As we shifted into interview mode, I started feeling like we were really hitting the meaty part of this project. Until now, I’ve been struggling to glean what I would define as “insights.” Sure, we’ve done a lot of research and conducted observations, both essential to the foundation of the project, but we haven’t really had any conversations, any opportunity to dive into the values and motives of our demographic. As I was interviewing, I felt a sense of relief, as if all the work we had done up until that moment was finally clicking into place. At last, we could capture the sentiments and stories that would define our project.
Transcribing was a new experience for me. As a musician, I am accustomed to recording myself to listen and learn from my mistakes. This felt much the same, though I didn’t have much of an opportunity to revise my interviewing technique over just two interviews. Still, as I listened to myself talk and interact with the interviewee, I saw opportunities I missed to follow up on an answer that the speaker had not quite fully answered. Many times, I felt I should have jumped in to squeeze more out of a topic rather than just let the interviewee continue on. I was also very surprised by all the information I missed when I was actually conducting the interview. Many times, I typed what I heard only to look up, shocked that I couldn’t remember actually hearing those words being said at the time.
Coding was my favorite part of the interviewing process. This was the moment I’d been waiting for, the chance to find the insights our class is named after and categorize them into neat little rows of data to use in the future of our project. When the code sheet was in its final form, it was as if a veil had been lifted from my team’s eyes. It was so easy to see the connections in the data, the moments where our interviews collided to show us exactly what we needed to know about our demographic and their shared values. With the interviews over and the first half of the project submitted, I feel relieved, yet excited to move forward and use our new insights to actually create something.