Conducting an interview requires extensive preparation. A video interview can become a boring experience for the viewer or it can be intriguing and satiating. While experts will always have interesting facts and anecdotes to share, it is eventually up to the interviewer to weave it all into an interesting narrative. Since an interview cannot be scripted, it is necessary for an interviewer to have the deftness to weave a story as the questions and answers roll.

Here are ten tips or steps to conduct an engaging and satiating video interview.

• Research the Subject

Interviewers have to deal with diverse and often completely unrelated niches. It is quite possible an interviewer knows very little about a subject. Research is the key.

• Set the Premise

Every interview needs some ground rules. If a video interview is a part of a series of several such interviews then the format is already decided. However, the backdrop remains to be set. Every interview should have a backdrop. There must be a larger theme or objective. This will be crucial in setting the tone and the narrative of the interview.

• Discuss Relevant and Pertinent Issues

The initial research exploring the subject at large will bring up some trending issues. Otherwise, one must put in additional effort to find interesting problems or developments right now to form a substantial crux of the interview.

• Open Ended Questions

Always have open ended questions. Some questions can be simple and close ended but most parts of the interview should be a discussion and there must be substantive factual explanations from the expert.

• Straight and Lucid Conversation

There is no need for questions with underlying connotations or speculative implications. Straight questions and straight answers are the foundation of any convincingly satiating interview.

• Rebuttals / Counters

An interview is boring if the interviewer doesn’t have much insight into the domain and has nothing to add personally. It cannot be a questionnaire and the interviewee answering everything without being countered or rebutted.

• Recap / Summary

There must be a short summary or recap of the entire discussion and this must be done really well by focusing on the moot takeaways.

• Call to Action

There should be some kind of call to action to encourage discussions, to invite comments or opinions.

• The Key Takeaway/s

An interview needs a highlight. The recap should focus on one key takeaway and that would be used while promoting the interview.

• Style of Interviewer

The personal charisma of the interviewer plays a role in every scenario. Some interviewers are really convincing at asking questions, dueling with the interviewee and smartly drawing inferences after lengthy explanations.