Peggy in rural Humboldt County uses interviews to help gain a better understanding of how her programs are working. Staff travel to different drug treatment programs and give a 2-3 hour HIV education/prevention workshop. “We hand out a short questionnaire with process measures to participants after the workshop, but that’s mostly used to give numbers back to the state. To get better feedback on what happened after we did our program, we go back after three months and six months to do a follow-up interview with the contact person on site. For example, one staff member told us ‘After you came, lots of people went and got HIV tested.’ It’s a better way for us to learn about the real effects of our program.”

Interviews often:

•    Are arranged in advance via a letter, phone call, fax or e-mail.
•    Last one to two hours.
•    Are conducted in a location convenient to the person being interviewed.
•    Are conducted away from distractions (preferably indoors).
•    Are tape recorded. The interviewer may take notes as well.

In-depth interviews generally begin with a written set of questions, but do not limit the person being interviewed to a set of possible answers. Questions are written to elicit in-depth answers, and the interviewer should allow the person to bring up topics not on the list of questions, and be prepared to follow his or her train of thought. Unstructured interviews are more like having a conversation. Interviewers should be trained to be able to allow for exploration while making sure the initial questions are answered.

In-depth interviews can also be used as marketing or public relations tools. However, it must be clearly agreed before beginning the interview, that the information will remain confidential or will be used with permission. If, during an interview, the chief of police mentions he’s concerned about young teens hanging out in dangerous neighborhoods at night, use that in your grant proposal for the drop-in center. If the mayor says she decided she supports needle exchange programs after visiting babies born with AIDS, find out if she’d be interested in talking to a journalist for a feature article in the local newspaper. If a teacher says she thinks students should get condoms in schools, ask if you can rely on her (by name or anonymously) to help convince the school board.

How are they analyzed?

Interviews, like focus groups, can be used to help develop programs or fine-tune existing programs. But once you have conducted and transcribed or written up your interviews, what do you do with them? Make time for key staffers to read through the interviews and come together to discuss.

•    Are there any striking or surprising findings?
•    What questions do they give rise to? What questions do they answer?
•    Do they tell you that there might be problems in your program, or that your program is working great?
•    Do they tell you about any new needs among your clients?
•    How can what you’ve learned translate into existing programs or new programs being developed?

Further reading on in-depth interviews can be found in Appendix 4 of the Resources section.

Good Questions, Better Answers --  � 1998 California Department of Health Services and
Northern California Grantmakers AIDS Task Force  -- http://www.goodquestions.com