Interview like a Pro

It’s always nice when you the designer or trainer AND also an expert in the subject matter. However, this is rarely the case for us. Not that we are completely unaware of the topic but even the best experts rarely know everything. That means we have to rely on working with other subject matter experts in the organization to ensure we capture various perspectives on how to perform a task. This means you have to interview them. We typically conduct two types of interviews. Job/Role Interviews and Task Observation Interviews. Let’s talk about the common aspects and then move to what’s unique about each interview.

Recording

You’ll want to record the interview. Recording is the best way to capture all the details of what the expert talks about. I’m good at taking notes but nothing can beat recording everything said and how it was said. This can be as simple as using your phone and recording the audio or it can be more complex with multiple camera angles and then edit it all down to a single video file.

I also can’t emphasize enough that you should always let your experts know you plan to record the interview before they arrive. Recording can make people nervous and not knowing about it until the last minute can ruin an interaction. I make sure they know why I’m recording and exactly what I will do and won’t do with the recording afterwards.

You can take two approaches with recording the interaction. One is to do it almost in the interview style where you are talking to an audience. You can both face the camera or you talk to the expert like you are performing for an audience who is listening or watching your interview. This approach can be nice when using these clips later in a training event. Sometimes using a short clip of an expert telling a story can be like gold for helping other people learn about a job or a task.

The other approach is to talk to the expert and simply ignore the cameras or microphones. This approach can help your experts relax and you aren’t worried about getting “clean takes”. The conversation is less formal and you can let the expert just flow and give information. The downside is that sometimes you don’t cleanly capture what he or she says if they aren’t in frame or out of range of a mic. In both of these cases, you can also use screen recording software to capture anything done on the computer and edit in those pieces later if you need. I recommend you record the audio along with the screen recording as well to help with lining up the clips with other video clips if needed.

Equipment

Start by choosing if you want to record audio only or audio and video. This can be simple or more complex but while simple may be easier, it doesn’t produce a quality result and it becomes less likely you can use the clips later in training.

For audio only recording, you’ll focus on the microphones first. You can record everything with your phone and it does work but the sound will be the lowest of quality you can end up with. If you are in a pinch, use your phone but if you can plan ahead here are some upgrades worth considering. I’ll talk about the idea setup and focus first on the “podcast” style where you are both aware of the camera and mics and you address some of your comments to an audience.

You are going to want each expert to have a separate microphone and headset to hear what is going on. If you are doing a 1-1 interview, that just means two mics and two headphones. This means you may want to skip on the USB mics. They do really well for recording one person directly into a computer but they struggle when capturing more than one person and managing different volumes. If you have 1, 2, or 3 experts you’ll want to provide each with a microphone so you capture each person equally. You could ask the experts to share a microphone with each other or with you and move it back and forth but I’ve usually found this interrupts the flow of an expert’s explanation. It’s best if you can customize the technology to the people rather than asking people to adapt to technology. This means you’ll need microphones, headphones, cables, and a mixer. I’ll get into the equipment brands and models to look for in a later post. That could take a while.

If you are recording video, you may just use a single camera and you and your experts talk directly to it, or you can have a couple of cameras around a room capturing different angles and then edit the clips together. If you are 1-1 with your expert and he or she can relax, the podcasting interview style works great and you’ll get a bunch of clips you can later use in training. If you have a group of experts (as we often do with a job/role interview), then setting up a couple cameras to capture each person is necessary. I’ll often setup a camera at each end, set it to a wide view and capture each side of a table. Sometimes I’ll ask my experts to sit on one side while I sit on the other but I try to avoid this setup because it can feel more like an interrogation than an interview.

You may also consider having a dedicated room for interviews. This way you can set things up in advance, fine tune it, and not have to tear things down every time. In many instances, you may need a more mobile solution because the experts can’t always come to you and you need to bring a studio to them.

In all of these setups, if you can have someone handling all the equipment and cameras, it lets you focus on the discussions. The camera person can move the cameras to look at each person talking and then back to the group. Sometimes it’s a one-person show so I sometimes have to set it up in the beginning and just let things roll.

Kick off Right

Always do everything you can to help your experts relax, connect with you, and ignore the equipment. Talk to them informally. Ask them about themselves and how long they’ve worked in the job. The more they relax at the beginning, the more they’ll start to ignore the equipment and engage with you as the interviewer.

As the interview progresses, don’t worry too much if things happen. People may say something wrong, spill something, or even fall over (yes it happened). Relax and just let things come back to the discussion and move on. The nice thing about capturing all this audio or video is the magic of editing and post work. You can edit anything out. It’s more important about finding a way to blend two clips together so they sound continuous but sometimes you can purposefully link two unrelated clips together if you have a transition or a segue between them. Most of the time I use the full recordings as a form of note taking and then I’ll only use smaller clips for training purposes. In an interview lasting a few hours, only about 20 minutes at most may end up in the final training if any.

Stay Organized and On Track

The final part to consider with any interview is to stay organized and keep things moving. You’ll want to have a set of questions already written out in advance to keep the conversation flowing. I like to use an interview guide where there is a place for the question and a place to write notes underneath it. Consider though that most interviews don’t always follow from question 1 to question x. You’ll likely end up jumping around your questions a little as the conversation flows. Let it flow naturally and if you have to come back to some questions at the end, it’s fine.

Task Observation Interviews

Everything so far works for all interviews you’ll do but when observing someone doing a task, you have to constrain your work style a little. Ideally, you are in the expert’s work environment and you won’t have the luxury of setting up microphones around for each person and multiple camera angles. You’ll need to constrain your technology to capture what you need but also not be too intrusive. In these situations, I love the smaller and more nimble cameras like a GoPro. I can wear one or even attach it to the expert. They are small and easier to ignore as we get into the work. They capture high quality video and the most you need to worry about is making sure they are aimed at the action you need. They offer a lot of attachment gear including attaching it to a chest, shoulder, helmet, or wrist. There are also small gimbels to carry to steady the video as you walk around a work space.

They don’t capture audio as well. They aren’t bad but you should really consider adding a microphone to get everything. It’s happened too often where I’m holding the camera and the expert shows me something by turning away from the camera and I lose everything he says. Furthermore, the camera will pick up other ambient sounds like movement, brushing against it, wind, or other background sounds. If you attach a small lavalier microphone to your expert, you’ll get everything he or she says and minimize the background sounds. You’ll need to mix the audio with the video later in post.

Here is a great clip to get the best audio with your GoPro.