4 Basic Tips to Help With Your Next In-Depth Interview (IDI)

In-depth interviews (IDIs) are a form of qualitative marketing research where an interviewer spends significant time with a participant, diving into a customer experience (CX.) Research interviews like IDIs are conducted in-person, by phone, or through video conferencing. IDIs differ from a typical telephone survey in that the interviewer explores the mindset of the participant in greater detail and the participant usually offers some type of specific experience or expertise on a topic.

4 Basic Tips to Help With Your Next In-Depth Interview (IDI)

Here are 4 basic tips to help you schedule your next research interview or IDI.


Pre-screen through phone calls

Nothi​ng is worse than sitting down for an in-depth interview (IDI) and learning less than 1 minute in that your participant is not qualified to answer your questions. Although titles and experience go along way in helping you target individuals for research interviews, a screening phone call is a must to ensure the participant is the right person to assist with the research. This will save you time, effort, and improve your process in the short and long-run.


Offer flexibility

Your participants are doing you a favor by participating in the research, not the other way around. Offer the participant a variety of dates and times to complete the IDI, whatever is most convenient for them. This means offering the willingness to complete an IDI at 7:00 AM or 7:00 PM, outside of your normal working hours. This is particularly important for any research being conducted with participants outside of your timezone.


Send a reminder via email

Seems very basic but it's also very important. These research interviews might be at the top of your priority list but they're not for your participants. After pre-screening and scheduling by phone, many will forget about the time they set aside for you later that week. Collecting an email and sending them a quick note before the interview to confirm the date and time will help you convert the interviews you worked so hard to schedule.


Start with an introduction

This is more of a process tip but still helpful. Use the first 2-3 minutes of your interview to walk your participant through the research process: why were they selected? what is the research about? how long will it take? type(s) of questions? Although some of this is in the screening call, hearing it from the interviewer will ensure legitimacy and the professionalism of the process.


Drive Research is a qualitative market research company in Upstate, NY. Interested in working with us for your next executive interview project or focus group project? Visit our contact us page.

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