A sample research interview discussion guide

Connected Places Catapult brought in a design agency to run a research project to understand the skills gaps and shortages in the aviation industry. 

The agency wrote discussion guides for their research interviews. The aims of the interviews were to understand: 

• the direction of the aviation industry in the Glasgow area 
• the current and future needs of the aviation workforce 
• the respective skill sets needed 
• possible approaches to future skills development

To do this they planned to speak to 4 groups: 

• further education providers 
• aviation industry leads 
• airport leads 
• subject matter experts 

The different groups’ different expertise meant that they needed 4 different discussion guides (although they all had the same structure). 

First the researcher wrote themselves a short paragraph on the purpose of the interview. Keeping this in mind, they worked on a first draft, starting with the topics that would be covered. For the airport leads discussion guide, these included the aviation industry’s: 

• current and future needs 
• their respective skill set 
• approaches to future skills development 

These then became headings and themes for questions to fall under.  

They ended up with 4 themes and 4 questions under each theme. Each question had some extra prompts that the interviewer could use if the conversation seemed to get stuck. 

For example: 

What do you think will be the skill needs in the aviation industry in 4 to 5 years’ time?  

For example, technical skills to adapt to the transition to zero-emission flight and the changing use of fuel and fuelling.  

Another would be operational automation. Would there be a need for highly skilled roles (specialised training) also lower skilled roles? 

They added an introduction that included: 

• About the design agency and why they were doing this work 
• Background to the project 
• What they would cover in the interview  
• Confirmation of the interviewee’s consent 

Finally, the team worked together on a couple of iterations until the discussion guide was perfect!