ParrotNotes

Free Interview Guide Template

Pick a reporter's interview, a semi-structured research interview or a hiring interview, and the guide fills with a goal, an opening script, a consent prompt, question topics with follow-up probes, timing and a closing. Change every word, and the running clock tells you if the plan fits the time you have. Then print it, save it as a PDF or copy it as text.

A planning template, not legal advice. The consent text is a prompt for you: check the rules on recording where you and the other person are, and use the wording your outlet, ethics board or HR team requires.

What the interview guide covers

  • Goal

    The one thing you need to come away with: the question the story must answer, the research question, or what the person must be able to do in the job. It tells you which questions to cut.

  • Opening script

    Who you are, why you are there and how long it will take, written out so you do not have to think about it while you settle in.

  • Consent prompt

    A reminder of what to ask before you start, such as whether you may record and what is on the record. It is a prompt to replace with your own approved wording, not a legal form.

  • Question topics

    Topics in the order you plan to raise them, each with open questions. Add, reorder and remove topics and questions, up to 20 topics.

  • Follow-up probes

    What to ask if an answer is thin: "Can you give me an example?", "What happened next?". They sit under each question, so you can glance down instead of hunting for a follow-up.

  • Timing and closing

    Minutes for each block become a running clock (10-20 min) on the printout, with a warning if the plan is longer than your time. The closing script covers the last question, what happens next and how to reach you.

How to write an interview guide

Start from the goal, not the questions. Write down what you need to come away with, list the topics that get you there, then write one or two open questions per topic. Anything that does not serve the goal comes out, because the time is usually shorter than you think.

Put easy questions first and the hard one late, once the person has warmed up, but not so late that you run out of time. Reporters often keep the question the person would rather skip for near the end. Researchers use the guide as an interview schedule: the same topics for every participant, in whatever order the conversation goes, with neutral probes that do not suggest an answer.

In a hiring interview, use it the structured way: the US Office of Personnel Management describes a structured interview as one where all candidates are asked the same predetermined questions in the same order. Keep the questions about the job. Whichever kind you run, read the guide once before you start, then look up from it. It is there so you can listen, not a script to read aloud.

Hiring? This page plans what you ask. The interview scorecard template is where you rate the answers and compare candidates.

Have the recording already? Turn it into text with the free audio to text tool.

Interview guide, scorecard, consent form, notes

Interview guide
This page: the plan you write before the interview. Goal, opening, topics, questions, probes, timing and closing.
Interview scorecard
For hiring only, after or during the interview: weighted criteria, a 1 to 5 rating with evidence, and a comparison of candidates. It rates answers; it does not plan the questions.
Consent form
The document the person signs to agree to the interview or the recording. This guide only reminds you to ask.
Interview notes
What was actually said, written during or after the interview. The guide is what you meant to ask.

Tips for a guide you can actually use

  • Ask open questions

    "How did you decide?" gets a story; "Did you decide quickly?" gets a yes. Start with how, what, tell me about, walk me through.

  • One thought per question

    Two questions in one sentence get one answer, usually to the easier one. Split them.

  • Plan fewer questions than you think

    Most good answers take a few minutes. If the clock says you are over, cut a topic now rather than rush the last one.

  • Keep probes neutral

    "What makes you say that?" keeps the person talking. "That must have been frustrating?" hands them your answer, which matters most in research.

More on the interview itself: how to conduct an interview, an interview consent form, an interview notes template.

Sources

Follow the guide, not your notepad

Tell the person you are recording and ask if that is OK, record the interview in ParrotNotes, and you can keep your eyes on them and on this guide instead of writing, then get the transcript with speaker labels and a summary afterwards.

Get Started Free

Related tools

Interview guide questions