A Moderator's Job Is More Than Just Interviews: The 'Trinity' of Planning, Interviewing, and Analysis #02

At the company I joined because I wanted to be a moderator, my boss told me until I was sick of hearing it that 'planning, interviewing, and analysis are a trinity.'
Having applied thinking that 'all I have to do is listen to people,' I couldn't help but sigh. I thought, 'It's not just about the interviews?'
Now, I understand exactly what my boss meant. These three things are indeed inseparable. This is because the synergy between them significantly increases the quality and quantity of information obtained through interviews. The things I will write about in this note will also involve moving back and forth between these three. I wanted to share that with you from the start.

The Three Skills Required of a Moderator

When people hear 'moderator' in qualitative research, they tend to think of it as a specialized role focused solely on facilitating interviews—that is, interview skills—but that alone is not enough.
First is the skill of planning and design.This is the skill of designing the research: What is the purpose of the interview? Who are the people we should be talking to? What should we ask, in what order, and with what time allocation?
Next is the skill of interviewing (moderation).This is the skill of building rapport with the subject, digging deeper into their statements, and drawing out usable information.
And finally, the skill of analysis.This is the skill of interpreting the subject's statements and reactions: How do we structure the information obtained from the interview to find insights? How do we connect that to actionable measures?

Why a 'Trinity'?

These three are not separate skills. They are deeply intertwined.
To conduct a good interview, the moderator must be able to judge for themselves before the interview, 'Will this flow really yield the intended output?' To judge the validity of the flow, one must understand what kind of output needs to be drawn from the interview—in other words, one must have an analytical perspective.
Conversely, it is because a moderator possesses analytical skills that they can probe statements effectively. Because they can listen to the other person's story from an analytical viewpoint—asking, 'What lies behind this statement?'—they can perform appropriate probing.

About the content covered in this note

In this note, I will focus primarily on analysis among the three skills, but since they are a trinity, I think topics related to moderation will also come up. You might be confused, thinking, 'I thought this was about analysis, but suddenly it's about interviewing,' but that is intentional. Please understand.