How to Conduct an Expert Interview for Foresight Research
By Ayça K. Güralp, Research, Project, and Community Engagement Manager
At IFTF we work with stakeholders to explore the future possibilities around various topics, broad and specific, from the future of leadership to the future of pet food. To dive deep into any issue, we find a diverse group of people who can impart enough extensive knowledge that we can arrive at insights that push us into the unknown. Below are some basic tips and helpful considerations for conducting a fruitful expert interview for anyone who does foundational research for applied foresight projects.
Preparing for the Interviews
Your budget for the foresight project will determine much of the parameters for your expert interviews, like how many you do or how much of an honorarium you offer when you send the invitations. Once an expert has accepted your invitation, it’s better to send the honorarium request form before the interview so that you can start processing their payment immediately after the interview’s complete. You should also send your expert the interview guide (list of prompts) before the interview so that they know what to expect and have a chance to prepare. This should lead to more thoughtful responses. It’s not a school exam, so there’s no reason to keep the questions a surprise.
Do Your Research
It’s essential you read up on your expert before the interview. You already know a bit about them since you identified them as a person of interest, but you should also spend time familiarizing yourself with their history of work and any recent publications. Use their body of work as a guide for a deeper conversation, and let it inform you of what questions to leave out. You might realize another resource would be better for certain questions. Since you only have a limited set of time with this expert, it’s key you use the time wisely.
Draft the Guide
Leave improvisation for your theater class. You want to have a well thought-out list of questions and prompts before heading into the interview. However, you should also plan time for going off script. It can be a good sign when you want to ask a question that’s not on your guide because it means your interviewee provided a novel and interesting response that you didn’t expect. So, ensure you include questions that elicit the key content you’re hoping for, based on your project objectives, and make space for asking follow up questions to whatever the expert says. The key is drafting an interview guide that allows a balance of planning and emergence.
The Interview
The Introduction
Don’t start with logistics. Jenny Sauer-Klein from “Scaling Intimacy” says one of the biggest mistakes experience designers make is beginning an event, when participants are at their most alert, with boring logistical information. Set the tone for the whole interview by showing appreciation for them that extends beyond the research’s purpose and first connecting with the expert on a basic human level. If you found out something you and the expert have in common, you could mention that. Or ask a fun question. It’s important to lower the interviewee’s guard, as well as yours, so that everyone feels open, comfortable, and at ease.
Then, introduce yourself and your organization. Be as transparent as possible by explaining the purpose of the entire project and the goal of the interview. Make it clear why you want to talk to them specifically. What is the expertise you want to tap into? Also, explain the level of confidentiality up front. At IFTF, we normally tell our subjects that interviews are kept confidential to internal staff, and if we want to quote the expert publicly, we first reach out to request their permission.
Background
Most interviews should start with asking about the expert’s professional background. This lets the person tell you in their own words who they are and what experience and expertise they find important enough to mention. It can provide more nuance to what you find about them online, like what motivates them and how their journey to their present role unfolded. The key for this segment is to better understand the expert’s current connection to the subject matter at hand.
The Substance
Once you understand the expert’s background, pluck out as much topical information from their brain as possible. Start with what’s essential for your project. If your ultimate aim is to comprehend the future of X, the key is getting a full picture of X’s directional change, namely its past and present. Let’s say you want to understand the future of public transit in Istanbul, Turkey. Ask your expert how the city’s transit has been evolving over time. Here are some standard prompts to consider using:
- Have them describe how we are moving from an old way of doing things to a new way of doing things, in relation to X.
- What is causing these shifts?
- Why is this change important?
- Who wins and loses?
- What forces in the past decade regarding X worry them?
- Excite them?
- Surprise them?
- When it comes to X, what’s something everybody’s thinking about right now in their world, and why?
- What do they see as the most pressing challenges regarding X?
- In relation to X, what is something that’s not on people’s radar that they are tracking recently?
- Are there specific, recent, and compelling examples of innovation related to X that they’re seeing today? [Fellow practitioners out there will realize that this question is asking them for signals of change!]
Your main job is to listen and learn, so the best interview is when the expert is doing most of the talking. That being said, I sometimes find that the interviewee becomes more engaged when you show you’re actively listening during the interview by reflecting on what’s being said and possibly sharing your own observations or stories. Conversations are often more interesting than monologues; just try to keep your talking to a minimum. Remember, the interviewee is the expert, not you!
Another thing to note is having your interviews build upon each other. Once you’ve already completed a few expert interviews, you can refer back to interesting ideas mentioned by other experts and ask for their thoughts, as a way to corroborate or invalidate your findings. Or, if you’re starting to develop a hypothesis about your future topic, test it out by presenting it to your expert interviewee and soliciting their feedback.
Speculating about the Future
Assuming the expert isn’t a futurist themself, they probably haven’t spent too much time thinking long-term about their field. As the futurist, it’s your task to imagine what future possibilities could be, not the expert’s, so asking about the future is actually not the most important part of the interview. However, it can still be helpful to get your subject’s perspective about the future. For example, ask them to imagine it’s ten years from the present; what possible scenarios are they seeing in relation to the topic at hand?
The End
Before ending the interview, there are two final questions which are good to ask. One, is there anything you should’ve asked that you didn’t. As non-experts on the topic, we have the blindspot of not knowing what we don’t know. This question allows space for the expert to bring up anything important that wasn’t discussed in the interview. Second, ask if there are other individuals or organizations you should get in touch with, or any additional resources to explore. Experts know other experts, so it’s often helpful to ask the subject to recommend other crumbs to follow.
After the Interview
When the interview is done, it’s usually good to review your notes right then while the experience is still fresh in your mind (I’ll admit this is easier said than done on my part.) You’ll also want to look into any resources mentioned by the expert during the interview to deepen your investigation. If you have a database of experts, decide whether you wish to add them to it. This can save you time for whenever you have the need for a certain expertise for a separate future project; you won’t need to start from scratch as you gather your experts. Finally, whenever your project is complete, please consider sharing the final research findings with all your experts, if possible, to reciprocate their contributions and distribute the knowledge gained.
It is a wonderfully satisfying part of a researcher’s job at IFTF to speak with experts who are so embedded in their specialized field that they practically live in another world. It’s a privilege to pick their brains and enter a bubble outside one’s own, if only for an hour or so, so that you gain a different perspective or realize something that was hidden before.
One final thing to keep in mind is that there’s no one right way to conduct an expert interview. Everyone has different personal styles, and that’s OK!
#foresightmethods #futuresthinking #foresight
IFTF Foresight Essentials
Institute for the Future (IFTF) is the world’s leading futures organization. Its training program, IFTF Foresight Essentials, is a comprehensive portfolio of strategic foresight training tools based upon over 50 years of IFTF methodologies. IFTF Foresight Essentials cultivates a foresight mindset and skillset that enable individuals and organizations to foresee future forces, identify emerging imperatives, and develop world-ready strategies. To learn more about how IFTF Foresight Essentials is uniquely customizable for businesses, government agencies, and social impact organizations, visit iftf.org/foresightessentials or subscribe to the IFTF Foresight Essentials newsletter.
