Developing the Art of the Interview to Craft Compelling Content
When it comes to interviewing students, alumni, faculty, or others to craft compelling stories to support your content efforts, it’s important to go about it the right way. Whether you’re creating a student video, faculty spotlight article, or alumni magazine feature, there are a few things you can do when conducting your interview to ensure your content is engaging and memorable.
Research and Craft Interview Questions Beforehand
Just like any good journalist, it’s important to conduct research on your subject before you meet and interview them. If you’re speaking with a faculty member, take a look at their faculty profile page, glance over their scholarly articles, and watch any short videos or interviews they’ve done. If you’re interviewing an entrepreneurial alum who, for instance, started a restaurant, explore the restaurant website and menu to get a sense of the inspiration behind it. If you’re producing a video on a student athlete, familiarize yourself with their role on the team and the sport itself.
Practically, this saves time. There might be some questions that you can answer through your research as opposed to asking the person. Certain background information like education history, career, awards, etc. you can usually find beforehand online.
Also, by doing your “homework” you demonstrate to your subject that you’re interested in their story and taking it seriously. This may make the interviewee more likely to cover certain topics or go into more detail. They might be more willing to open up about their motivations, dreams, and fears, which can make for a much more compelling story (we’ll get into this a bit later).
Research also enables you to craft intriguing questions. From your research, you can brainstorm multiple questions. You’ll probably only ask some of them and you might come up with others as the interview occurs organically, as you may identify a more interesting thread once you start your conversation. Of course, though you’ll have a list of questions, it’s always a good idea to identify and prioritize several foundational points.
Questions to consider before the interview:
Have you made sure you’re not asking questions that you can get answers to online or on your school’s website? Remember, showing you have done your research can help the person feel more comfortable and that you’re actually interested in learning more about them and their story.
Have you identified which questions are “must-ask” questions and which ones you’ll potentially ask depending on how the interview goes?
Have you allowed space for the interview to move organically to some extent in case a new and interesting thread comes up?
Have you developed questions that get at the interviewer’s thoughts and feelings, (with prudence depending on the situation) as well as external facts related to their story?
Identify a Core Theme or Insight
The most memorable stories are the ones when the reader walks away with a clear sense of a core message. There is nothing wrong with a general Q&A with a faculty member reporting several disparate facts. This can provide a general snapshot and does have a place in your content strategy. But these are rarely as compelling as narratives that hone in on a single theme, insight, or idea.
For example, consider a spotlight article about a faculty member who has started a new politics club on campus. While you could list the logistical aspects of the club (when it meets, who is involved), the more compelling story would profile why the club lights up the faculty member, what the faculty member’s goals and dreams for it are, what obstacles had to be overcome to start it, and so on. Getting at the root of these questions leaves a more lasting impression on readers because they might reveal a core theme or insight: the faculty member wants the club to foster a greater spirit of respectful civic engagement on campus, for example.
That’s why interviewing people around a given theme can allow you to craft a more memorable story.
Questions to consider before the interview:
Can you explain in one or two sentences why this story is compelling?
What core aspect of this story makes it unique?
Do most of your questions shed further light on a core theme or insight?
Are there certain questions that aren’t related to a core theme that might detract from the main story and are not worth asking?
Don’t be Afraid of Conflict
Every good story has conflict. This means it’s important to ask questions that get at the root of a problem. Even stories about a student selecting a college is essentially a story about conflict: a student has to navigate the challenges of deciding what school to attend that will give them the greatest opportunity to flourish over the next four years and rest of their lives!
For example, you might be interviewing a music student about why they decided to pursue music as a career. While on the surface this might seem like a straightforward story, see if you can get them to identify some of the barriers or obstacles that stood in the way of following their passion. Were there moments when the student doubted their musical abilities? How did mentors come to the aid of the student? When did they discover their dream of playing music and what did they have to overcome to begin pursuing it?
Again, it’s important to ask appropriate questions. The goal isn’t to ask overly personal questions to find conflict when there isn’t any or to make the story artificially dramatic. But it does make for better storytelling to explore how someone overcame a challenge: whether it’s a student successfully returning to their sport after an injury, a faculty member journeying to the bottom of the ocean to conduct research, or an alum starting a new, innovative business. In each of these hypothetical examples, there are ways to draw out how they overcame conflict to reach their goals with the right questions.
Questions to consider before the interview:
What obstacles or challenges are present (or might be upon further exploration) in this story?
How did the person overcome these obstacles or challenges (or how are they in the process of overcoming them)?
Can you identify a beginning, end, and middle to the story? If so, what questions can you ask to shed light on the challenges involved in each part of the narrative arc?
How did these challenges affect the person’s motivations, hopes, fears, and dreams?
