Write open-ended interview questions and recognize when a follow-up question would dig deeper into an interesting answer.
An interview means asking someone with direct experience or expertise questions to gather firsthand information not found in any book. Good interview questions are open-ended, not yes-or-no, and a good interviewer listens closely and asks a follow-up question to dig deeper into an interesting answer.
Read this interview with a beekeeper. Q: "How did you get started keeping bees?" A: "My grandmother kept hives, and I used to watch her work without a single sting. I got my own first hive at sixteen." Q: "What is the most surprising thing about bees?" A: "How they communicate. A bee can tell the whole hive exactly which direction and how far away a flower patch is, just by doing a specific dance." Q: "A dance? Can you say more about that?" A: "It is called the waggle dance. The bee moves in a figure-eight pattern, and the angle and speed of the waggle part tell the other bees the direction and distance to the food."
Mastery looks like: They can write open-ended interview questions and recognize when a follow-up question would dig deeper into an interesting answer.
Common stumbles: Writing closed, yes/no questions instead of open-ended ones; sticking rigidly to a planned question list instead of following up on something interesting.