•
Introduce yourself and give a brief description of your project.
• Let the interviewee know how long the interview will approximately take.
• Tell the interviewee that there are no right or wrong answers, and that
you are interested in their real opinion and experiences.
• It’s nice to thank the interviewee for agreeing to talk to you.
• Avoide yes or no questions. Get information:
NO: Do you like air travel? • Tell me about the last time you ....
YES: How do you feel about air travel? • How often do you...?
• Avoide leading questions. • Can you walk me through the process of ...?
NO: Do you think airports are boring? • What’s your favorite/least favorite part of ...?
YES: What do you like or dislike about airports? • How has ... changed over time for you?
YES: Tell me about an airport you have been to. • What I hear you saying is .... Is that right?
• Don’t use “usually” in your questions.
NO: What do you usually do at the airport?
YES: Tell me about the last time you were at an airport. Go deeper:
YES: Tell me about your worst/best/craziest experience at an airport. • Tell me more about that.
• Remember that you should be talking only 20% of the time. Interviewing • Why is that?
is really about listening, not talking. • Why did you do/say/think that?
• How did that feel for you?
Explore new ideas:
• What would you think/ how would you feel ...?
• If you had a magic wand, what would you most like to change about ...?
• What would be your dream scenario about ...?
Interview Cheat Sheet by Mana Taheri and Molly Wilson is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License.
• Silence is incredibly important. If you leave space between your questions, your intreviewee
can reflect on what they’ve just said and may reveal something deeper.
• Use body language that shows you’re listening. Don’t fidget, cross your arms, or turn your
body away from your interviewee.
• Thank the interviewee. If possible, be specific about how they were helpful to you • Always take time to debrief an interview immediately afterwards.
(“ You really helped me understand that airports can be relaxing as well.”). You think you’ll remember it perfectly, but trust us, you won’t!
• Ask “Before we finish, is there anything we didn’t talk about that you’d like to tell • Go over your notes, fill in holes, and circle or highlight key quotes.
me?”. The most interesting stuff often comes at the very end of the interview, • Note your 3-5 top learning.
when the interviewee has let his or her guard down. • Note any new questions you have.
• Ask if you can take a photo, for your internal use only. The interviewee is more
likely to say yes after the interview than before.
• Record personal details, if you didn’t at the beginning (name, age, city, occupation,
etc.).
Interview Cheat Sheet by Mana Taheri and Molly Wilson is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License.
Tell me more about...
I’m curious about ...
Why do you think...?
Tell me about the last
So what I hear you
time...
saying is ...
Can you walk me What if there was...?
t through ...
Anything else you would
Hello! I am... like to tell me?
Interview Cheat Sheet by Mana Taheri and Molly Wilson is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License.
