As much as I learned during the interview process about retirement communities, I believe I learned even more about the interview process itself. My first interview was choppy and I did not do great work. As I asked questions and heard the answers I typed the more notes for the responses than I should have. As I typed the responses and the notes for them, there were long pauses between questions. After listening to the audio recording of the interview I felt that these awkward pauses created lapses in conversation and a disconnect between me and the interviewee. If I would have tried to make the interview more of a conversation instead of just being a robot asking scripted questions, then I may have gotten deeper insight.
In my second interview I tried to have more of a conversation and rely on my audio recording to take notes after the interview. During the interview I followed along with conversation and stayed more engaged with my interviewee. As I responded in turn to the responses to the individual I was interviewing, she often elaborated and went deeper on her answer without any additional questions being asked. Oftentimes these elaborations were the times where the biggest insights were shared. After getting past the basic answers, my interviewee often started talking about things such as socialization being important for people to stay healthy and alive. I got a few great quotes from my second interviewee because of this second technique.
Although, I only interviewed two different people, I definitely improved after my first interview and I believe I would be even better for my third interview. I think the biggest key that I learned was trying to understand and connect with the interviewee in hopes that this would inspire the interviewee to find something to share that they would not have thought to share originally.