Expert interviews and case studies

Method description

Expert interviews benefit from a suitable basic attitude (open-minded, respectful), a good interview technique (reflective, but never suggestive) and good preparation (interview training, well thought-out guidelines, preliminary information on the topic and interview partners). If these conditions are observed, you can often find out more with a few in-depth interviews than with some questionnaire surveys. The IZT understands case studies as a combination of several expert interviews in an organisation (or a thematic sector) with a relevant document evaluation plus background research. Expert interviews and case studies are particularly suitable for the explorative studies frequently used in futures research. As a particularly transparent, qualitative procedure, expert interviews should be conducted before any quantitative survey if possible.