Interviewer Debriefing

Interviewer debriefing is a process used to gather feedback from telephone and field (in-person) interviewers regarding a particular survey effort. As the project staff members who most closely interact with respondents, interviewers provide a unique perspective on how questions are answered by respondents and which questions may be difficult to ask or answer. They also can provide other, general observations about the administration of the survey instrument. These debriefing sessions can be held either in-person (as is usually the case for telephone interviewer debriefing sessions) or over the phone (as is often the case for field interviewer debriefing sessions).

Prior to conducting an interviewer debriefing, a member of the project staff—either the project director or the person who has managed the data collection effort—usually creates a detailed questionnaire for interviewers to complete prior to the session. Most of the questions should be short-answer (closed-ended) but also should include space so that the interviewer can provide feedback and concrete examples from their own experience in administering the survey on specified topics. Providing an additional open-ended question at the end of the questionnaire can also encourage the interviewer to comment on any other circumstances not covered in the debriefing questionnaire.

The debriefing questionnaire is given to interviewers by their supervisor, and they are instructed to complete it prior to the debriefing session. Interviewers are usually given several days to complete the questionnaire and are encouraged to initially spend a concentrated amount of time filling out the questionnaire and then continue adding to it in subsequent days as additional examples or comments occur to them. This process allows interviewers to spend multiple days thinking about their comments and allows them to relate those comments that are important to them. Further, quiet interviewers may be overlooked or not speak up much [Page 369]during the debriefing discussion, and gathering written comments from all interviewers allows project staff to get the entire range of feedback and not just feedback from the vocal interviewers.

A few days after handing out the debriefing questionnaire, project staff members meet with the interviewers to lead a discussion about the interviewers' experiences with respondents and the questionnaire, as well as to gather their comments on the data collection effort. This discussion is often organized like a focus group where the moderator attempts to get all participants involved in the discussion and where the discussion is directed by notes the moderator has prepared ahead of time. The information gathered during the interviewer debriefing session is only as good as the questions designed to elicit the information as well as the ability of the session leader or moderator to encourage participation and keep the discussion productive throughout the session.

For interviewer debriefing sessions, the questions on the debriefing questionnaire usually should form the structure of the discussion. It is important, however, for the project staff who are moderating or leading these discussions to be able to readily identify comments that need additional detail (or probing) as well as to readily identify comments that are off track so the discussion can be kept focused on the topic at hand. The written debriefing questionnaires are then collected at the end of the session.

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