Interview guide design worksheet

Use this sheet to structure the guide. A mock interview with colleagues before fieldwork is recommended to check question flow.

When to use this worksheet and what completion involves Fictional completed example

EvalCompass Worksheet

Interview guide design worksheet

Method: Interview

Use this sheet to structure the guide. A mock interview with colleagues before fieldwork is recommended to check question flow.

Basic information

Enter an interview overview

Completed example for this section (fictional)

This fictional example is for explanation. Adapt it to your own program. Your entries will not change.

Study or evaluation title: Interviews about training use
Interview purpose in 1–2 sentences: Understand pathways and barriers to plan use
Participant characteristics and selection rationale: Select 2 users and 2 non-users considering transfers too (fictional)
Format: structured / semi-structured / unstructured: Semi-structured
Date, venue and interviewer: July 2026 / private room / interviewer A (fictional)

Reason for this entry: Compare pathways by whether use occurred.

Study or evaluation title

Interview purpose in 1–2 sentences

Participant characteristics and selection rationale

Format: structured / semi-structured / unstructured

Date, venue and interviewer

Writing tips and explanation for this section

About this section

Enter an interview overview

Compare pathways by whether use occurred.

View the method explanation

Writing tips

Follow each field’s heading to record the program name, focus, period, and other details. Leave undecided matters clearly marked as unresolved.

Read the full fictional example

Interview guide

Enter main questions and probes in open form, without ending at yes or no

Completed example for this section (fictional)

This fictional example is for explanation. Adapt it to your own program. Your entries will not change.

Scroll horizontally to view the table

Question number	Main open question	Probe	Corresponding evaluation question
Q1	Describe the last time you tried to use the plan	Who was involved and what happened?	Pathways and barriers to use
Q2	Did anything other than training influence decisions?	Were there transfers or other support?	Other factors

Reason for this entry: Explore meaning through concrete events.

Scroll horizontally to view the table

Question number	Main open question	Probe	Corresponding evaluation question

Writing tips and explanation for this section

About this section

Enter main questions and probes in open form, without ending at yes or no

Explore meaning through concrete events.

View the method explanation

Writing tips

Keep the information in each row aligned. Scroll wide tables horizontally to see every column.

Read the full fictional example

Opening script

Enter an explanation read at every opening: purpose, anonymity, recording confirmation and stopping rights

Completed example for this section (fictional)

This fictional example is for explanation. Adapt it to your own program. Your entries will not change.

These interviews will improve training. You may skip questions or stop. You may participate without recording. Identifying information will be removed for publication; quotations will be confirmed separately.

Reason for this entry: Fictional explanation of confidentiality and choices.

Writing tips and explanation for this section

About this section

Enter an explanation read at every opening: purpose, anonymity, recording confirmation and stopping rights

Fictional explanation of confidentiality and choices.

View the method explanation

Writing tips

Use the example as a reference and record what you have established about your own program. Distinguish assumptions and unchecked matters from confirmed facts.

Read the full fictional example

Closing questions

Adapt final checks, such as anything else to share, to participants

Completed example for this section (fictional)

This fictional example is for explanation. Adapt it to your own program. Your entries will not change.

Is anything different from my understanding, or anything not asked that you want to share?

Reason for this entry: Check interviewer omissions and misunderstandings.

Writing tips and explanation for this section

About this section

Adapt final checks, such as anything else to share, to participants

Check interviewer omissions and misunderstandings.

View the method explanation

Writing tips

Use the example as a reference and record what you have established about your own program. Distinguish assumptions and unchecked matters from confirmed facts.

Read the full fictional example

Pre-interview checks

Check before interviewing

Completed example for this section (fictional)

This fictional example is for explanation. Adapt it to your own program. Your entries will not change.

☐ Not checked: Confirmed informed consent, written or oral
☐ Not checked: Obtained recording consent
☑ Checked: All main questions are open, without leading or double-barreled wording
☑ Checked: Mock interview checked time and burden
☑ Checked: Recording equipment tested
☑ Checked: Arrangements allow timely transcription while memory and records can be preserved

Reason for this entry: Assume guide and equipment preparation, a 45-minute mock interview and next-day record organization arrangements. Actual participation and recording consent are not yet obtained. Adjust duration to burden rather than universally using 60–90 minutes.

Confirmed informed consent, written or oral
Obtained recording consent
All main questions are open, without leading or double-barreled wording
Mock interview checked time and burden
Recording equipment tested
Arrangements allow timely transcription while memory and records can be preserved

Writing tips and explanation for this section

About this section

Check before interviewing

Assume guide and equipment preparation, a 45-minute mock interview and next-day record organization arrangements. Actual participation and recording consent are not yet obtained. Adjust duration to burden rather than universally using 60–90 minutes.

View the method explanation

Writing tips

Read each item and check those you have confirmed. Do not use the fictional example’s checkbox states as findings about your own program.

Read the full fictional example

Before writing, check when to use the worksheet and what completion involves

Interview guide design worksheet is a worksheet for applying Interview in meetings or individual work. For the overall duration of the method, use “Illustrative planning durations, not common standards: preparation 1–2 weeks, interviews 45–90 minutes each × participants, analysis 2–4 weeks” as a reference, adjusting for scale and resources. Fill in what you know provisionally and leave unresolved matters as questions to check next.

When this worksheet is useful

Deeply understand implementation, beneficiary experiences and change contexts
Explore why quantitative findings cannot be explained
Understand diverse stakeholder views and conflicting interests

Participants and preparation

Interviewers and note-takers as needed. Select people and numbers from questions, experience diversity, analysis approach and feasibility.

Bring the materials used for decisions, existing data, and differing stakeholder views to help complete the worksheet.

Suggested order

1. Basic informationEnter an interview overview
2. Interview guideEnter main questions and probes in open form, without ending at yes or no
3. Opening scriptEnter an explanation read at every opening: purpose, anonymity, recording confirmation and stopping rights
4. Closing questionsAdapt final checks, such as anything else to share, to participants
5. Pre-interview checksCheck before interviewing

Signs the worksheet is ready for review

Verbatim transcripts
Coding sheets and codebook
Thematic analysis report and individual interview summaries

Cautions for review

Leading questions such as wasn't it this way steer answers. Use open questions and have several people review the guide.
Focusing on notes can neglect listening and probing. Use recording and minimize handwritten notes.
Do not reduce overwhelming data to striking quotations. Plan coding procedures beforehand and analyze whole transcripts.

Guides to read before starting

Read a completed fictional example (your entries will not change)

Fictional example; not actual results

A fictional illustration: purposively select trainees who used plans and those who did not.

Basic information

Study or evaluation title: Interviews about training use
Interview purpose in 1–2 sentences: Understand pathways and barriers to plan use
Participant characteristics and selection rationale: Select 2 users and 2 non-users considering transfers too (fictional)
Format: structured / semi-structured / unstructured: Semi-structured
Date, venue and interviewer: July 2026 / private room / interviewer A (fictional)

Reason for this entry: Compare pathways by whether use occurred.

Interview guide

Scroll horizontally to view the table

Question number	Main open question	Probe	Corresponding evaluation question
Q1	Describe the last time you tried to use the plan	Who was involved and what happened?	Pathways and barriers to use
Q2	Did anything other than training influence decisions?	Were there transfers or other support?	Other factors

Reason for this entry: Explore meaning through concrete events.

Opening script

Reason for this entry: Fictional explanation of confidentiality and choices.

Closing questions

Is anything different from my understanding, or anything not asked that you want to share?

Reason for this entry: Check interviewer omissions and misunderstandings.

Pre-interview checks

☐ Not checked: Confirmed informed consent, written or oral
☐ Not checked: Obtained recording consent
☑ Checked: All main questions are open, without leading or double-barreled wording
☑ Checked: Mock interview checked time and burden
☑ Checked: Recording equipment tested
☑ Checked: Arrangements allow timely transcription while memory and records can be preserved

Common errors in judgment

Ask training improved things for you, didn't it?

How to revise: Ask what changed and what happened before and after

Reason: Avoid asking for endorsement of support.

Treat one striking remark as everyone's view

How to revise: State the speaker's perspective and different cases too

Reason: Purposively selected accounts are not representative frequency estimates.

Editorial and checking information

Content updated: 2026-10-07Source checked: 2026-09-13 (includes AI cross-checking)No documented human reviewIncludes fictional examplesEditorial policy and scope of checking Cite this page Report a correction

References and checked sections

Interviews
BetterEvaluation
Section consulted
Types of interviews
How it relates to the text
Align interview format with purpose and state narrative context and selection methods.
Source checked: 2026-09-13 (includes AI cross-checking)
Thematic Analysis FAQs
Virginia Braun / Victoria Clarke
Section consulted
Why don’t we advocate multiple-coders and inter-rater reliability for reflexive TA?; Should someone else check my coding?
How it relates to the text
Reflexive TA does not treat coder agreement as a universal quality requirement; it addresses researcher interpretation, position and reflection.
Source checked: 2026-10-07 (includes AI cross-checking)
Public Participation Guide: Stakeholder Interviews
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Section consulted
Principles for Successful Planning; Implementation Time (updated January 6, 2026)
How it relates to the text
Advice to organize notes while memory is fresh, not a uniform deadline for audio transcripts.
Source checked: 2026-10-07 (includes AI cross-checking)

How to cite this page

EvalCompass Editorial Team. “Interview guide design worksheet”. EvalCompass, updated 2026-10-07. https://evalcompass.jun-nakatani.com/en/worksheets/interview/

Add the date you accessed the page. Text created by this site is available under CC BY 4.0. Quotations, external materials, and bundled fonts have their own terms of use. When reusing content, credit the source, link to the license, and indicate any changes.

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Change history

2026-09-13 — Checked sources for definitions and conditions and added fictional examples, judgment rationales and completed entries for every field. Revised unsupported historical or uptake claims. Reviewed procedures and cautions, adjusting fixed counts, thresholds and institutional generalizations. Preserved field positions, types and counts while revising fixed conditions and thresholds.
2026-10-07 — Clarified analysis approaches, recording deadlines, participant-count scope and response-rate assumptions based on focused follow-up FW-U01–U05. Preserved existing fields and did not declare numerical guides inherently wrong.