March 30
Knowing when to end a conversation is a very valuable skill, one that I do not have. An interview that was supposed to last 20 minutes tops went on for 50 minutes because I did not want to cut the person off. This is not the first time this has happened. I feel the obligation to let them say their piece because they are doing me a kindness by agreeing to be interviewed by me.
However, I realized today that I need to be more assertive. Letting interviews go on for too long is a waste of time on my part, both during and in post when I’ll have to listen to all of the content afterwards. My initial approach was to let people go on because they will provide information that they think is relevant that I might not have thought to ask about. Today I learned that even though this approach might give me some useful information, it is inefficient and not worth the benefits.
Instead, it is better to ask pointed questions that get at the crux of what I want to find out. I need to learn how to communicate my ideas better and more efficiently which I can do by putting more effort into preparing my questions before interviews. I’ll admit that I have been going into interviews with only a very basic outline of what I want to ask and improvising on the spot based on what they would tell me. It is not a bad idea to ask interviewees different questions than the ones you had prepared if something comes up but I have been relying too much on this to carry my interviews.