How to prepare for an expert interview: start with the decision it should change

To prepare for an expert interview, decide what the conversation must change, then split what public sources can tell you from what only the person's firsthand experience can. The output is a short brief and a few ranked questions. A long list of everything you don't know about the industry belongs in a reading list.

Test it by finishing this sentence: "After this conversation, we should be better able to decide ___." If the answer is "understand the market," narrow it to a choice, a process or an assumption that affects your next move.

1. Write a one-page decision brief

Use this template:

Keep facts apart from interpretations. A vendor's product page shows that it advertises a feature, not that customers use it or buy because of it.

The Small Business Administration distinguishes research from existing sources from direct research with people. Use public material for context and broad data, and spend the conversation on the specific questions that remain. Read the SBA's market research guidance.

A made-up example: choosing a launch workflow

Imagine a fictional founder considering software for equipment maintenance teams. The choice is whether to investigate planned inspections or urgent repair coordination first. The founder has read public descriptions of both workflows, but doesn't know how responsibilities shift when an urgent repair interrupts scheduled work.

The expert is a former maintenance planner who personally coordinated those interruptions. The brief might say:

Decision: Choose which workflow deserves a focused customer-research round.

Known: Public maintenance software pages describe scheduling and work orders. These descriptions show available functionality, not user demand.

Uncertain: Where an urgent repair changes the planned schedule, who makes the tradeoff, and what information is missing at that point.

Experience sought: A firsthand account of handling a disruption within the expert's own operating context.

Output: A process map with decision owners and unresolved questions.

The brief asks for experience that sharpens the next investigation. It doesn't ask the planner to bless the whole product.

2. Prepare three kinds of question, in order

Orientation questions establish the scope of the person's experience: "What responsibility did you have for the schedule?" "During which period?" "What kinds of sites or teams did you support?" Keep them short, so most of the time goes to the account itself.

Event questions come next: "Choose an urgent repair that interrupted planned work. What happened from the first notice through the revised schedule?" Follow the information, decisions and handoffs. This draws on the expert's experience instead of inviting a lecture on the industry.

Interpretation questions come after the example: "Which parts of that situation were ordinary?" "What would have been different at a smaller site?" "What would make you question our assumption?" Asking them last ties each opinion to the experience behind it.

GOV.UK recommends preparing an interview discussion guide, trying it out, and staying flexible during the conversation. Treat the guide as a route through the uncertainty, not a questionnaire to complete line by line. Read the in-depth interview guidance.

3. Send a short note before the call

Include the purpose, topics, format, duration, attendees and anything to review. Say whether you will take notes or ask to record.

Skip the dense deck unless reading it is part of the agreed work. If real preparation is needed, say so before the person commits. Otherwise you may spend the first part of the call discovering the homework was never feasible. (Homework attached to a calendar invite rarely survives the week.)

In the maintenance example, the note could ask the planner to think of a nonconfidential disruption they can describe. It should not request an employer's internal maintenance reports or customer records. A good process discussion doesn't need them.

Leave out any pitch that would steer the account. Explain the research purpose without saying which workflow you hope they endorse.

4. Rank questions, and plan for the answer you didn't expect

Mark each question essential, useful or optional, based on the brief. In the example, who authorizes the revised schedule is essential. A tour of every software vendor in the category is optional.

Prepare a branch for a surprise. If the expert never personally handled urgent coordination, shift to the part they did witness and note the gap. Don't push them to speculate just to save the agenda.

Have one person lead while a second takes notes and tracks open questions. If more colleagues attend, agree beforehand how follow-ups get raised.

5. Decide how you will keep the evidence

Set up a note with separate spaces for firsthand account, interpretation, public reference and follow-up. Put dates and scope beside claims that could change over time. Mark an exact quotation only when you captured the wording accurately and may keep it.

Before the call ends, play the process back and invite correction: "I heard that the planner identifies options, but the site manager authorizes the change. Have I combined two different situations?" That checks your understanding without asking the expert to approve your idea.

Afterward, produce the promised output while the context is fresh. The maintenance founder's map may show that the next useful person is a site manager who made the tradeoff, or a technician who received the revised assignment.

An expert interview is well prepared when it leaves you with a sharper question and a next action you can defend. Write the decision sentence first, before you open a single browser tab.