Before doing any research interviews, try out your topic guide with a friend or colleague role-playing a participant to make sure you are familiar with it, that the questions/prompts all flow, and that they work to generate the kind of data you wanted.

Listen very carefully to the recording of your first interview. Check you didn’t interrupt, or hurry your interviewee.

Make sure you take opportunities to be ‘on the receiving end’ of an in depth interview, so you understand what it feels like.

In-depth interviewing can be tiring, particularly on sensitive topics: don’t be over-ambitious about how many you can conduct in a short space of time.