How do you balance structured and unstructured questions?

1 What are structured and unstructured questions?

Structured questions are those that have a predefined format, answer, or scale. They are often used to measure specific skills, knowledge, or traits, and to compare candidates or respondents objectively. Unstructured questions are those that are open-ended, flexible, or creative. They are often used to explore motivations, opinions, or experiences, and to encourage dialogue and rapport.

2 Why use structured questions?

Structured questions can help you achieve consistency, clarity, and efficiency in your interviews. They can help you avoid bias, confusion, and ambiguity, and ensure that you cover the essential topics or criteria. They can also help you save time, as you can prepare them in advance, and use them to quickly screen or rank candidates or respondents. Structured questions can also facilitate data analysis, as you can easily quantify, compare, or aggregate the responses.

3 Why use unstructured questions?

Unstructured questions can help you achieve depth, diversity, and insight in your interviews. They can help you discover new information, perspectives, or ideas that you might not have anticipated or asked about. They can also help you build trust, rapport, and engagement with your interviewees, as you can show genuine interest, curiosity, and empathy. Unstructured questions can also stimulate creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving, as you can challenge, probe, or follow up on the responses.

4 How to balance structured and unstructured questions?

When balancing structured and unstructured questions, it is important to consider your purpose, context, and preference. To help, here are some general guidelines. Start by having a clear goal and plan for your interview. Think about what you need to achieve, learn, or assess, as well as the key topics or criteria you need to cover. Also consider how much time you have and how you will evaluate or use the results. Structured questions can be used to establish the baseline and unstructured questions can explore the nuances. Mix and match different types of questions throughout the interview to avoid monotony, boredom, or fatigue. Adapt and adjust your questions based on the situation and response to follow up on an interesting answer, clarify a vague one, or challenge a controversial one.

5 Tips for asking effective questions

Interviewing is a skill that can be improved with practice and feedback. To make your questions more effective, be clear and concise in your language, relevant and appropriate to the context, open and neutral to avoid influencing the response, and attentive and responsive to show interest and empathy. Balancing structured and unstructured questions can help you enhance your interviewing effectiveness and outcomes.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?