Many of you have stated that you began your “interview postmortem” analysis as soon as you walked out the door. I think I can (somewhat jokingly) say that I began mine during the interview, for one thought I had as we were conversing was “I hope the mic is picking this up ok.” I had tested my mic before we began and I was sure it was recording, but Maryann possesses a voice that is both charming and very soft. I remember feeling uncomfortable with reaching over and adjusting its clip on her collar myself and not wanting to interrupt her by asking her to adjust it. But when I listened to the audio later, I wished I had sucked it up and done at least one of these things (or simply asked her to speak up a bit), because though the audio was certainly usable, there were moments where her voice trailed off towards the end of a sentence that were slightly hard to make out, and my voice sounded louder than hers even though I was not wearing the mic. (I know I’m loud, there’s no need to tease me about it.) So that’s something I wish I had done differently.
As far as content goes, however, I think our interview went well. Perhaps because we found that her passion was in fact a mutual interest, our conversation flowed quite naturally aside from the obligatory stifling of “yeahs” and “mmhmms” that punctuate most non-recorded conversations. I was proud of myself for only getting overexcited and talking over her once. I freely admit that a large portion of my relative success was Maryann herself, who is exceptionally articulate and was handing me gem after gem on a silver platter as far as quotes are concerned. (This actually made it quite difficult for me to cut down the interview to 4 minutes, but I would much rather have to cut down than scramble for material.) I think I asked fairly open-ended questions (“Do you find your thoughts wandering in any particular direction while you work?”) and let her have the final word (I try to conclude every interview with the question “Is there anything you didn’t get the opportunity to say or anything I should have asked you?”). Overall, I would say that the only slight problems I encountered were those relating to recording for an audio piece. Usually I am recording for my own records, so while I try to keep my interruptions to a minimum, it is also not a huge deal if there are coffee cup clinks or faint traffic noises or the occasional “mmhmm” in the background. The next time I record for an audio piece I think I simply need to remember that audio quality is truly paramount and adjust my speech (and my microphone) accordingly.