interviews when you need data that’s easy to categorize and quantify for a statistical analysis of responses.

Structured interviews are incredibly effective at helping researchers identify patterns and trends in response data. They’re great at minimizing the time and resources necessary for data collection and analysis.

What types of questions suit structured interviews?

Often, researchers use structured interviews for quantitative research . In these cases, they usually employ close-ended questions. 

Close-ended questions have a fixed set of responses from which the interviewer can choose. Because of the limited response selection set, response data from close-ended questions is easy to aggregate and analyze.

Researchers often employ multiple-choice or dichotomous close-ended questions in interviews. 

For multiple-choice questions, interviewees may choose between three or more possible answers. The interviewer will often restrict the response to four or five possible options. An interviewee will likely need help recalling more, which can slow down and complicate the interview process. 

For dichotomous questions, the interviewee may choose between two possible options. Yes or no and true or false questions are examples of dichotomous questions.

Open-ended questions are common in structured interviews. However, researchers use them when conducting qualitative research and looking for in-depth information about the interviewee's perceptions or experiences. 

These questions take longer for the interviewee to answer, and the answers take longer for the researcher to analyze. There's also a higher possibility of the researcher collecting irrelevant data. However, open-ended questions are more effective than close-ended questions in gathering in-depth information.

Sometimes, researchers use structured interviews in qualitative research. In this case, the research instrument contains open-ended questions in the same sequence. This usage is less common because it can be hard to compare feedback, especially with large sample sizes.

• What types of structured interviews are there?

Researchers conduct structured interviews face-to-face, via telephone or videoconference, or through a survey instrument. 

Face-to-face interviews help researchers collect data and gather more detailed information. They can collect and analyze facial expressions, body language, tone, and inflection easier than they might through other interview methods . 

However, face-to-face interviews are the most resource-intensive to arrange. You'll likely need to assume travel and other related logistical costs for a face-to-face interview. 

These interviews also take more time and are more vulnerable to bias than some other formats. For these reasons, face-to-face interviews are best with a small sample size.

You can conduct interviews via an audio or video call. They are less resource-intensive than face-to-face interviews and can use a larger sample size. 

However, it can be difficult for the interviewer to engage effectively with the interviewee within this format, which can inject bias or ambiguity into the responses. This is particularly true for audio calls, especially if the interviewer and interviewee have not met before the interview. 

A video call can help the interviewer capture some data from body language and facial expressions, but less so than in a face-to-face interview. Technical issues are another thing to consider. If you’re studying a group of people that live in an area with limited Internet connectivity, this can make a video call challenging.

Survey questionnaires mirror the essential elements of structured interviews by containing a consistent sequence of standard questions. Surveys in quantitative research usually include close-ended questions. This data collection method can be beneficial if you need feedback from a large sample size.

Surveys are resource-efficient from a data administration standpoint but are more limited in the data they can gather. Further, if a survey question is ambiguous, you can’t clear up the ambiguity before someone responds. 

By contrast, in a face-to-face or tele-interview, an interviewee may ask clarifying questions or exhibit confusion when asked an unclear question, allowing the interviewer to clarify.

• What are some common examples of structured interviews?

Structured interviews are relevant in many fields. You can find structured interviews in human resources, marketing, political science, psychology, and more. 

Academic and applied researchers commonly use them to verify insights from analyzing academic literature or responses from other interview types.

However, one of the most common structured interview applications lies outside the research realm: Human resource professionals and hiring managers commonly use these interviews to hire employees.

A hiring manager can easily compare responses and whittle down the applicant pool by posing a standard set of closed-ended interview questions to multiple applicants. 

Further, standard close-ended or open-ended questions can reduce bias and add objectivity and credibility to the hiring process.

Structured interviews are common in political polling. Candidates and political parties may conduct structured interviews with relatively small voter groups to obtain feedback. They ask questions about issues, messaging, and voting intentions to craft policies and campaigns.

• What do you need to conduct a structured interview?

The tools you need to conduct a structured interview vary by format. But fundamentally, you will need: 

A participant

An interviewer

A pen and pad (or other note-taking tools)

A recording device

A consent form

A list of interview questions

While some interviewees may express qualms about you recording the interview, it’s challenging to conduct quality interviews while taking detailed notes. Even if you have a note-taker in the room, note-taking may introduce bias and can’t capture body language or facial expressions. 

Depending on the nature of your study, others may wish to review your sources. If they call your conclusions into question, audio recordings are additional evidence in your favor.

To record, you should ask the interviewee to sign a consent form. Check with your employer's legal counsel or institutional review board at your academic institution for guidance about obtaining consent legally in your state. 

If you're conducting a face-to-face interview, a camcorder, digital camera, or even some smartphones are sufficient for recording.

For a tele-interview, you'll find that today's leading video conferencing software applications feature a convenient recording function for data collection.

If a survey is your method of choice, you'll need the survey and a distribution and collection method. Online survey software applications allow you to create surveys by inputting the questions and distributing your survey via text or email. 

In some cases, survey companies even offer packages in which they will call those who do not respond via email or text and conduct the survey over the phone.

• How to conduct a structured interview

If you're planning a face-to-face interview, you'll need to take a few steps to do it efficiently. 

First, prepare your questions and double-check that the structured interview format is best for your study. Make sure that they are neutral, unbiased, and close-ended. Ask a friend or colleague to test your questions pre-interview to ensure they are clear and straightforward.

Choose the setting for your interviews. Ideally, you'll select a location that is easy to get to. If you live in a city, consider addresses accessible via public transportation. 

The room where your interview takes place should be comfortable, without distraction, and quiet, so your recording device clearly captures your interviewee's audio.

If you're looking to interview people with specific characteristics, you'll need to recruit them. Some companies specialize in interview recruitment. You provide the attributes you need, and they identify a pool of candidates for a fee. Alternatively, you can advertise to participants on social media and other relevant avenues. 

If you're looking for college students in a specific region, look at student newspaper ads or affiliated social media pages. 

You'll also want to incentivize participation, as recruiting interview respondents without compensation is exceedingly difficult. It’s best to include a line or two about requiring written consent for participation and how you’ll use the interview audio.

When you have an interview participant, discuss the intent of your research and acquire their consent. Ensure your recording tools are working well, and begin your interview. 

Don't rely on the recordings alone: Note the most significant insights from your participant, as you could easily forget them when it's time to analyze your data.

You'll want to transcribe your audio at the data analysis stage. Some recording applications use AI to generate transcripts. Remove filler words and other sounds to generate a clear transcript for the best results. 

A written transcript will help you analyze data and pull quotes from your audio to include in your final research paper.

• What are other common types of interviews?

Typically, you'll find researchers using at least one of these other common interview types:

Semi-structured interviews

As the name suggests, semi-structured interviews include some elements of a structured interview. You’ll include preplanned questions, but you can deviate from those questions to explore the interviewee's answers in greater depth.

Typically, a researcher will conduct a semi-structured interview with preplanned questions and an interview guide. The guide will include topics and potential questions to ask. Sometimes, the guide may also include areas or questions to avoid asking.

Unstructured interviews

In an unstructured interview , the researchers approach the interview subjects without predetermined questions. Researchers often use this qualitative instrument to probe into personal experiences and testimony, typically toward the beginning of a research study. 

Often, you’ll validate the insights you gather during unstructured and semi-structured interviews with structured interviews, surveys, and similar quantitative research tools.

Focus group interviews

Focus group interviews differ from the other three types of interviews as you pose the questions to a small group. Focus groups are typically either structured or semi-structured. When researchers employ structured interview questions, they are typically confident in the areas they wish to explore. 

Semi-structured interviews are perfect for a researcher seeking to explore broad issues. However, you must be careful that unplanned questions are unambiguous and neutral. Otherwise, you could wind up with biased results.

What is a structured vs. an unstructured interview?

A structured interview consists of standard preplanned questions for data collection. These questions may be close-ended, open-ended, or a combination. 

By contrast, an unstructured interview includes unplanned questions. In these interviews, you’ll usually equip facilitators with an interview guide. This includes guidelines for asking questions and samples that can help them ask relevant questions.

What are the advantages of a structured interview?

Relative to other interview formats, a structured interview is usually more time-efficient. With a preplanned set of questions, your interview is less likely to go into tangents, especially if you use close-ended questions. 

The more structure you provide to the interview, the more likely you are to generate responses that are easy to analyze. By contrast, an unstructured interview may involve a freewheeling conversation with off-topic and irrelevant feedback that lasts a long time.

What is an example of a structured question?

A structured question is any question you ask in an interview that you’ve preplanned and standardized.

For example, if you conduct five interviews and the first question you ask each one is, "Do you believe the world is round, yes or no?" you have asked them a structured question. This is also a close-ended dichotomous question.

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• Structured Interviews: Definition, Types + [Question Examples]

In carrying out a systematic investigation into specific subjects and contexts, researchers often make use of structured and semi-structured interviews. These are methods of data gathering that help you to collect first-hand information with regards to the research subject, using different methods and tools. 

Structured and semi-structured interviews are appropriate for different contexts and observations. As a researcher, it is important for you to understand the right contexts for these types of interviews and how to go about collecting information using structured or semi-structured interviewing methods. 

What is a Structured Interview?

A structured interview is a type of quantitative interview that makes use of a standardized sequence of questioning in order to gather relevant information about a research subject. This type of research is mostly used in statistical investigations and follows a premeditated sequence. 

In a structured interview, the researcher creates a set of interview questions in advance and these questions are asked in the same order so that responses can easily be placed in similar categories. A structured interview is also known as a patterned interview, planned interview or a standardized interview. 

What is a Semi-Structured Interview?

A semi-structured interview is a type of qualitative interview that has a set of premeditated questions yet, allows the interviewer to explore new developments in the cause of the interview. In some way, it represents the midpoint between structured and unstructured interviews. 

In a semi-structured interview, the interviewer is at liberty to deviate from the set interview questions and sequence as long as he or she remains with the overall scope of the interview. In addition, a semi-structured interview makes use of an interview guide which is an informal grouping of topics and questions that the interviewer can ask in different ways. 

Examples & Advantages of Semi-structured Interviews

An example of a semi-structured interview could go like this;

• Did you visit the doctor yesterday?
• Why did you have the visit?
• What was the outcome of the visit?

Each question is a prompt aimed at getting the respondent to give away more information

Advantages of a Semi-structured Interview

• They offer a more personalized approach that allows respondents to be a lot more open during the interview
• This interview-style combines both unstructured and structured interview styles so it merges the advantages of both.
• Allows two-way communication between candidates and interviewers

Types of Structured Interview

Structured interview examples can be classified into three, namely; the face-to-face interview, telephone interviews, and survey/questionnaires interviews

Face-to-Face Structured Interview

A face-to-face structured interview is a type of interview where the researcher and the interviewee exchange information physically. It is a method of data collection that requires the interviewer to collect information through direct communication with the respondent in line with the research context and already prepared questions. 

Face-to-face structured interviews allow the interviewer to collect factual information regarding the experiences and preferences of the research respondent. It helps the researcher minimize survey dropout rates and improve the quality of data collected, which results in more objective research outcomes. 

Learn: How to Conduct an Exit Survey

Advantages of Face-to-face Structured Interview

• It allows for more in-depth and detailed data collection.
• Body language and facial expressions observed during a face-to-face structured interview can inform data analysis.
• Visual materials can be used to support face-to-face structured interviews.
• A face-to-face structured interview allows you to gather more accurate information from the research subjects. 

Disadvantages of Face-to-face Structured Interview

• A face-to-face structured interview is expensive to conduct because it requires a lot of staff and personnel. Different costs are incurred during a face-to-face structured interview including logistics and remuneration. 
• This type of interview is limited to a small data sample size.
• A face-to-face structured interview is also time-consuming.
• It can be affected by bias and subjectivity . 

Tele-Interviews

A tele-interview is a type of structured interview that is conducted through a video or audio call. In this type of interview, the researcher gathers relevant information by communicating with the respondent via a video call or telephone conversation. 

Tele-interviews are usually conducted in accordance with the standardized interview sequence as is the norm with structured interviews. It makes use of close-ended questions in order to gather the most relevant information from the interviewee, and it is a method of quantitative observation. 

Advantages of Tele-interviews

• Tele-interviews are more convenient and result in higher survey response rates.
• It is not time-consuming as interviews can be completed relatively fast.
• It has a large data sample size as it can be used to gather information over a large geographical area.
• It is cost-effective.
• It helps the interviewee to target specific data samples.

Disadvantages of a Tele-interview

• It does not allow for qualitative observation of the research sample.
• It can lead to survey response bias.
• It is subject to network availability and other technical parameters.
• It is difficult for the interviewer to build rapport with an interviewee via this means; especially if they are meeting for the first time. 
• It may be difficult to read the interviewee’s body language, even with a video call. Body language usually serves as a means of gathering additional information about the research subjects. 

Use this: Interview Schedule Form

Surveys/Questionnaires  

A structured questionnaire is a common tool used in quantitative observation. It is made up of a set of standardized questions, usually close-ended arranged in a standardized interview sequence, and administered to a fixed data sample, in order to collect relevant information. 

In other words, a questionnaire is a method of data gathering that involves gathering information from target groups via a set of premeditated questions. You can administer a questionnaire physically or you can create and administer it online using data-gathering platforms like Formplus. 

Advantages of Survey/Questionnaire

• It is time-efficient and allows you to gather information from large data samples.
• Information collected via a questionnaire can easily be processed and placed in data categories.
• A questionnaire is a flexible and convenient method of data collection.
• It is also cost-efficient; especially when administered online.
• Surveys and questionnaires are useful in describing the numerical characteristics of large sets of data. 

Disadvantages of Surveys/Questionnaires  

• A high rate of survey response bias due to survey fatigue.
• High survey drop-out rate. 
• Surveys and questionnaires are susceptible to researcher error; especially when the researcher makes wrong assumptions about the data sample.
• Surveys and questionnaires are rigid in nature.
• In some cases, survey respondents are not entirely honest with their responses and this affects the accuracy of research outcomes. 

Tools used in Structured Interview 

• Audio Recorders

An audio recorder is a data-gathering tool that is used to collect information during an interview by recording the conversation between the interviewer and the interviewee. This data collection tool is typically used during face-to-face interviews in order to accurately capture questions and responses. 

The recorded information is then extracted and transcribed for data categorization and data analysis. There are different types of audio recording equipment including analog and digital audio recorders, however, digital audio recorders are the best tools for capturing interactions in structured interviews. 

• Digital Camera

A digital camera is another common tool used for structured tele-interviews. It is a type of camera that captures interactions in digital memory, which are pictures. 

In many cases, digital cameras are combined with other tools in a structured interview in order to accurately gather information about the research sample. It is an effective method of gathering visual information. 

Just as its name implies, a camcorder is the hybridization of a camera and a recorder. It is a portable dual-purpose tool used in structured interviews to collect static and live-motion visual data for later playback and analysis. 

A telephone is a communication device that is used to facilitate interaction between the researcher and interviewee; especially when both parties in different geographical spaces.

• Formplus Survey/Questionnaire

Formplus is a data-gathering platform that you can use to create and administer questionnaires for online survey s. In the form builder, you can add different fields to your form in order to collect a variety of information from respondents. 

Apart from allowing you to add different form fields to your questionnaires and surveys, Formplus also enables you to create smart forms with conditional logic and form lookup features. It also allows you to personalize your survey using different customization options in the form builder. 

Best Types of Questions For Structured Interview

Open-ended questions.

An open-ended question is a type of question that does not limit the respondent to a set of answers. In other words, open-ended questions are free-form questions that give the interviewee the freedom to express his or her knowledge, experiences and thoughts. 

Open-ended questions are typically used for qualitative observation where attention is paid to an in-depth description of the research subjects. These types of questions are designed to elicit full and detailed responses from the research subjects, unlike close-ended questions that require brief responses. 

Examples of Open-Ended Questions

• What do you think about the new packaging?
• How can we improve our services?
• Why did you choose this outfit?
• How can we serve you better? 

Advantages of Open-Ended Questions

• Open-ended questions are useful for qualitative observation.
• Open-ended questions help you gain unexpected insights and in-depth information. 
• It exposes the researcher to an infinite range of responses.
• It helps the researcher arrive at more objective research outcomes. 

Disadvantages of Open-ended Questions 

• Data collection using open-ended questions is time-consuming.
• It cannot be used for quantitative research.
• There is a great possibility of capturing large volumes of irrelevant data. 

Using Open-ended Questions for Interviews 

In interviews, open-ended questions are used to gain insight into the thoughts and experiences of the respondents. To do this, the interviewer generates a set of open-ended questions that can be asked in any sequence, and other open-ended questions may arise in follow-up inquiries.

Use this: Interview Feedback Form 

Close-Ended Questions

A close-ended question is a type of question that restricts the respondent to a range of probable responses as options. It is often used in quantitative research to gather statistical data from interviewees, and there are different types of close-ended questions including multiple choice and Likert scale questions . 

A close-ended question is primarily defined by the need to have a set of predefined responses which the interviewee chooses from. These types of questions help the researcher to categorize data in terms of numerical value and to restrict interview responses to the most valid data. 

Examples of Close-ended Questions

1. Do you enjoy using our product?

• I don’t Know

2. Have you ever visited London?

3. Did you enjoy the relationship seminar?

• No, I did not
• I can’t say

4. On a scale of 1-5, rate our service delivery. (1-Poor; 5-Excellent). 

5. How often do you visit home? 

• Somewhat often
• I don’t visit home. 

Advantages of Close-ended Questions 

• It is useful for statistical inquiries.
• Close-ended questions are straight-forward and easy to respond to.
• Data gathered through close-ended questions are easy to analyze.
• It reduces the chances of gathering irrelevant responses.

Disadvantages of Close-Ended Questions 

• Close-ended questions are highly subjective in nature and have a high probability of survey response bias .
• Close-ended questions do not allow you to collect in-depth information about the experiences of the research subjects.
• Close-ended questions cannot be used for qualitative observation. 

Using Close-ended Questions for Unstructured Interviews

Close-ended questions are used in interviews for statistical inquiries. In many cases, interviews begin with a set of close-ended questions which lead to further inquiries depending on the type, that is, structured, unstructured, or semi-structured interviews. 

Also Read: Structured vs Unstructured Interviews

Multiple Choice Question

A multiple-choice question is a type of close-ended question that provides respondents with a list of possible answers. The interviewee is required to choose one or more options in response to the question; depending on the question type and stipulated instructions. 

Typically, a multiple-choice question is one of the most common types of questions used in a survey or questionnaire. It is also a valid means of quantitative inquiry because it pays attention to the numerical value of data categories. A multiple-choice question is made up of 3 parts which are the stem, the correct answer(s) and the distractors.  

Examples of Multiple Choice Questions

• How many times do you visit home?

2. What types of shirts do you wear? (Choose as many that apply)

• Long-sleeved Shirt
• Short-sleeved Shirt 

3. Which of the following gadgets do you use?

4. What is your highest level of education?

Advantages of Multiple Choice Question

• A multiple-choice question is an effective method of assessment; especially n qualitative research. 
• It is time-efficient. 
• It reduces the chances of interviewer bias because of its objective approach. 

Disadvantages of Multiple Choice Questions

• Multiple Choice questions are limited to certain types of knowledge. 
• It cannot be used for problem-solving and high-order reasoning assessments. 
• It can lead to ambiguity and misinterpretation which causes survey response bias. 
• Survey fatigue leads to high survey drop-out rates. 

Dichotomous Questions

A dichotomous question is a type of close-ended question that can only have two possible answers. It is a method of quantitative observation and it is typically used for educational research and assessments, and other research processes that involve statistical evaluation. 

It is important for researchers to limit the use of dichotomous questions to situations where there are only 2 possible answers. These types of questions are restricted to yes/no, true/false or agree/disagree options and they are used to gather information related to the experiences of the research subjects. 

Examples of Dichotomous Questions

1. Do you enjoy using this product?

2. I have always used this product for my hair.

3. Are you lactose-intolerant?

4. Have you ever witnessed an explosion?

5. Have you ever visited our farm?

Advantages of Dichotomous Questions

• It is an effective method of quantitative research. 
• Surveys containing dichotomous questions are easy to administer.
• It is non-ambivalent in nature.
• It allows for ease of data-gathering and analysis.
• Dichotomous questions are brief, easy and simplified in nature. 

Disadvantages of Dichotomous Questions

• A dichotomous question is limited in nature.
• It cannot be used to gather qualitative information in research. 
• It is not suitable for in-depth data gathering. 

Learn: Types of Screening Interview 

How to Prepare a Structured Interview

• Choose the right setting

It’s important to provide a comfortable setting for your respondent. If you don’t, they’ll be subject to participant bias which can then skew the results of your interview.

• Tell them the purpose of your interview

You need to give your participants a heads up on why you’re conducting this. This is also the stage where you talk about any confidentiality clauses and get informed consent from your researchers. Explain how these answers will be used and who will have access to it. 

• Prepare your questions

Start by asking the basics to warm up your respondents. Then depending on your structured interview style, you can then choose tailored questions. E.g multiple-choice, dichotomous, open-ended, or close-ended questions. Ensure your questions are as neutral as possible and give room for your respondents to add any extra impressions or comments.

• Verify that your tools are working

Check that your audio recorder is working fine and that your camera is properly placed before you kick off the interview. For phone interviews, confirm that you have enough call credits or that your internet connection is stable. If you’re using Formplus, you don’t have to bother about getting cut off thanks to the offline form feature. This means you can still record responses even when your respondents have poor or zero internet connection

• Make notes and record observations

Ensure that your notes are legible and clear enough for you to revert. Write down your observations. Were your respondents nervous or surprised at any particular question?

Also Read: Unstructured Interviews

How to Use Formplus For Structured Interview

Sign into formplus.

In the Formplus builder, you can easily create a questionnaire for your structured interview by dragging and dropping preferred fields into your form. To access the Formplus builder, you will need to create an account on Formplus. 

Once you do this, sign in to your account and click on “Create Form ” to begin. 

Edit Form Title

Click on the field provided to input your form title, for example, “Structured Interview Questionnaire”.

• Click on the edit button to edit the form.
• Add Fields: Drag and drop preferred form fields into your form in the Formplus builder inputs column. There are several field input options for survey forms in the Formplus builder including table fields and you can create a smarter questionnaire by using the conditional logic feature. 
• Edit fields: You can modify your form fields to be hidden, required or read-only depending on your data sample and the purpose of the interview. 
• Click on “Save”
• Preview form. 

Customise Form

Formplus allows you to add unique features to your structured questionnaire. You can personalize your questionnaire using various customization options in the builder. Here, you can add background images, your organization’s logo, and other features. You can also change the display theme of your form. 

Share your Form Link with Respondents

Formplus allows you to share your questionnaire with interviewees using multiple form-sharing options. You can use the direct social media sharing buttons to share your form link to your organization’s social media pages. 

You can also embed your questionnaire into your website so that form respondents can easily fill it out when they visit your webpage. Formplus enables you to send out email invitations to interviewees and to also share your questionnaire as a QR code.

Conclusion  

It is important for every researcher to understand how to conduct structured and unstructured interviews. While a structured interview strictly follows an interview sequence comprising standardized questions, a semi-structured interview allows the researcher to digress from the sequence of inquiry, based on the information provided by the respondent. 

You can conduct a structured interview using an audio recorder, telephone or surveys. Formplus allows you to create and administer online surveys easily, and you can add different form fields to allow you to collect a variety of information using the form builder. 

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Qualitative Research 101: Interviewing

5 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Undertaking Interviews

By: David Phair (PhD) and Kerryn Warren (PhD) | March 2022

Undertaking interviews is potentially the most important step in the qualitative research process. If you don’t collect useful, useable data in your interviews, you’ll struggle through the rest of your dissertation or thesis.  Having helped numerous students with their research over the years, we’ve noticed some common interviewing mistakes that first-time researchers make. In this post, we’ll discuss five costly interview-related mistakes and outline useful strategies to avoid making these.

Overview: 5 Interviewing Mistakes

• Not having a clear interview strategy /plan
• Not having good interview techniques /skills
• Not securing a suitable location and equipment
• Not having a basic risk management plan
• Not keeping your “ golden thread ” front of mind

1. Not having a clear interview strategy

The first common mistake that we’ll look at is that of starting the interviewing process without having first come up with a clear interview strategy or plan of action. While it’s natural to be keen to get started engaging with your interviewees, a lack of planning can result in a mess of data and inconsistency between interviews.

There are several design choices to decide on and plan for before you start interviewing anyone. Some of the most important questions you need to ask yourself before conducting interviews include:

• What are the guiding research aims and research questions of my study?
• Will I use a structured, semi-structured or unstructured interview approach?
• How will I record the interviews (audio or video)?
• Who will be interviewed and by whom ?
• What ethics and data law considerations do I need to adhere to?
• How will I analyze my data? 

Let’s take a quick look at some of these.

The core objective of the interviewing process is to generate useful data that will help you address your overall research aims. Therefore, your interviews need to be conducted in a way that directly links to your research aims, objectives and research questions (i.e. your “golden thread”). This means that you need to carefully consider the questions you’ll ask to ensure that they align with and feed into your golden thread. If any question doesn’t align with this, you may want to consider scrapping it.

Another important design choice is whether you’ll use an unstructured, semi-structured or structured interview approach . For semi-structured interviews, you will have a list of questions that you plan to ask and these questions will be open-ended in nature. You’ll also allow the discussion to digress from the core question set if something interesting comes up. This means that the type of information generated might differ a fair amount between interviews.

Contrasted to this, a structured approach to interviews is more rigid, where a specific set of closed questions is developed and asked for each interviewee in exactly the same order. Closed questions have a limited set of answers, that are often single-word answers. Therefore, you need to think about what you’re trying to achieve with your research project (i.e. your research aims) and decided on which approach would be best suited in your case.

It is also important to plan ahead with regards to who will be interviewed and how. You need to think about how you will approach the possible interviewees to get their cooperation, who will conduct the interviews, when to conduct the interviews and how to record the interviews. For each of these decisions, it’s also essential to make sure that all ethical considerations and data protection laws are taken into account.

Finally, you should think through how you plan to analyze the data (i.e., your qualitative analysis method) generated by the interviews. Different types of analysis rely on different types of data, so you need to ensure you’re asking the right types of questions and correctly guiding your respondents.

Simply put, you need to have a plan of action regarding the specifics of your interview approach before you start collecting data. If not, you’ll end up drifting in your approach from interview to interview, which will result in inconsistent, unusable data.

2. Not having good interview technique

While you’re generally not expected to become you to be an expert interviewer for a dissertation or thesis, it is important to practice good interview technique and develop basic interviewing skills .

Let’s go through some basics that will help the process along.

Firstly, before the interview , make sure you know your interview questions well and have a clear idea of what you want from the interview. Naturally, the specificity of your questions will depend on whether you’re taking a structured, semi-structured or unstructured approach, but you still need a consistent starting point . Ideally, you should develop an interview guide beforehand (more on this later) that details your core question and links these to the research aims, objectives and research questions.

Before you undertake any interviews, it’s a good idea to do a few mock interviews with friends or family members. This will help you get comfortable with the interviewer role, prepare for potentially unexpected answers and give you a good idea of how long the interview will take to conduct. In the interviewing process, you’re likely to encounter two kinds of challenging interviewees ; the two-word respondent and the respondent who meanders and babbles. Therefore, you should prepare yourself for both and come up with a plan to respond to each in a way that will allow the interview to continue productively.

To begin the formal interview , provide the person you are interviewing with an overview of your research. This will help to calm their nerves (and yours) and contextualize the interaction. Ultimately, you want the interviewee to feel comfortable and be willing to be open and honest with you, so it’s useful to start in a more casual, relaxed fashion and allow them to ask any questions they may have. From there, you can ease them into the rest of the questions.

As the interview progresses , avoid asking leading questions (i.e., questions that assume something about the interviewee or their response). Make sure that you speak clearly and slowly , using plain language and being ready to paraphrase questions if the person you are interviewing misunderstands. Be particularly careful with interviewing English second language speakers to ensure that you’re both on the same page.

Engage with the interviewee by listening to them carefully and acknowledging that you are listening to them by smiling or nodding. Show them that you’re interested in what they’re saying and thank them for their openness as appropriate. This will also encourage your interviewee to respond openly.

Need a helping hand?

3. Not securing a suitable location and quality equipment

Where you conduct your interviews and the equipment you use to record them both play an important role in how the process unfolds. Therefore, you need to think carefully about each of these variables before you start interviewing.

Poor location: A bad location can result in the quality of your interviews being compromised, interrupted, or cancelled. If you are conducting physical interviews, you’ll need a location that is quiet, safe, and welcoming . It’s very important that your location of choice is not prone to interruptions (the workplace office is generally problematic, for example) and has suitable facilities (such as water, a bathroom, and snacks).

If you are conducting online interviews , you need to consider a few other factors. Importantly, you need to make sure that both you and your respondent have access to a good, stable internet connection and electricity. Always check before the time that both of you know how to use the relevant software and it’s accessible (sometimes meeting platforms are blocked by workplace policies or firewalls). It’s also good to have alternatives in place (such as WhatsApp, Zoom, or Teams) to cater for these types of issues.

Poor equipment: Using poor-quality recording equipment or using equipment incorrectly means that you will have trouble transcribing, coding, and analyzing your interviews. This can be a major issue , as some of your interview data may go completely to waste if not recorded well. So, make sure that you use good-quality recording equipment and that you know how to use it correctly.

To avoid issues, you should always conduct test recordings before every interview to ensure that you can use the relevant equipment properly. It’s also a good idea to spot check each recording afterwards, just to make sure it was recorded as planned. If your equipment uses batteries, be sure to always carry a spare set.

4. Not having a basic risk management plan

Many possible issues can arise during the interview process. Not planning for these issues can mean that you are left with compromised data that might not be useful to you. Therefore, it’s important to map out some sort of risk management plan ahead of time, considering the potential risks, how you’ll minimize their probability and how you’ll manage them if they materialize.

Common potential issues related to the actual interview include cancellations (people pulling out), delays (such as getting stuck in traffic), language and accent differences (especially in the case of poor internet connections), issues with internet connections and power supply. Other issues can also occur in the interview itself. For example, the interviewee could drift off-topic, or you might encounter an interviewee who does not say much at all.

You can prepare for these potential issues by considering possible worst-case scenarios and preparing a response for each scenario. For instance, it is important to plan a backup date just in case your interviewee cannot make it to the first meeting you scheduled with them. It’s also a good idea to factor in a 30-minute gap between your interviews for the instances where someone might be late, or an interview runs overtime for other reasons. Make sure that you also plan backup questions that could be used to bring a respondent back on topic if they start rambling, or questions to encourage those who are saying too little.

In general, it’s best practice to plan to conduct more interviews than you think you need (this is called oversampling ). Doing so will allow you some room for error if there are interviews that don’t go as planned, or if some interviewees withdraw. If you need 10 interviews, it is a good idea to plan for 15. Likely, a few will cancel , delay, or not produce useful data.

5. Not keeping your golden thread front of mind

We touched on this a little earlier, but it is a key point that should be central to your entire research process. You don’t want to end up with pages and pages of data after conducting your interviews and realize that it is not useful to your research aims . Your research aims, objectives and research questions – i.e., your golden thread – should influence every design decision and should guide the interview process at all times. 

A useful way to avoid this mistake is by developing an interview guide before you begin interviewing your respondents. An interview guide is a document that contains all of your questions with notes on how each of the interview questions is linked to the research question(s) of your study. You can also include your research aims and objectives here for a more comprehensive linkage. 

You can easily create an interview guide by drawing up a table with one column containing your core interview questions . Then add another column with your research questions , another with expectations that you may have in light of the relevant literature and another with backup or follow-up questions . As mentioned, you can also bring in your research aims and objectives to help you connect them all together. If you’d like, you can download a copy of our free interview guide here .

Recap: Qualitative Interview Mistakes

In this post, we’ve discussed 5 common costly mistakes that are easy to make in the process of planning and conducting qualitative interviews.

To recap, these include:

If you have any questions about these interviewing mistakes, drop a comment below. Alternatively, if you’re interested in getting 1-on-1 help with your thesis or dissertation , check out our dissertation coaching service or book a free initial consultation with one of our friendly Grad Coaches.

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Structured Interview Questions & Answers + More

Regardless of whether we talk about an interview at a small corner gas station, local elementary school, or in a big international corporation, with thousands of employees, some bias will always be present . Recruiters and hiring managers will–often unwittingly , prefer people they like on a personal level , people similar to them, people they feel good around. And while it is certainly great for them, it isn’t ideal for the organization or company they work for… Because the company wants to choose the best match for the job , and not the person the hiring manager likes the most.

While we cannot avoid the bias completely , we can do a few things to minimize the impact of personal preferences of people leading the interviews. The so called “structured interview” is the no. 1 tool to help us. Structured basically means that:

• The interviewers ask each and every candidate the same questions, in the same order .
• There is a clear evaluation process in place , which means that a hiring manager knows how many points they should assign to each candidate for each of their answer (this becomes more difficult with open-ended behavioral questions, more on it later on).
• At the end of the interviews, instead of relying on emotions and impressions (“I think the candidate no. 7 was the best one”), the managers simply count the points each candidate scored , and the one with the most points is the one they will offer the job to.

Table of Contents

Most common questions you will face in a structured interview

As you can likely imagine after reading the opening to this post, the questions depend a lot on the job you apply for . What I try to say is that it doesn’t make sense asking about accounting software in a nursing interview, or about your ability to work in a team when you interview for a job of a lighthouse keeper…

Having said that, hiring managers aren’t interested only in your hard skills related to the job. Interviewing is more complex, and in order to get a better picture of each candidate, they will typically include some typical interview questions in each structured interview. Some questions you will most likely face in any structured interview:

• Why did you apply for this job?
• Why do you want to leave your present job/why did you leave your past job?
• How is your previous working experience relevant for this job?
• Why do you think you are a good candidate for this position?
• Where do you see yourself in five years time?
• What are your main strengths and weaknesses?
• What do you like to do in your spare time?

Behavioral questions in a structured interview

Behavioral (often also labelled as “STAR” or “situational” questions) also repeat in most structured interviews . At the end of the day, regardless of your job title and place of work, you will face the same tricky situations at work –conflict with a colleague, dealing with pressure, trying to meet a deadline, and so on. Make sure to prepare for the following questions:

• Tell us about an obstacle you overcame .
• Give an example of a time when you showed initiative at work .
• Describe a conflict you had with one of your colleagues in your last job.
• Describe a situation when you were under pressure. How did you deal with it?
• Have you ever worked on a project that was a failure?
• Tell us about a time when you had to meet a tight deadline.
• Tell me about a time when you improved a process .

Behavioral questions form the core of interviewing in multinational corporations and Fortune 500 companies nowadays. However, answers of job applicants aren’t always easy to evaluate, and compare . For this reason, in a truly structured interview–one in which they try to virtually eliminate the bias and make sure personal preferences of the interviewers play no role, they often replace behavioral questions with tests , and simple case studies. For example, instead of asking you about a time when you had to meet a tight deadline, you will find the following situations in a test:

Imagine that it is Friday 2pm, and you already think about the weekend. Suddenly your superior arrives and asks you to prepare a presentation for Monday morning, for a meeting with an important client. But you know it will take at least 7-8 hours to do this presentation, and you won’t manage to do it until 5pm, the end of your working week. What will you do in such a situation? Option A: I will explain the situation to the manager and ask them to reschedule the meeting for Tuesday morning, to have sufficient time to prepare a quality presentation. Option B: I will stay at work until 9pm, sacrificing my free time, to make sure the presentation is ready. Option C: I will explain the situation to the manager, and together try to find a way how the presentation can be done, without me spending half of the weekend working on it. Option D: I will refuse the task, knowing I could not meet the deadline. Option E: Since my priority is meeting the deadline, I will do the best presentation I can within the time allotted, even if that won’t be the best presentation possible.

In this form of structured interview, you simply pick one of the options A to E , and the hiring managers know exactly how many points you should get for choosing each option. As a result, instead of judging your answers based on their impression, they simply score your answers according to pre-defined criteria . In my opinion, this is a more sensible way of using behavioral questions in a structured interview.

Technical questions in a structured interview

The third thing they evaluate is your readiness for the “technical aspect” of the job . Do not let the word technical confuse you, however. It simply refers to hard/soft skills necessary to the job in question . Education often also fits the bracket. Let me give you two examples:

• For a job of a website designer you need to know HTML, CSS, etc. You also need to know to work with certain software programs and platforms, such as WordPress for example. These are some of the necessary technical skills for the role.
• For a job of a secondary school teacher, you need a relevant university degree, and a good knowledge of the subject you will teach (PE, Physics, Biology, French language, etc). Once again we can label these abilities as “technical skills”.

As you can likely imagine, technical questions depend a lot on the job you try to get , and may differ from one interview to another. I will give you some examples below, just to know what type of questions you can expect. Make sure to read the job description carefully and think about a typical day in your new job. It should help you understand what skills/abilities you need, and what they may ask you in this interview.

• Can you tell us more about your experience with MS Excel?
• How do you feel about lifting objects weighting 40 pounds?
• Have you ever worked with a mentally disabled person?
• What kind of water pump will you use in this or that setup?
• In your opinion, which of the following two cars is better for a family of four, and why?
• Explain a difference between a debit card and a credit card.
• What types of forklifts have you worked with up to this point?

Tests and case studies as an alternative in a structured interview

If you want to really know if someone can swim, and how well do they swim, what will you do? Will you ask them whether they can swim? Or will you rather take them to the swimming pool and ask them to jump to the water and swim to the other end of the pool?

I think the answer is obvious. Someone with strong communication skills can convince us of almost everything . However, once you ask them to perform some task, words won’t help them. Either they can do it, or they can’t…. Many employers learned this lesson the hard way (paying the price with wrong hires), and hence instead of asking you any technical questions, they will simply ask you to demonstrate your skills . Depending on the job you try to get, you can face the following tasks in the interviews:

• Here is a simple IQ test. You have 15 minutes to complete it.
• Look at this math riddle. Try to solve it as quickly as possible.
• We have a defected window here. Here are the tools. Please diagnose the defect and repair it.
• Look at this purchasing contract. Can you see any mistakes on it? What can you do to improve it for the buyer?
• Imagine that I am a client on the phone. Try to convince me to open an account with this bank.
• Sell me this pen .
• Here are some data from the stock market. Please analyze the data now and suggest what assets should an investor buy on the market today.
• Here is a set of data about sales of a certain car model in 2022. Look at the data set, enter the data to MS Excel, make some pie charts to illustrate the trends, and interpret the data.

Drawbacks of a structured interview

While structured interviews have their advantages, and can help the company to fight nepotism and hiring based on personal preferences of the interviewing managers, they aren’t perfect. To the main disadvantages belong:

• Inability to use elaborate behavioral questions, such as “Tell us about a time when you did X. Why you did X, what was the outcome, and what would you do differently in the same situation?” Answers to such questions can tell us a lot about the job candidate and their attitude to work, but it is almost impossible to compare answers of two candidates or score their answers with some point system. Hence we cannot use them in a truly structured interview.
• Once the company uses exactly the same questions with each and every candidate, and even asks them in the same order, it is super easy for the questions to leak online . Sure, you can find interview guides for any job/employer online nowadays (and of course the best guides you will find here, on InterviewPenguin.com). But if the interviews aren’t structured the guide cannot tell you exactly what questions you will face. If they are structured, however, it is enough if a single candidate leaks the questions on some online forum or social media platform , and other candidates can use the list for years to prepare for the interview in advance.
• Certain things just cannot be measured by scores and scales . While personal preferences of a hiring managers shouldn’t decide the outcome of an interview process, their gut feeling and first-hand impression from the candidate is something we should not completely ignore …

Final words

The world we live in today places of lot of value on equal opportunity . It forces the companies to use interview formats that aren’t necessarily the best, but minimize the impact of personal preferences of the hiring managers. Structured interview is such a format. I hope this article helped you to understand what it means, and how to prepare for it. Good luck in your next interview!

May also interest you:

• Emotional intelligence interview questions.
• Teamwork interview questions .
• 15 most common interview questions and answers.
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