Expert interview questions for learning an unfamiliar industry

When an industry is unfamiliar, begin with a concrete transaction or service delivery. Ask who initiates it, who performs the work, who makes decisions, and what happens when it goes wrong. That gives unfamiliar terms a place in a process and makes the next questions easier to choose.

Avoid opening with “Tell me everything about the industry.” The answer may be an interesting overview, but it is hard to distinguish firsthand experience from general opinion or to see which part matters to your project. A bounded example gives both people something specific to examine.

Build a provisional map before the interview

Start with a blank line from customer need to completed outcome. Add only the actors you can identify from public sources. Put question marks where the relationship is unclear.

For example, a fictional founder researching replacement parts might sketch: equipment owner → service contractor → distributor → parts supplier. This is a hypothetical starting map, not a claim about how all parts markets operate. The purpose of the conversation is partly to discover whether those labels and connections fit the segment at all.

The SBA’s market research guidance includes alternatives, customer location, competition, and pricing context. Use those questions to organize public homework, while keeping data definitions and market boundaries visible. Read the SBA’s market research guidance.

Do not fill an unknown market-size box with an expert’s offhand estimate and treat it as measured data. Record it as an estimate with its definition and basis, then decide what public dataset or separate analysis could examine it.

Use this question map during the conversation

The following is an original guide. Select the sections relevant to the person’s experience; no single interview must cover every row.

Ask the expert to anchor answers in work they personally performed or observed. When they discuss another part of the chain, ask whether that account comes from direct involvement, colleagues, public information, or inference.

Follow one case far enough to find the vocabulary

In the fictional parts example, the researcher asks a distributor operator to describe a permitted, anonymized order from request to delivery. The operator mentions a “substitution approval.” Instead of nodding and moving on, the researcher asks what the term means in that example.

Useful follow-ups are: “Who proposed the substitute?” “What had to match?” “Who accepted it?” “What happened if nobody could confirm?” Those questions turn a term into a decision with participants and consequences.

Keep a glossary with three columns: term, meaning in this case, and possible variation. A word may mean something different to a manufacturer, distributor, and end user. Do not turn the first definition you hear into the universal industry definition.

If the expert uses a specialized abbreviation, ask for an example rather than pretending to recognize it. Clarifying a term is productive when it changes your understanding of the process. It is less useful to collect every acronym in the field.

Ask about incentives through actions

“Who benefits?” is a useful starting question, but follow it with a choice someone actually made. In the parts example: “When the original item was unavailable, what options did the distributor consider, and what made one option preferable?”

Listen for differences between the person placing the request, the party paying, and the party bearing the delay. You might discover a tension worth researching, but do not assign a motive solely from a role label.

A practical note format is: actor → choice → stated reason → consequence → alternative explanation. The final field keeps the first interpretation open to challenge. A supplier declining an urgent request might face a capacity limit rather than a lack of interest in the customer.

Ask about the option to do nothing. Work may be postponed, handled internally, or solved with a substitute outside the category you initially imagined. Those alternatives help define the real decision boundary.

Look for the exception that changes the map

After reconstructing an ordinary case, ask: “What kind of case would make this sequence wrong?” An expert might describe emergency orders, cross-border work, highly customized items, or a different customer type. Treat the answer as a lead to examine, not automatic proof that the exception is common.

Add the condition to the map. For example: “Substitution path applies only when the customer accepts the compatibility check.” That statement is more useful than an unconditional arrow between two companies.

Also ask about time: “During what period did you work with this process?” “Which parts may have changed since then?” If the answer concerns current rules or standards, verify it with the responsible primary source rather than relying only on recollection.

Choose the next viewpoint from the remaining gap

NSF’s I-Corps description includes customer discovery conversations with customers, partners, and other stakeholders. An industry map similarly becomes more useful when you can identify which participant is positioned to clarify each unanswered relationship. Read NSF’s description.

The distributor operator may explain order handling but have limited visibility into why an equipment owner approved a substitute. That suggests a customer-side interview, not necessarily a more senior distributor executive.

End the call by reading back the map and asking where it is incomplete. Then annotate every important connection with the source, operating context, period, and whether it is firsthand. Mark disputed connections explicitly.

Your deliverable is a provisional process map, a glossary tied to examples, and a small set of questions for the next source. It is enough to make further research more precise. It is not a comprehensive account of an entire industry or evidence that the same process holds everywhere.