---
name: interview_technique
description: Plan, run, and edit recorded interviews for video or podcast — guest research, story-driven question design, active-listening tactics, and ethical editing that condenses conversation into narrative. Use when preparing, conducting, or cutting an interview.
---

# Interview Technique

## Purpose

Turn a recorded conversation into a story people finish. This skill covers the full interview arc: **research the guest** (so you never ask a rehearsed question), **design questions for story, not information** (scenarios and emotional truth, not bios), **listen actively during** (follow the thread, don't read the list), and **edit for narrative** (condense ethically — tighter, never dishonest).

## Workflow

### 1. Research the guest (before you write a single question)

**Primary (1–2 hours):**
- Their most substantial long-form work: book, keynote, signature project
- Previous podcast/video appearances — note what has *already been asked*
- Recent social activity — what are they thinking about *right now*?

**Secondary (30–60 min):**
- Career arc and timeline; project/company announcements; industry news; colleagues' accounts

**Dig for:**
- Contradictions between what they say and what they do
- Topics they are *never* asked about
- Recent changes in their thinking
- Personal moments that shaped their professional life
- The question you're dying to ask — find **the question they've never been asked that they'd love to answer**

Output: a 1-page brief (see Output Contract) — research summary, themes, and question drafts grouped by arc.

### 2. Design questions for story, not information

Question hierarchy — escalate, never start at the top:

| Tier | Shape | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| ❌ AVOID — information questions | Bios, advice | "What do you do?" "How did you get started?" → gets rehearsed talking points |
| ✓ BETTER — scenario questions | Moments, scenes | "Take me to the moment when…" / "Walk me through the day…" / "What was going through your mind when…" → gets specific memories, sensory detail |
| ✓✓ BEST — emotional-truth questions | Fear, surprise, contrarian stakes | "What scared you most about that decision?" / "What surprised you most about what you learned?" / "What's the thing about [topic] most people get wrong?" → gets authentic reflection |

Rules of thumb:
- Open-ended how/why/what; never stack yes/no questions in a row
- Outline **themes**, not a script — flexibility reads as genuine conversation
- Tailor every question to the guest's expertise; reference their actual work by name
- Mix personal and professional; stay out of private matters unless the guest is open about them
- If you catch yourself writing a question Google could answer, delete it

### 3. Structure the arc — a journey, not a list

| Act | Time | Purpose | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening | 5–10 min | Rapport, get them talking | Start with something **current** ("I saw your post last week about X — what prompted that?"), never the origin story |
| Middle Act 1 | 10–20 min | The journey | Inflection points, key decisions, "what most people don't know about that period…" |
| Middle Act 2 | 15–25 min | The core | The must-ask questions; challenge their positions ("How do you reconcile X with Y?"); the uncomfortable-but-important one |
| Closing | 5–10 min | Synthesis, takeaway | What they're working on now; what they'd do differently; the question you're afraid to ask |

### 4. Run the interview — listen more than you talk

- Note keywords and interesting points **as they land**; follow unexpected threads instead of returning to the list
- Prefer concrete over abstract: ask for a specific scene, not a thesis
- Use silence deliberately — don't rush to fill a thoughtful pause; people fill it with truth
- Tradeoffs over open-ended mush: "Do you want X or Y?" forces clarity your edit will thank you for
- Never perform your homework as a monologue — show the research inside the question, then shut up

### 5. Edit the conversation for story

**Pass 1 — string out.** Remove all interviewer questions and dead air. This clean cut is the foundation; the story lives in the guest's voice alone.

**Pass 2 — condense.** Remove: over-long pauses, repeated information (they said the same thing three ways — keep the sharpest), stammering/self-correction. One condensement pass or several trim passes — either way, tighten before judging.

**Pass 3 — shape for narrative.** Select sound bites that carry key messages *and* emotion. Order answers so each one sets up the next. Cut away to B-roll / visuals for context and to keep talking-head segments from dragging. Pace the cuts to the **rhythm of the delivery**: quick cuts for energy and tension, longer holds for reflection. Keep the pauses where the guest is genuinely re-experiencing a story — cut the ones where they're spinning their wheels.

**Ethics (non-negotiable).** Tightening is allowed; meaning-change is not:
- Never create a false relationship between two unrelated quotes or reorder to imply false causation
- Never cut the softening "buts" and "excepts" that qualify a statement
- Never cherry-pick to show the person in a poor light, or show an emotional reaction without its cause
- Never hide a pointed question when the answer only makes sense with it

## Output Contract

For each interview, produce:

1. **Guest brief** (1 page): 5-line research summary → 3–4 themes → question drafts grouped by arc (Opening / Act 1 / Act 2 / Closing), each tagged by tier (information / scenario / emotional-truth), minimum 60% scenario or emotional-truth
2. **Session plan**: target length, must-get sound bites (what the episode cannot ship without), no-go topics
3. **Edit notes**: string-out cut location, condensed selects with timestamps, and an ethics pass signed off (no meaning changed — yes/no per answer retained)

## Operating Rules

1. No question the guest has answered publicly before goes in unmodified — find the new angle or cut it.
2. Information questions are banished from final drafts. If it's in the brief, it never gets asked on mic.
3. The interviewer speaks ≤30% of the time; measure it on playback if in doubt.
4. Silence is a tool, not a failure. Count to three before rescuing a pause.
5. Unverifiable claims by the guest get flagged for the editor, never repeated as fact in narration or titles.
6. The ethics pass is mandatory, not optional — a tighter edit that changes meaning is a rejected edit.
7. When in doubt about a cut's honesty, keep the wider context.