About the interviews

Format

The interview will be conducted face-to-face in a secure and comfortable location at your institution or remotely over a secure video conferencing platform. The interview will be conversational in style and is expected to last around 1 hour.

During the interview you are asked to refrain from answering non-urgent telephone calls/text message etc, but if you need to take a break for some other reason that is fine.

Questions

The questions asked during the interview are designed to encourage you to reflect on your project processes and management style in detail.

It is important that you answer the questions as honestly as possible, although you do not have to disclose anything you do not feel comfortable disclosing.

Questions you are likely to be asked include the following:

• What do you think were the success criteria for the project?
• Outline the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the project.
• Could you depict their involvement on a timeline?
• Who were the other stakeholders involved in the project? (e.g. research council, HoD, the public etc.)
• Where would you position each of the stakeholders on the Power vs Interest chart?
• How regularly did you communicate with each of the stakeholders you’ve identified and via what means?
• What was involved in the planning of the project and what planning occurred before the funding application was approved?
• Who was involved in the reporting of the project outputs/deliverables?
• During your time working on this project, what tools or methodologies did you use to manage workflow and keep track of the work?
• What did your own work pattern look like on this project? For example, was there a regular block of time set aside each week?
• Were there any extended periods over which the project was either completely inactive or you were not contributing to it? If so, what do you think were the reasons for this.
• In retrospective, do you think the project itself was successful?
• In retrospective, how do you feel about your own contribution on this project?
• If you were to start the project again under the same external conditions, is there anything you would change about your own contribution? (‘external conditions’ is meant to imply ‘factors beyond your direct control’)
• If you were able to restart the project under ideal conditions, what would those conditions be? Are there any ways you might influence them?
• Did you receive feedback from the stakeholders during or after the project?
• (If applicable) are you aware of any other projects in the same call? If so, which of these do you perceive as being successful and why?

Additional guidelines

Here are some additional guidelines we’d like you to be aware of:

• It is not necessary to give a single definitive response to a question. For example, you might have competing opinions on a topic. That is allowed. You are free to explore whatever feelings you have about a project, regardless of how positive or cynical they are.
• It is fine to go off on tangents. At times your mind might wander onto something that doesn’t seem obviously connected. Don’t let that stop you from exploring that idea. The interviewer will pull you back if necessary.
• Occasionally the interviewer may skip a question if they feel it has already been answered, or they may add additional questions to encourage deeper reflection or elaboration of a particular point. Please do not be worried by this.
• If at any point you are unsure how to answer a question, please tell the interviewer. Either they will try to reframe the question, or they will skip it and move on.
• You will notice that pens and paper are available at the interview. Please feel free to use them as a communication aid where applicable. Occasionally you may be prompted to do so by the interviewer.