Interviews

From scenarios to assumptions to open questions

This is a useful way to make sure you're asking the right questions. The idea is to take your ideas of how people think, check your assumptions, and then use open questions to interview people.

In this example, we'll look at writing some open questions for interviews with SEND professionals, from classroom teachers to EHCP plan writers, to the inclusion team, to social workers, and beyond.

Write scenarios

Think about the people you want to interview. Think of a context where they're doing the part of their job you're investigating. Scenarios can be very broad, or very specific, depending on the work you're doing. They might end up being stereotypical and biased towards your beliefs. Don't worry about that too much, as the next parts of the process will guide you towards the open questions for the interviews.

Scenarios

I've got a meeting in a minute with a parent. I've been teaching all day and the TA has been off work, but this mother is coming in to talk about her son. He's been acting up recently, taking toys from other children, punching, screaming a lot. I want to know what's going on at home, if he's like this at home. It's a typical conversation, but this mum can be a bit mouthy too. I'll go through the normal list: doctor, health visitor, social worker, see what's what.

It's been another busy day of appointments, but I'm happy that all the parents have gone away with things to look at, read up on, to think about. A lot of my work is about getting parents to understand how to help their children on a daily, even an hourly basis. Working through the exercises as often as possible will help them make the greatest progress.

Another new case today, another devastated family. What I love about my job is seeing how the parents grow. How with the support we give them they really take on their role as parents, and devote their lives to their kids. It's a really strong bond they build. It helps that there are groups that meet together and help each other.

The parents just don't understand how things work. There's not enough resources for everyone. It makes my job even tougher than ever. The parents just feel entitled to everything and that's not fair.

Assumptions

From the scenarios there are some assumptions we're making. We can't help it, our whole life experience has brought us to have our beliefs and biases. But when we're co-producing, engaging, finding the real problems, we have to put our assumptions to one side. So we write them down. In our interviews we're testing these assumptions, and looking for real problems and solutions.

• Professionals often juggle multiple responsibilities (teaching, meetings, assessments)
• There's a need to understand the child's behaviour in different contexts (school versus home)
• Communication with parents can sometimes be challenging
• Professionals follow a standard protocol for assessing a child's situation (checking with doctors, health visitors, social workers)
• A significant part of the job involves educating and empowering parents
• Consistent practice of exercises and strategies at home is crucial for a child's progress
• Emotional support for families is an important aspect of the job
• Parent support groups play a valuable role in the overall care system
• Resource constraints are a significant challenge in providing support
• There can be a mismatch between parent expectations and available resources

Open questions

• Could you describe a typical day in your role, including the various tasks and interactions you manage?
• How do you approach situations where a child's behaviour at school differs from their behaviour at home? Can you give an example?
• What strategies have you found effective when communicating with parents, especially in challenging situations?
• Can you walk me through your process for assessing a child's needs and coordinating with other professionals?
• How do you balance your responsibilities between direct work with children and supporting or educating parents?
• What methods do you use to encourage parents to consistently implement strategies at home? How do you follow up on this?
• Can you share an experience where you've seen significant growth in a family's ability to support their child? What contributed to this success?
• How do parent support groups factor into your work? What benefits or challenges do they present?
• In your experience, how do resource constraints impact the support you're able to provide? Can you give an example?
• How do you manage situations where parent expectations don't match available resources or recommended approaches? Can you describe a specific instance?

Using artificial intelligence to help

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a useful tool, if used in the right way. We use spell checkers all the time to fix our typos, or if we can't remember how many Ms are in "commission".

AI is great for brainstorming and editing.

In the example above, I wrote the scenarios myself. I wanted to see what assumptions and biases I had so I could make sure they're removed, or at least reduced, in the interview questions.

Then I asked Claude

Morning Claude, we want to do some user research with SEND and AP professionals. They may work for the council, for schools, or AP settings. Here are some scenarios. I want you to list some general assumptions we're making from each of these scenarios, and then write 10 open questions for user interviews to test these assumptions.

Change clunky language

The results are helpful, but there's some language that's a bit clunky, like "resource constraints", "what methods do you use", "parent expectations don't align". But they're a great starting point for you to write the questions in your own voice, the way that you speak.

Doing the interviews

Ask for volunteers, or conscript people if necessary. Research is important, otherwise the content you produce will be biased and full of assumptions.

• You can do interviews in person, or by video conference
• It's useful to record the interviews so you can concentrate on talking, not taking notes, but ask permission
• Have a pot of tea and some biscuits. It signals that this is a relaxed discussion, not a formal process
• Explain that you're not "testing" people, you're trying to uncover best practice, and gaps in what's available

After the interviews

You'll have a lot of data. Map it out. How you do that will depend on the purpose of the interviews. If you're writing content, you'll be looking at gaps in your existing content, or ways to explain processes more clearly, for example.

If you're looking at services, you might want to look for pain points, where the service falters, or breaks down completely. But look at the good parts too. This isn't all doom and gloom.

Make a plan

Give yourself time to make the changes you need. You can't do everything at once. You might need to get agreement from management or from people who use the service. This takes time. But you've got real evidence about what needs to happen.

Use anonymous quotes from the interviews to show people that change is needed, and where possible create a working party of everyone who's involved, to discuss and plan those changes.