Elevate Your Interviewing Skills With These Three Techniques - Elisabeth Reinkordt - Digital Strategist
Creating meaningful video content around the lived experiences of other people is a privilege. Like most privileges, this one comes with responsibility. As an interviewer, you are tasked with mining personal conversations for compelling content while also maintaining an atmosphere of respect, empathy, and dignity for your interviewee. Striking that delicate balance between good storytelling and authentic, compassionate interviewing is an essential skill. Tolsma Productions recently spent time with digital strategist and ethnographic interview expert Elisabeth Reinkordt to explore how seasoned interviewers bring out the best in their interviewees.
Ready to become a more authentic interviewer? Here are some interview techniques you can start practicing today:
Resisting the urge to plan future questions in your head while the interviewee is speaking helps cultivate mindfulness. If you are too focused on the interview agenda, you risk missing out on unexpected insights that deserve more attention. You can't abandon your responsibility to steward the interview strategically in pursuit of present-moment awareness, though. Experienced interviewers are good at being present, while also remembering the key points to cover and cataloging unexpected insights to explore further. While that may sound as difficult as juggling blindfolded, it is a valuable skill that can be developed with practice.
Be flexible enough to go where the interview takes you
Having a planned list of questions tailored to the creative brief and a checklist of key points to cover is an effective way for any interviewer to start a conversation. Seasoned interviewers, however, are willing to ditch those plans in an effort to stay flexible and responsive to the interviewee. A willingness to go where the interview takes you—even if that means switching up the questions you ask, ditching questions that aren’t landing, or adding additional questions on the fly—is crucial for a productive interview. The best interviewers pay attention not just to the words said, but also to tone of voice, pauses during response, and other nuanced non-verbal cues. When practiced in tandem with active listening, this kind of flexible listening empowers an interviewer to make intuitive course corrections during the conversation.
Want to start flexing your flexible listening skills? Here are some tips:
Don’t be afraid to deviate from your original list of questions;
If an interviewee response seems unexpected or surprising, lean into that and dig deeper with impromptu follow up questions;
If you feel like a question is not resonating with the interviewee it’s OK to move on to another question without getting an answer;
Sometimes repackaging or rewording those challenging questions and then revisiting them later can inspire a more meaningful response;
It’s OK to pause for a moment, as the interviewer, and regroup to make sure that you are staying true to the creative brief while exploring new directions;
End the conversation by asking your interviewee if there’s anything else they’d like to share—sometimes the best soundbyte moments result from this open-ended closing technique.
Think like a video editor to maximize key edit points
There’s nothing worse than winding up in the editing room after an interview has already been filmed and finding out that the video editor is struggling to make use of the content you captured. We've surveyed some of our recent productions, and generally only about 4% to 7% of interview content makes it into the final cut of the video. Your video editor will be scanning all that raw footage for the most compelling moments to carry the story arc. Understanding what a video editor will be looking for and making proactive efforts to steer the conversation towards key edit points will make the editing process easier. Thinking like a video editor while you conduct an interview can help you capture more content worthy of that final cut.
Want to mind-meld with your video editor? Consider connecting with them for a strategy chat before you conduct the interview. Here are some points to sync on:
Make sure you are aligned on the tentative story arc for the finished video;
Share your list of planned questions to see if there are any they might refine or even add;
Agree on the interview format. Knowing if you will be on camera or edited out can help you structure your questions appropriately. You can also be more thoughtful about timing your interjections and follow ups so that you are easier to edit around;
Ask for a video sample similar to the production you are planning, to help yourself visualize what the finished product could look like. It’s a great idea to share that sample with your interviewee beforehand, as well, so they can also visualize what everyone is working towards.
Next Steps: Learn even more best-practice interview tips
Want to hear more from Elisabeth about these techniques, as well as learn additional tips for conducting the best interview you can? Watch her conversation with Tolsma Productions President, James Copes, below:
Elisabeth Reinkordt is a former documentary filmmaker turned digital content strategist. She’s also a trained ethnographic researcher and a seasoned interviewer. She helps organizations tell good stories that inspire engagement and motivate actionable results. Elisabeth currently works as a senior digital strategist for OHO Interactive.