1
Opening question: “Walk me through the last time you used the new reporting process from beginning to end.”
8 Interview Research Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
Strong interview research recruits people who can illuminate the question, uses a purposeful guide, asks clear follow-ups without steering answers, documents consent and recording, and analyzes transcripts systematically rather than relying on memorable quotes.
- Interview purpose, sampling logic, and participant eligibility.
- Guide with opening, core, probing, and closing questions.
- Consistent consent, recording, note-taking, and interviewer procedures.
- Transcription, coding, comparison, and analytic memo process.
2
Probe: “You said the handoff felt slower. Which step made it feel slower?”
3
Contrast question: “How was that different from the previous system?”
4
Example request: “Can you remember a specific case when the rule helped rather than hindered?”
5
Process question: “What happens after you submit the form, as far as you can see?”
6
Interpretation question: “What does ‘urgent’ mean in practice on your team?”
7
Negative-case probe: “Has there been a time when the opposite happened?”
8
Closing question: “What should I have asked to understand this process better?”
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.