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No matter what kind of content we\u2019re tasked with producing \u2013 whether it\u2019s a case study, new web copy, a solution brief or a ghost-written thought leadership article \u2013 invariably there\u2019s an interview with a subject matter expert to guide the output.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a given.<\/p>\n
But not all interviews are the same, no matter what questionnaire template you design. In fact, they are like diamonds, snowflakes, and fingerprints: they are utterly unique.<\/p>\n
So how do good interviewers extract the most meaningful information for content development purposes? In my experience as a former journalist trained in the art of asking probing questions, sometimes it\u2019s the unexpected follow-up that yields the best results.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll give you a good example. For the past two years, Write Angle has been producing case studies for Pure Storage. Yes, we\u2019ve developed a questionnaire that asks about the nature of a customer\u2019s business, their pain points, the evaluation process, selection criteria, key technical and business benefits and TCO\/ROI results. And yes, the questionnaire has evolved over time to keep pace with product innovation and shifts in value propositions.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s not built into these interview guidelines is what I refer to as the art of the redirect or subtle insistence on elaboration. Sometimes a seemingly innocuous question can yield a dynamite response, especially with a difficult interviewee that isn\u2019t terribly expansive.<\/p>\n
A case in point involved a financial services customer whose corporate communications team sat in on the interview to \u201coversee\u201d the interview. While this presented a gating influence from the outset, the subject of the interview was a \u201cjust the facts\u201d spokesperson. After getting blunt and uninspiring input, I decided to shift gears i.e. utilize the redirect. I decided to ask about this individual\u2019s history as an IT director so he could get comfortable talking about himself. Not only did this \u201cloosen\u201d him up, it provided some historical context that allowed me to probe for his experience with legacy storage systems and how this contrasted with his organization\u2019s adoption of flash storage. <\/p>\n
The results were dramatic. Suddenly, I had an expansive and engaged subject. By invoking the redirect strategy, I succeeded in pushing for greater elaboration to responses. This resulted in terrific real world examples of \u201cbefore and after\u201d scenarios involving his storage infrastructure. What had been a teeth-pulling exercise morphed into an engaging story with real drama: a subtle yet growing problem threatening a segment of the business; a proof of concept trial ripe with competitive give and take; and a powerful resolution with meaningful results that went well beyond technical metrics.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s the takeaway? Like great jazz musicians, be prepared to improvise when leading an interview. Sometimes straying from the melody can take you in an entirely new direction with better results. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No matter what kind of content we\u2019re tasked with producing \u2013 whether it\u2019s a case study, new web copy, a solution brief or a ghost-written thought leadership article \u2013 invariably there\u2019s an interview with a subject matter expert to guide the output. That\u2019s a given. But not all interviews are the same, no matter what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-online-content"],"yoast_head":"\n