Expert Interviews are research interviews that you hold with recognized experts in the field you are researching.
What it is: After you have completed your initial secondary research on your topic, it is time to contact experts in the field to help you answer the questions you have about the company, industry or process that you are researching. Experts can bring context to your research and help you identify additional factors, trends, etc. that you should be considering in your research. The experts should be able to identify important factors, trends, companies, people, and forecasts on the topic you are studying. The most critical part of expert interviews is developing the questionnaire you will use in the interviews, and identifying and contacting the experts you will interview.
What does it do: Experts allow you to ask questions that will bring clarity to your understanding of the research topic. They can give you new directions to search and add richness to the depth of your understanding. The experts can keep you from drawing conclusions that are not true from the research you have completed. They can give you new directions to consider and can help you identify the implications of what you have already learned.
Uses:
How is it used: Expert interviews are used to further the secondary research that you have completed, and are used before you try and utilize focus groups or surveys. They help you understand the implications of current trends and factors you are facing. They help give direction to further efforts in focus groups and surveys. They are a great sounding wall to use for the conclusions you have already drawn and an ideation focus for further conclusions.
Where: Experts can be found related to companies, industries, processes, etc. Whatever you are researching there have people who have gone before you and know more than you do on the subject. You can look to executives, researchers in the field, consultants, academics, keynote speakers at conferences, attendees at conferences, retired experienced individuals and many others. Watch the 3 Phone call video and read that page in the Experiential learning Reference Library to learn about how to find experts on any topic.
Why: Experts can help you avoid pitfalls and historical traps because they have already seen them many times before. They can help you focus your research on the most important factors. It is important to speak to more than one expert because you do not want to get tunnel vision from their personal biases on the research topic.
Limitations:
Where it shouldn't be used: If you are researching something that you do not want others to know you are looking at, an expert could steal your idea or give it to others. If you are working for a company that does not want others to know they are considering entering a new market, buying a company, etc., then you do not want to represent your organization when you speak with the expert.
Any restrictions: It is possible that an expert may try and mislead you for their own selfish purposes. That is another reason that you will want to get more than one of two experts to talk with you.
Warnings: if you are getting patents on a process, the matter of composition, or application for your idea, you will want Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) or other protections for your idea before you talk to experts in the field.
Standard research note-taking should be sufficient. You will not need a specific template. But if you can use codification to document the insights from the interviews that can be helpful Coding Qualitative Data Download Coding Qualitative Data
Keep your original interview notes for future reference. These notes should be included in the report appendix if appropriate. The notes will also be consolidated with the other expert interviews.
