Karen Rubin's Ramblings

Interviews and the Importance of Research

Posted by Karen Rubin on Wed, Apr 22, 2009 @ 09:04 AM

Recently I have been an interviewing maniac. In the last couple weeks I have conducted more than 20 interviews, most with customers, but one very fun interview with Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter.

I am fairly new to interviewing, having only started conducting interviews since starting my job here at HubSpot, but the one thing I have learned is that researching the person you are interviewing is of utmost importance.

No matter the interview type (customer or HubSpot.tv) the more I know about the individual the more interesting the conversation will be. If I am talking to a customer, before I get on the call I want to find out what their business does and what their roll is. I want to know how large their company is and who their target customer is. All of these things ensure that the questions I ask will be relevant and the interview will help me learn more about them and their business. 

When I am planning for a HubSpot.tv guest I want to learn about what projects they are working on, what they are passionate about and what they have worked on in the past. With HubSpot.tv guests, I am trying to ask interesting questions that are different from what everyone else asks them, so I also want to look into other interviews they have given. 

A few months ago I was completely surprised when McHammer showed up for HubSpot.tv. Mike had mentioned that they were trying to get him, but I didn't believe for one second that he would come, so I didn't do ANY research. When he showed up, not only was I completely start struck, but I didn't have anything significant or relevant to ask him. All I knew of him was his old school hammer pants and 2 Legit 2 Legit to Quit! 

If you compare the McHammer interview to the Biz Stone interview above, you can easily tell which I was more prepared for. If you are conducting interviews of any type, my only recommendation is to figure out as much as you can about the individual you are talking to and prepare a couple questions. It will help keep the conversation going and ensure that you both get the most out of it.