Exploratory Interviews - Part I (the Method)

Admittedly, it has been quite a while since my last post. During the majority of March, as well as part of April, I traveled around the Netherlands while conducting exploratory interviews with mobile workers. I spent a lot of time on the train (sometimes six hours a day), but also enjoyed some excellent perks like a tasty home cooked meal--as well as, of course, interesting discussions. In retrospect, I'm glad that I conducted these interviews in person, despite the time commitment required.

I have written up the results of these interviews already, and will be sharing them over a series of posts. This first post covers the interview methodology that was used, including information regarding the interview participants.
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One major goal of the interviews was to identify “critical incidents” as they relate to the dual concepts of in sync and in touch. The critical incident technique is an interview (or observational) method used to pinpoint the situations and circumstances that lead to breakdowns or successful outcomes (thus making them "critical"; Flanagan, 1954; Urquhart et al, 2003). The resultant data can then be used to identify the behaviors that lead to those outcomes. In the case of the current exploratory interviews, a series of questions was adapted from two sources: (1) a user study that addressed the application of interface agents in email notifications (Serenko, 2006); and, (2) an earlier study conducted within Future Workspaces on the causes and effects of information overload. The motivation behind using a variant on this technique in the current interviews was to discover common gaps or problems that mobile workers experience when trying to keep in sync with their distant colleagues. To a lesser extent, open-ended questions addressed how interviewees keep in touch with their colleagues, as well. (A complete list of probes can be provided upon request).

Because the interviews were exploratory, it is important to note that not all of the probe questions were asked of each individual. In other words, interviews were also used to get a sense of mobile workers' variable experiences when staying in sync and in touch, and so the interview structure remained flexible. This practice allowed each interviewee to describe his or her personal experiences and concerns in a manner that more or less followed the format of a loosely directed discussion rather than a formal interview. However, all participants were asked to share the following information:

1. What was needed in order to stay in sync¹ with distant colleagues?
2. To describe in detail at least two experiences that were highly significant because they lead to either a breakdown in staying in sync with their colleagues, or because the experience was particularly positive.
3. How trust² was established and maintained within the context of the distributed teams in which they were currently working.

Method
Interviews were semi-structured (as described above) and each lasted approximately one hour. All interviews were conducted by the same researcher. Sessions took place at each participant's workplace. Interviews were not recorded; however, participants were given typed electronic copies of the interview session notes for verification purposes.

Participants
Interviews were conducted with 10 knowledge workers (4 female) who were employed by 8 different companies. All but two of the participants worked for companies that employed between 1,000 and up to nearly 100,000 employees. Seven of the participants were engaged in some form of consultancy work and the other 3 were project managers. All had at least a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent).

Participants were recruited by electronically distributed flyers. Criteria for selection were broadly defined as a practical matter meant to ease recruitment. The two major criteria for participation were:

1. Having a job role that required working extensively on at least one distributed project.

2. Working away from a main office at least 50% of the time.

All participants satisfied the first criterion. However, the second criterion was relaxed somewhat to include one participant who traveled less extensively but was heavily involved in long-distance distributed project work.

Two qualitative analytical procedures were used to process the interview results. First, affinity diagramming was used to uncover emergent themes common across interviews. Due to the high number of sticky notes used to create these diagrams (approximately 500), a mind map was created to hierarchically organize categories and further refine the interview results.

The next post will cover the results of the affinity diagramming sessions.
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Footnotes:
1. Participants were specifically asked about staying "up-to-date" rather than staying "in sync" to avoid confusion.
2. During the interviews the terms "trust" and "feeling a connection" were used to tap into participants’ views and experiences with staying in touch with their colleagues. Again, this practice was used to avoid potentially confusing terminology.