You've completed your first interview, and you asked all the right questions. Now you're wondering, what's next? You need ultimately to convert that valuable information into something insightful.
The first thing that you should do is review all of your notes right away. It's important to do this while the conversation is still fresh in your mind. Then, either type them up into a list of bullet points or rewrite them into a list form. Your bullet points or list will serve as a reference that you can follow, while writing your piece.
Immediately put the interview information into whatever organizational system you use for your research. If you fail to lodge your information promptly, you may lose data that's not easily replaceable. Moreover, it will be rather embarrassing if you're forced to call the interviewee to fill in the blanks. Be sure to double-check all of the facts you've collected. Mistakes happen. You may become engrossed in the conversation during the interview or overwhelmed with the process, and can miss something. So afterwards, check your facts. Go over anything you feel unclear about or anything you're not 100% sure about and confirm your information.
Confirming is easy. You can email or make a follow-up call to the interviewee. Just explain that there are a few things you needed to clarify before you write up your piece. Interview subjects usually cooperate with such requests. They don’t want anything incorrect getting out about them. If the item of information has something to do with another individual or some other entity, however, you will want to contact them directly. Getting confirmation or at least a comment on the detail in question is crucial to your credibility and the credibility of your piece.
After recapping the interview, organizing it in your planner, double- checking your internal facts, and getting comments on the external ones, you should be ready to write. One last little etiquette tip; send a thank you note to the interviewee. This will let him know you appreciate their sharing their time, while sweetening them up in case they are needed for any additional follow up.