Master the art of conducting key informant interviews for research. This guide offers practical tips on planning, interviewing, and analyzing data to generate valuable insights.
If you’ve ever worked on a research project or a community assessment, you’ve probably heard about Key Informant Interviews (KIIs). They sound fancy, but at their core, they’re simply structured conversations with people who have special knowledge or experience in a particular area. Think of them as sitting down for coffee with someone who knows the inside story on your topic—except you’re asking questions in a systematic way to gather insights that can shape your work.
In this post, I’ll walk you through what KIIs are, why they matter, and how you can actually go about conducting them.
What are Key Informant Interviews?
KIIs are a qualitative research method where you talk to individuals who have in-depth knowledge about your topic. These could be government officials, community leaders, researchers, program managers, or even local experts who have lived experience.
The goal is not to get broad statistics—that’s what household surveys are for—but to dig deeper into context, perceptions, and decision-making. For example, if you’re studying climate change adaptation, a household survey might tell you how many families are using drought-resistant seeds.
A KII with a local agricultural officer, on the other hand, could tell you why those seeds are promoted, what challenges farmers face in accessing them, and what policies are influencing adoption.
In short, KIIs give you the “behind-the-scenes” perspective.
Why Use KIIs?
There are a few key reasons KIIs are so useful:
- Access to expert insights – People in strategic positions often have knowledge you won’t capture in a community survey.
- Validation – They can help you confirm or question trends you’ve seen in household data or focus group discussions.
- Context – They provide nuance, helping you understand the “why” behind numbers and patterns.
That said, KIIs are not a magic bullet. They can’t tell you everything, and they’re prone to biases if not done carefully. We’ll talk about that later.
How to Conduct Key Informant Interviews in 5 Simple steps
Step 1: Choosing Your Informants
This is one of the most important steps. Your findings will only be as good as the people you talk to. Ideally, you want informants who:
- Have direct experience or expertise on the topic.
- Are willing and able to share openly.
- Represent different perspectives, not just the official or elite view.
For example, if you’re studying climate adaptation, don’t only interview government officials. Add voices from NGOs, local extension officers, researchers, and maybe even traditional leaders. Each brings a piece of the puzzle.
A common pitfall is selecting informants too broadly or only speaking with elites. This risks capturing just one slice of reality.
Step 2: Preparing Your Questions
Your interview guide should be semi-structured – meaning you have key questions prepared, but you allow flexibility to follow interesting leads.
Good KII questions are:
- Open-ended (“Can you tell me about how local farmers are adapting to droughts?” rather than “Do farmers use drought-resistant seeds?”).
- Focused (keep them tied to your research objectives).
- Probing (ask follow-ups like “Can you give me an example?” or “Why do you think that is?”).
Avoid yes/no questions. You’re there to hear stories, explanations, and perspectives.
Step 3: Conducting the Interview
When you meet your informant, set a comfortable, respectful tone. Remember, this is a conversation, not an interrogation. A few tips:
- Build rapport – Start with small talk or an easy question.
- Be transparent – Explain why you’re doing the interview and how their input will be used.
- Listen more than you talk – Your role is to guide, not dominate.
- Take good notes (or record if they agree) – You’ll thank yourself later when analysing.
Step 4: Dealing with Bias
Like any method, KIIs have their challenges. Some common biases include:
- Recall bias – People may not remember events accurately.
- Elite bias – You might over-rely on the views of officials and miss community perspectives.
- Confirmation bias – It’s tempting to only notice what fits your expectations.
- Consistency bias – Interviewees may give overly neat stories instead of messy realities.
The best way to manage this is by being transparent and critical. Document who you interviewed, why you chose them, and how their insights fit (or don’t fit) with your other data.
Step 5: Analysing and Using KII Data
Once you’ve finished your interviews, the real work begins—making sense of it all. Group responses into themes, look for patterns, and compare with other data sources (like surveys or focus groups). This can be done through software (some of which are free) like NVivo, MAXQDA, and QDA Miner.
Be careful not to overstate what KIIs can do. They’re great for providing context, identifying gaps, or generating new ideas, but they can’t replace broader scientific methods or community-level data.
Final Thoughts
Key Informant Interviews are like shining a light into corners that big surveys can’t reach. They give you expert insights, context, and nuance—but only if done thoughtfully.
If you pick the right informants, ask good questions, stay aware of biases, and integrate the findings carefully, KIIs can be an incredibly powerful tool.
So the next time you’re planning a research project, think about who holds the knowledge you need—and don’t be afraid to just sit down and ask.
