I’ve recently been working on three very different projects:
– interviewing long-term unemployed men for a suicide prevention campaign
– interviewing prisoners (again for a suicide prevention campaign)
– interviewing millionaires (most of whom seem to work in the City) for a major financial institution
When interviewing people at the extreme margins of society (both high and low) some weird similarities emerge:
Prisoners and millionaires are both quite wary at first. Perhaps this is down to a suspicion that they will be judged (and maybe disliked) on the basis of what they are not who they are (‘you’re a crack dealer so I disapprove of you’; ‘you’re a Hedge Fund dealer so I disapprove of you’). It takes time to build a rapport, to get them relax and to be honest with you
The long-term unemployed, prisoners and millionaires also share a mutual aversion to reading lengthy texts
– in one case this is often down to poor reading skills, in the other due to an advanced form of attention deficit disorder that seems prevalent amongst very busy rich people.
What is striking is that, if you take the time to get to know them first, BEFORE you start bombarding them with questions, all three groups really open up. It turns out many desperately want to share their story – be it one of triumph or tragedy.
Market research in general could learn something from this – too often we are overly quick to jump into whatever we want to interview people about…without taking any real time to ever understand who they are.
nickvolante 