Interview framework for Case Studies Adventures

Workspaces Future Makers
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In order to develop consistency across the different Case Study stories collected we use the following shared framework.***

Format

Each asking the same set of questions.

Each video/audio recording should also contain an addition 5-10 minutes free form conversation by the interviewee.

The video/audio should be uploaded into the edgeryders vimeo/soundcloud account, then embedded in a written post summarising the main points from the interview, as well as the author’s reflections.

Questions

Tell me/us about your project/work?

  • How you got started and current situation
  • Who's involved:  Who is in the team? Roles and responsibilities? Skillsets (what are individual team members good at?) Any partnerships?
  • Hypothesis guiding the work: "I believe that to achieve x, we need to do y, through z"
  • What your main objectives are/why you do this?
  • What you enjoy about the work and what you enjoy less?
  • What kinds of tasks do you do on a regular basis? Yearly, monthly, weekly, daily
  • What, other than money, do you think could help you in your work?
  • What help could you offer others and under which conditions (assuming no money is involved)?

Deeper questions: What should those who really wish to understand the work know? 

What do you produce/offer

  • Products or services that you currently produce? 
  • How do you go about doing this- what steps are involved? Technologies or processes used?
  • Costs: What expenses are involved? Who benefits from the work? Who currently supports it, how and why?
  • Existing alternatives: Who else is doing similar or relevant work/offering similar things- locally and or elsewhere?
  • Important players affecting the work? (locally and internationally)
  • Long term perspective: any Business or sustainability plan? 
  • Transportation and logistics?
  • Regulation and policy affecting this?
  • What do you believe are the most important projects locally that are relevant to the work you are doing at this moment?

What does the concept of pooling resources mean to you?

How about the concepts of Collaboration …and Mutual Support?

Content guidelines

How to document the interview: First person or third person perspective?

Use first-person speech for the answers of the interview, and first-person remarks and introduction by the interviewer, all combined into a nice narrative format. See the interviews in the Future Makers Nepal space done by Dipti and Annu from our team so far: https://edgeryders.eu/en/future-makers-nepal/group-that-acts-together-part-2 , https://edgeryders.eu/en/future-makers-nepal/photographing-nepal-earthquake-2015,

What makes a good case study: focus on methodology, motivations and insights

Look at this story, this one as well as this one to get an idea of what we are looking for. If you want to attract help and support from other participants then we suggest that you adopt a working-out-loud approach. 

*This framework is based on the one developed for the Case Study Adventures on Stewardship for LOTE4 here.

** Icon created by misirlou from the noun project.

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first or third person?

This is important when we write the case studies down. The interview framework is there to be coherent throughout all the case  studies, but how to then write it down is important too. Not only for readability, but also for analysis.

And I had some doubts what would be best: all in 1st or all in 3rd person. 1st person is interesting because you get sucked into the narrative of the person self, you experience it from their perspective. But then I thought: that person wasn’t the only one in the room. That person was asked questions by another person, and that other person has their on bias which they bring into the room. The same accounts for the person taking notes. And even though the end product will be the result of collaboration between the interviewer, subject and notetaker, for the reader this may not be clear. It may skew our results as well.

So what I propose, and let me know what you think, is that we do a combo of both. Almost journalism style. Where the larger analytical and introduction parts are being narrated by the interviewer, and larger other interesting chunks are first person narrated in quotations.

As for the final analysis (book), we should introduce all the interviewers/engagement managers and other people involved in the cocreation of the case studies as well. Show bias, to avoid bias.

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Makes total sense

Also, we need a high quality portrait/photo of each person/people and surroundings for each case study.

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We had the same challenge

Some inspirations / remarks from our experience:

IMHO, the bias introduced by transforming verbatim speech to third person is much bigger than the one by asking questions during an interview. The first influences content, the second only topic (if done right). We had this same challenge in the Future Makers Nepal project. Then @Dipti_Sherchan pioneered a solution that consists of first-person speech for the answers of the interview, and first-person remarks and introduction by the interviewer, all combined into a nice narrative format. See the interviews in the Future Makers Nepal space done by Dipti and Annu from our team so far. Could fit for a book format as well.

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