In Depth Interviews
In Depth Interview Description
These are one-on-one interviews that typically take place at a central facility (definition of focus group facility) (image of focus group facility) (in most places this is a focus group facility, and in some countries it's done in a hotel). The purpose is to probe and elicit detailed answers to their questions, without the pressures, or the group-think that come from having other people in the room. These discussions are typically very flexible, allowing the moderator great freedom to follow the respondent as they go from topic to topic - although the interviewer will have a discussion guide that enumerates the topics that need to be covered to fulfill the objectives of the research. In depth interviews are typically done in a few situations: 1) when the topic is very sensitive, 2) when the person is very important and you don't want to waste any of their time in a focus group and 3) when you want to drill down deeply into the details.
In Depth Interview Training
In general In Depth Interviews (IDI's) can be conducted by a less seasoned interviewer as opposed to focus groups which requires more experience. However, this is somewhat dependant upon the level of the person that is being interviewed (if you are interviewing an Officer in a large company you probably want to request an "executive interviewers" instead of a "standard interviewer"
In Depth Interviews Pros
- IDI's allow a great deal of detail as there is only one respondent, and most IDI's last for 30 to 60 minutes.
- There is less pressure on the respondent to consider whether their answers are socially acceptable as they only have the interviewer in the room with him/her (unlike focus groups where these considerations may tend to play a larger role.)
In Depth Interviews Cons
- The cost of an opinion is very high for this type of research due to the fact that only one opinion is gathered during each interview.
- There are certain sensitive issues (personal or otherwise) that may not get the most candor, simply because the respondent doesn't want to admit certain things directly to a complete stranger, especially if there are other people listening from behind a one-way mirror.
In Depth Interviews Timing
It's typical to conduct 4-7 interviews in a day, although these are very long days for the interviewer and you may notice a decline in their alertness toward the end of the day when conducting more interviews in a single day, especially when it's day after day. A typical, single region, research project might include anywhere from 15 to 50 interviews depending on how many sub-groups that need to assessed. That means that the fielding of a series of IDI's can take one to two weeks and when you add planning time, time to go through the results and put together a presentation, a single region IDI project may take 5 to 7 weeks to be done well.
Special Considerations
IDI's are very good for sensitive topics (personal or professional sensitivities) and people may discuss things that they wouldn't be willing to discuss in a focus group full of 6 or 8 complete strangers. For example I know that one of major companies that sell drugs for male impotence conducted a number of IDI's to understand how to advertise their drugs.
