Interviewing Someone for an Article

1.

Do your research on the person. Before you can write out good questions to ask
someone who you are interviewing for an article, podcast, or another medium, you need
to gather all the information you can.

o Knowing who this person is, accomplishments, failures, and personality will
allow you to formulate solid questions that can get you the best results.
o Search for your interviewee online and see if there are other articles about this
person. Write down a bio about your interviewee. Highlight specific milestones
that you want to talk about.
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Write down your objective for the interview. Once you know who this person you’re
interviewing is, it’s a good idea to write down what you want from the interview.

o Your objective will help you create questions before the interview that can steer
the conversation in the right direction. Your objective will also help you stay on
track if the conversation goes in a different direction than your questions.
o Your objective should be a declarative statement which is concise. It could be as
simple as “I want [name of interviewee] to walk me through his process for
writing his latest novel, and learn the challenges he faced.”
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Lead with a “softball question”. When writing out your questions, you want to create
ones that allow the conversation or interview to flow naturally. [4]

o A “softball question” will help the interviewee become relaxed and open up. This
type of question should be simple and not controversial in any way. This question
shouldn’t be challenging and let the person brag a little about the work.
o Throw it away. Your first question should be something that you can throw away
and not have it affect the information you need from your interview.
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Ask open-ended questions. You’re interviewing a person to gain knowledge on a

o You can ask questions like “What was your favorite part of …” asking what this
person person liked or didn’t like about the subject you’re interviewing for will
give you insightful information to go on.
o Depending on the context of the interview, you may want to press this person a
bit. You don’t have to be mean, but if you are interviewing for an article, you
want to know all you can. When writing your questions, find a quote from the
interviewee. Then create a question that lets you ask “You said [quote]. Why do
you believe this to be true?”
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Ask a reflection question. You’ll want to learn how this person thinks and what this
person values. Parrot your subject and repeat phrases. [5] Questions that make your
interviewee look back and share a story or example are great to keep things going and
give you useful information.

o When writing your questions, see if you can find any information on your
interviewees career path. You can use what you find to steer the conversation
during the interview and then ask “What were some of the unexpected hurdles?
What about benefits?”
o You can also ask a question that has the person looking back. “Looking back at
where you started this journey, where did you think you would end up?”
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Write down questions you know the answer to. Write down a few questions you want
your subject to answer, and that you know the answer to. Then answer these questions
before your interview.

o You should know which questions you will need to gather the most information.
If you know the answer to certain questions, you might not need to ask these
specific ones during an interview.
o When writing your interview questions, consider forming a few that are similar to
ones you can answer but might earn a different response based on the phrasing.
You may then want to ask your subject one or two of these to compare answers.
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Ask questions that elicit an emotional response. Just like open ended questions, you’ll
want to come up with a few that will get you an emotional response.

o When writing your interview questions, see if you can find anything about your
subject that you can use to get a feeling-based response. Did this person publish a
book that didn’t sell well? Did your subject face constant rejection and setbacks
before succeeding?
o If you can’t find anything, be prepared to formulate a question on the spot during
the interview. Use what’s been discussed in the interview and write down this
new question quickly so you don’t forget. Make sure to ask “why” and “how”.
o ”Why did you feel like you would never reach your goal?” “What motivated you
to keep trying when you hit speed bumps?” “How do you feel about that
experience now?”
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Include a curve ball. Look at the questions you plan to ask. How many are the same or
too similar? If you notice that you’re writing a lot of the same questions, you may want to
search for one that’s different.

o Your curve ball question doesn’t have to be an attacking question on your subject.
It can be as simple as a fun unrelated question like “What’s your favorite
indulgence food to eat when you’ve had a bad day?”
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Rephrase your questions. Look over all of your questions and rephrase ones that still
need a little work, or that don’t help you reach your objective.

o During an actual interview rely on these questions to guide you, but don’t feel like
you have to ask each one word for word. Let the flow of the conversation help
you form your questions. Use the ones you’ve written as much as you can, but be
prepared to ignore some that become irrelevant.