Much feared by many politicians – sometimes for good reasons – is the interview. Not so here: Interviews are qualitative research methods to gather facts, sometimes attitudes and expectations for an analysis. They are not public, but confidential. The interviewee is a subject matter expert. She or he has valuable knowledge, which can help to bring progress to an organization, a company or a person. In some case the person or a team can be coaches.
On the other hand, the interview is not a coaching session. And its not only about facts, which could be measured in quantitive research, too. More than only information we want to understand correlations and context of situations, processes and developments. Also the motivation for action or non-action plays a significant role.
The conducted interviews are structured and standardised in order to receive comparable insights. Unlike often in ethnology, for example, they are less open and narrative. Usually, the interviews are expert interviews or problem-centered interviews.
The interview follows four principles of humanities:
- Principle of openness: without judgement and open for any result.
- Principle of theory-based approach: it's based on a theory, which allows a hypopthesis to be verified.
- Principle of rule-based approach: we can reproduce the research under the same conditions and therefor follow given rules.
- Principle of understanding: the fundament of humanities is to understand underlying motives of action, attitudes and reflection.
Selection of Interviewees
Who is selected for analysis? Who will become an interviewee? Is that a distinction or a punishment? The selection of interviewees is not task of a customer company, but 3C – Coaching will choose by criteria according to the analysis. It could be that all members of a team, a project, a company or representatives of certain groups are interviewed. For example, the oldest and the youngest staff member, their boss and outside deliverer etc. So, please do neither take it personal nor draw any conclusions if you are on the list of interviewees or not.
How do you schedule the interview?
In case you have been asked to provide your valuable knowledge you will receive an email. This will clarify the objective of the interview and the topics. Furthermore, it will give you a rough time estimation for your own planning.
For your best convenience you can schedule the interview yourself within a certain timeframe of a few days. Just click on the dark red schedule button and your are taken to the schedule page.
- Choose from the dropdown menu of services: Analysis Interview.
- Then press: “Continue”
- Look for a suitable date and then select the desired time frame.
- Then press: “Continue”
- Enter your Name, Email, and if possible phone number.
(You can state where you heard from 3C – Coaching, but this is not required.) - Press: “Confirm”
- You will receive a confirmation email and in case you provided your mobile phone number also a SMS. In this mail (and SMS) you’ll find a zoom link. There is also the possibility of following a link for rescheduling our appointment. This only works 24 hours in advance. But please only do this in urgent circumstances!
If you haven’t received the confirmation mail (nor the SMS) within 15 min, please check your spam folder. In case this also not the case, please contact us.
How does an interview go?
As interviewee you have usually received a zoom link. So, you know that we conduct the interview via internet. Please be prepared with your equipment (computer/tablet/phone, microphone, loudspeaker) a few minutes before in a calm, undisturbed environment. If you are not familiar with zoom, you can find some ideas here.
Besides you can be relaxed and focused. Grab a cup of coffee or a glass of water. 3C is not a dentist, but we see you as a friend and partner to bring progress and development for our joint interest.
After a short introduction we will follow a standardised questionnaire. Some questions are simple to answer with yes or no, others are more open and invite you to talk freely. And that’s pretty much it!
In case you don’t speak the language of the interview sufficiently, please inform us as soon as possible in advance in order to find a solution.
How long is an interview?
The length of an interview as well as the number of questions depend strongly on the required analysis and your role. It can be anything between 30 min and 1,5 hours – but not longer than that. Normally, you will learn about the approximate time in the email invitation. The usual time scheduled is 45 min in our booking tool. The number of questions can range between 20 to 40.
Recording and anonymity
The interviews are recorded for better transcription and deleted thereafter. The customer, i.e. the tasking organization or company, will neither receive the recording nor verbal statements. This anonymity is guaranteed. We anonymize and summarize the information and pull together a concise report, which doesn’t allow conclusions or deductions to interviewees. Thus, you can speak freely without any fear of repercussions.