Top 3 Tips for Conducting Better Interviews

For journalists, conducting interviews is an essential part of the job, but it takes a lot of practice to do it well.

It can be challenging to make the process not feel intrusive, to know how much research to do beforehand, how to make a subject feel comfortable, or how to get the interviewee to share surprising stories.

Good interviews are not only possible but also an incredibly rewarding experience for both the journalist and the subject.

Here are The Freelance Strategist’s three tips for better interviews.

1. Know your stuff

For the New York Times Magazine‘s recent Inspiration issue, freelance writer Jessica Gross interviewed creators such as Ken Burns to get behind their creative process.

“With that Times piece, I over prepared to an extreme degree,” she said. “I would spend a day or two watching all the person’s films. I mean, it was going to be a 10-minute interview.”

It’s not necessary to know an interviewee’s entire oeuvre, but some research beforehand is key.

Gross told TFS, “Prepare for the subject you’re talking about, but don’t think you’re going to be quizzed. The fear is that someone will say, ‘Have you seen this movie I did?’ The truth is, if people ask you that, it’s so that they can fill you in.”

TED Talk speaker and bestselling author of Packing for Mars, Mary Roach told TFS that she knows a thing or two about having to study before an interview.

She writes about scientific topics in which she doesn’t have an advanced degree; because of this knowledge gap, she always does her homework: “I’ve read [the interviewees’] papers — that does not necessarily mean I understand their papers.”

Her solution? “If someone’s assuming that you know concepts you don’t know, just back them up and say, ‘Pretend you’re talking to a seventh grader.'” After all, her readers don’t have PhDs in aeronautics either.

A good interviewer will familiarize herself with her subject’s work, but there’s no need to pull an all-nighter.

2. Try a little tenderness

Whether an interview takes place in person or over the phone, it’s the writer’s job to make her interviewee feel comfortable enough to speak openly.

Roach, whose research often involves several extensive, in person interviews, said, “My interviews are really more like conversations. I’m sort of hanging out with them for awhile before I turn on the tape recorder.”

But what about getting the right data? She told TFS, “I’m less concerned about the interview part of it. You can always go back on the phone if you don’t get what you need.”

Gross suggested emailing one’s source a few interview questions ahead of time so that the source knows what to expect. Then when the interview begins, “I start with really softball, easy questions …. After that, I can start getting more and more specific. I save any questions that may be more difficult ’til the end. If they don’t want to answer, it doesn’t throw off the whole interview.”

For journalists who need sensitive information from their sources, sex writer Rachel Kramer Bussel suggests offering them anonymity. “That goes a long way in getting people to talk more freely,” she said.

Bussel also recommends that writers ask their friends to recommend sources. This way, the mutual friend can vouch for the interviewer, which helps build trust with the interviewee.

3. Listen up

Randy Cohen, formerly The Ethicist for The New York Times and now the host of the show Person Place Thing, told TFS that, when it comes to interviewing well-known figures, “They tend to trot out polished anecdotes. They become less authentic.”

Cohen suggests asking open-ended questions; let the subject discuss whatever he’s passionate about.

On his show, Cohen asks his guests to speak about their favorite person, place, or thing. When he interviewed sex writer Dan Savage, rather than address a salacious topic, Savage instead spoke about Queen Caroline Matilda.

Cohen said, “By choosing a somewhat oblique angle, he discloses all his feelings about gender, politics, marriage.” Why does this indirect line of questioning work? Cohen said, “They’re so used to doing [interviews] that to give them something surprising to talk about draws out the qualities that make us want to speak with them in the first place.”

Roach, too, avoids pigeonholing her interviewees: “You don’t want to cut off the avenues that you might go down. You want to let them lead you to what they think is interesting.”

She said that, when subjects choose their own topics of conversation, “they’re lit up. You’ve flipped a switch …. Rather than trying to find what no one else has asked them, find the thing they’ve been asked but have never been asked in the right way.”

However, a little bit of latitude goes a long way. Roach cautioned, “By all means, don’t let them bring out their freaking PowerPoint.”

Images courtesy of Thomas Hawk/flickr, Graham Holliday/flickr, Rusty Sheriff/flickr.