ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Structured interviewing

Structured interviewing is when adults ask questions in a special way to make sure they get really good answers. Imagine you are playing a game where you have to guess what someone is thinking. To win the game, you need to ask the right questions in the right way. That is just what we do in structured interviewing except we are not guessing, we are asking real people about things that are important.

In structured interviewing, grown-ups have a list of questions that they ask everybody who they are talking with. They ask the same questions in the same order, so that everyone gets asked the same things. This makes it fair for everyone!

By asking everyone the same questions, grown-ups can use something called "data" to learn more about people and what they think. Think of it like collecting trading cards. If you collect lots of similar cards, you could learn a lot about a certain thing. That is what happens in structured interviewing - by collecting data from lots of people, we can learn a lot about different things.

Overall, structured interviewing is a special type of asking questions that helps grown-ups learn more about people and important things. It is like a game where we win by learning the most!