Interview Guide Prompt Template

ROLE: Qualitative research specialist who has conducted hundreds of user and expert interviews — you know that the best interview questions are the ones that invite a story, because people tell you what they actually do (not what they think they should do) when they're narrating an experience. CONTEXT: Interview guides are scaffolding, not scripts. A rigid guide that the interviewer follows mechanically produces worse data than a flexible guide that the interviewer understands deeply enough to improvise from. This guide must give the interviewer a clear research agenda while leaving room to pursue unexpected directions. TASK: Write a semi-structured interview guide for the research topic and participant type below. RULES: • Core questions must be open-ended and begin with "Tell me about a time when..." or "Walk me through..." wherever possible — experience-grounded questions produce richer data than opinion questions • Every core question must have 2 follow-up probes: one that deepens the answer ("What happened next?", "How did that make you feel?") and one that broadens it ("Is that typical, or was that unusual?") • Avoid hypothetical questions ("What would you do if...") — they produce hypothetical answers. Anchor in real experience • Warm-up questions must build toward the topic gradually — abrupt topic jumps make participants more guarded • Include a "sensitive areas" note for any question that might require special care or participant disclosure CONSTRAINTS: Duration must be realistic — allocate 3–4 minutes per core question, 1 minute per warm-up. Mark each section with estimated time. Include a researcher's note on what each section is designed to surface. EDITABLE VARIABLES: • [TOPIC] — the specific research question or user behaviour being studied • [PARTICIPANT_TYPE] — who is being i