Toolbox: Collecting Data

Focus Groups and Interviews:
Interviewing Techniques

Draws on material from Higginbotham, J.B., and Cox, K.K. (Eds.) (1979) 'Focus Group Interviews: A Reader.' Chicago: American Marketing Association.

The moderator should control the discussion to an appropriate level. Too much control and the discussion is stifled, too little and leaders will emerge from the participant group. The moderator should avoid getting drawn into discussing issues her or himself.

Effective interview techniques require skill in four key areas. They are listening, paraphrasing, probing, and note taking.

Listening

• Sit or stand still where you are
• Look at the speaker, make a note of non-verbal communication
• Listen for basic fact and main ideas
• Listen for attitudes, opinions, or beliefs
• Do not interrupt the speaker
• Use positive, non-verbal communication to prompt the speaker

Paraphrasing

• Repeat your understanding of their comments in your own words
• Ask the speaker if what you have said is correct and ask for any clarifications
• Make sure key points by the speaker are captured
• Ask as a check to verify understanding
• It can be useful to summarise discussions onto flip charts (etc.) and points during the discussion. This allows participants to correct any misunderstandings, and also to discuss ideas disconnected from the original speaker. This may allow them to be more honest and/ or critical.

Probing questions

•  Open probe: Questions that begin with how, what, which, when, and who. Effective to encourage responsiveness and reduce defensiveness.
• Compare and contrast: Questions which ask the other person to look for and discuss similarities or differences, These types of questions help the responder to develop and express ideas while allowing the interviewer to steer the direction of the interview.
• Extension: A question that builds on information already provided.
• Clarification: Questions designed to get further explanation about something already said.
• Laundry list: Techniques where the interviewer provides a list of choice options to the interviewee. This encourages the other person to see beyond a single choice and to state a preference.
• Imagining: Any question which allows the individual to imagine or explore an alternative reality by giving themselves a different viewpoint or perspective.

Note taking

It is important to capture the information from the interview as accurately as possible. Material from a tape recording can be used later to fill in gaps.