A behavior-first guide moves from context into one recent event, follows the sequence and consequences, and delays solution discussion until the researcher has captured the participant's existing behavior.
Start with the research question and the participant's context
The guide should state what the team needs to decide and which evidence would change that decision. The opening questions establish the participant's role, responsibilities, environment, and relationship to the workflow without asking for a verdict on the product. This context lets the interviewer understand whether the later event is typical or exceptional.
The GOV.UK Service Manual recommends organizing topics in a logical flow, preparing starter and follow-up questions, and testing the structure with a colleague. The guide remains a route through the study rather than a script that must be read word for word. Natural transitions help the interviewer follow the participant without abandoning the research questions.
Follow one event until the mechanism is visible
A recent event gives the interview a timeline. The interviewer asks what triggered it, what happened first, who became involved, which tools or alternatives were tried, where the work stalled, what decision was made, and what consequence followed. Simple prompts such as when was that, who did that, and what happened next recover detail without suggesting an interpretation.
The note schema should distinguish a participant's direct report from the interviewer's inference. It captures time, frequency, people, tools, money, workaround, consequence, direct language, and unresolved question only when those fields serve the study. A blank field is useful because it shows where the interviewer did not obtain evidence.
Place solution evaluation after behavioral evidence
When the study also evaluates a concept, the guide marks a clear transition after the past-event section. The interviewer presents the same stimulus to each participant and asks for comprehension, comparison, concern, and likely fit without treating predicted purchase as observed demand. The post-call review then assesses the behavioral and evaluative sections separately.
Where the service stops
Reality Contact, LLC repairs research materials and interviewer practice, but does not recruit or contact participants, obtain consent, moderate the study, make product decisions, provide legal or ethics approval, or claim that qualitative interviews represent a population. The buyer approves the target segment, consent and data-handling process, recruits the next qualified wave, runs the repaired guide without presenting the proposed solution, and makes decisions from the resulting evidence. The work is research document preparation and interviewer training, and it does not replace legal, privacy, ethics, employment, or professional research advice. The buyer owns participant consent, recruiting, incentives, data handling, moderation, interpretation, and every product or segment decision.
Sources: GOV.UK interview design guidance; Defra discussion-guide templates.