Re-writing Research Questions

When conducting research, it's important that questions prompt people to tell stories, and not just answer questions. For this blog post I have been given a short list of questions that could be asked in a research interview setting. For each question, I will rephrase it in two other ways in order to prompt the interviewee to really tell a story.

Have you ever sent a text message while driving?

• Name a scenario where you think it is okay to send a text message while driving. Have you ever been in this scenario?

• When you see your friend texting and driving, are you prone to say something about it, or more likely to let it go unannounced?

 Would you say you travel abroad frequently?

• Where is the coolest place you've ever traveled to and what made that place unique?

• How many countries outside of the US have you traveled to and what was the coolest thing about each place?

Do you post a lot of pictures on Instagram? 

• What would your friends say about the quantity and quality of your Instagram feed? 

• What sort of things trigger you to post pictures on Instagram and how often do you come in to contact with those said things? (ie. the outdoors, puppies, beer etc.)

Do you prefer to shop at big boxes or locally owned stores?

• If you could only shop at 3 stores for the rest of your life, where would you shop and why?

• If we asked your 3 best friends what YOUR favorite stores to shop at were, what would they say?

Do you have an iPhone or an Android phone?

• Describe your cellular phone with as much description and creativity as possible.

• Pretend your cell phone was the main character of a children's book, give us a brief summary of the book, outlining the life of your cell phone.

How often do you eat sweets?

• Rank your top 5 sweets and how often you eat each particular sweet.

• If you could only eat sweets for the rest of your life, what would you most likely live off of?

Do you tend to buy things that are on sale?

• Tell me about a time you found a really good sale. What did you buy and how did you feel after you made the purchase?

• Are you more likely to wait for a good sale or purchase goods when you want them? If the ladder, what items are you willing to wait for?      

 

When conducting research, it is important to ask the right questions as you have the power to spark a creative fire inside the minds of those being interviewed. Yes-or-no questions return just a fraction of the amount of insight as a well crafted story-telling question. In volleyball, in order to ensure that the ball is hit as hard as possibly to the other team, it must be set up perfectly. This idea can be applied in an interview setting as well. If you're trying to get the richest, fully developed response from your interviewee, you must set them with a question that begs that they take a swing at it. Analyzing your questions and rephrasing ones that are not open-ended is one way to perfect your set and prepare for richer responses.