Finding The Perfect Questions. Best Questions To Ask In An Interview.

Introduction

A great story often takes great depth and complexity. How can we help create such a story or prompt another person to give us the full depth of their story? Finding the perfect questions! The better the question, the better the response. In this post, we'll be exploring interview questions that can guide someone into expressing vast details and follow-up questions that extend the range of their answers.

Research your guest

Knowing your guest's previous work, social media presence and previous interviews will give you a huge insight into their expertise, interests and areas of focus. This will be crucial for creating the questions needed to have your guest flowing with stories. They will feel more comfortable and relate better with you knowing you've spent the time doing your research. What's more, your audience will have a better understanding of your guest and their background.

Tips for crafting effective podcast interview questions

Let's have a look at a few great tips for crafting questions that will yield responses that are both in-depth and engaging.

• Start with open-ended questions that allow your guest to elaborate on their thoughts and experiences.

An open-ended question will help you avoid short answers and will create the possibility for follow-up questions.

• Ask follow-up questions that dig deeper into your guest's response and help uncover more information and insights.

Make sure you are totally focussed on your guest. A follow-up question not only shows them you're interested, but will make them more comfortable to continue sharing their story. These questions also extend the mileage of the initial question.

• Avoid yes-or-no questions or questions that are too general and don't allow for much discussion or elaboration.

If you've done your research and are focussed on open-ended questions, you should be able to easily avoid this, but if you find your guests are giving short answers, be sure to evaluate your questions and weed out any that are too general and not relating to your guest specifically.

• Focus on topics that are relevant to your guest's expertise, interests or experiences.

You're probably starting to see a pattern here. Know your guest and the questions you need to ask will fall onto the page. Basically, you've done the ground work of research, and you now have the source ready and able to elaborate on it for the interest of you and your audience.

Examples of effective podcast interview questions

So, what might some of these questions look? These are some of the best questions to ask in an interview that can fit just about any and all guests. They could be ice-breaker questions to help get things flowing or go-to questions when you feel like changing the direction of the interview. Use the format of these questions and make them personalised to your guest. These might include:

• "Can you tell us about a time when you faced a significant challenge in your Career? How did you overcome it, and what did you learn from the experience?"

Notice that the question has three parts to it, a "when", a "how" and a "what". Any answer to this question will come from the guest's personal experience and also give ample opportunity for follow-up questions.

• "What are some common misconceptions people may have about [insert guest's area of expertise]? Can you provide some examples and explain why these misconceptions are inaccurate?"

Perhaps somewhere in your research, you happen to find some of these misconceptions and want one or two answered specifically. Another way to word this question would be to open with a statement;

"It seems as though [insert misconceived idea][insert guest's area of expertise] has been widely misunderstood. How do you think this has happened and can you explain why these misconceptions are inaccurate?"

• "How do you stay motivated and focused when working on long-term projects or pursuing long-term goals? Can you share some strategies that have worked well for you?"

• "What advice do you have for people starting out in [insert guest's area of expertise]? What do you wish you had known when you were starting out?"

These two-part questions will help to prompt your guest to take a deep dive into their experiences and practices, while also offering some advise and guidance for your audience.

Conclusion

The perfect questions will come from your research and knowledge about your guest's expertise and experience or your research about a particular topic. Without this gathering of information your podcast will lack substance and meaning. Questions will be too general and the answers will be short and uninformative. By crafting open-ended questions that are tailored for your guest, your podcast can become an informative and engaging program that will keep your audience coming back for more.