6B - Pilot Interviews

I decided to do two pilot interviews one structured and the other un structured to see what worked best. Before undertaking the interviews I had a feeling the structured one would work better and for the kind of data I am looking to collect and I still think that applies.

The unstructured interview was interesting however It didn't allow me to gather all the information I needed as a researcher. The structured interview was more help as it allowed me to explore different things with the interviewee. For example I would ask them a specific question and once they gave me their answer I would ask them to expand and keep prompting them to delve further for a deeper understanding. When conducting the real interviews I will give them some time at the end for additional thoughts and comments then I can gather some of the interesting data that came out of the unstructured interview with out spending a lot of time incase no new data arose. Being on a strict time scale means we cant waste anytime.

An interesting point we came up with was to do with the questions asked. We found some were similar to the survey but you gained more in depth and personal response. At first we thought with the questions being similar it would leave us with a lot of the same information however we came to realise through conducting the interviews the information gathered was more detailed and perhaps provided information that we could use for quotes and more through evaluation.

Like everything the interviews have both pro's and cons.


The pro's which became apparent during this process were ;

• You could produce clear ideas as there was no lack of clarity during the interview, if any issues arose due to lack of clarity you could sort them out immediately.
• Its a very focused and concentrated environment, enabling you to get the most out of the participant. 
• You can gain a lot of depth to your research.
• I was able to support the interviewee in exploring new thoughts and ideas.
• You can see their body language and gauge responses and feelings that way too

The con's were ; 

• It can  be time consuming if you don't plan or stick to time management.
• I took both notes and recorded the session how ever there could be worries that some of the data is lost in transit.
• They may be hard to arrange in the future, could perhaps explore a phone interview how ever i feel that could be less personal also may have issues regarding a consent form.
• You have to be careful not to be dominant and let the interviewee speak. Trying to create the right balance can be hard.
• When asking questions don't be bias, whether its in vocal tone, body language or construction of the questions.

In my inquiry I wish to have both qualitative and quantitive date so Interviews will be playing a part of that. I feel the method is appropriate for the kind of data I wish to collect.

After conducting both interviews I engaged with a member from one of my SIG groups Lauren Sheridan. We discussed the importance of asking the 'right' questions so not to waste time and resources. Throughout both the pilots we both saw that the participant could easily go off on a tangent or if the question was to vague they would talk for a long time period and still not really get to the bottom of what you were asking. Both Lauren and I discussed the importance of constructing efficient questions so this would not occur. As both time and resources are precious during the inquiry process and we definitely don't want to waste any time!