Interview Guide Form
A semi-structured interview protocol the interviewer fills in live: prompts, notes and consent to record.
A ready-to-use research & data collection form for small teams who need a reliable intake process: 16 questions, 4 pages, 3 conditional rules.
- Questions
- 16
- Pages
- 4
- Layouts
- classic
- Conditional rules
- 3
Searches this template answers
- interview guide form
- semi structured interview template
- qualitative interview form
- interview protocol template
- research interview notes form
- user interview guide
Also filed under
Live preview and test console
This is the real form. Answer it to test the 2 conditional rules — nothing is sent or stored.
Page 1 of 4 — Session details
Every question on this page is currently visible.
Compliance checklist
- Payment items priced — passingEvery payment question charges a real amount, so a submission always records a payment.
- Conditional logic resolves — passingEvery rule points at a question or page that exists in this template.
- Legal text not required — passingThis template collects neither health nor regulated financial information.
- Question labels unique — passingLogic and exports address questions by label, so duplicates are ambiguous.
What happens after submit: nothing is stored in this preview. On your own copy, every response triggers an instant email notification and lands in your response dashboard, ready to export or forward.
Happy with it? Take a copy into your workspace — every question, rule and setting comes with it.
Who this template is for
Interview Guide Form is built for small teams who need a reliable intake process who need to collect the same complete information from everyone.
- Small teams who need a reliable intake process working in research & data collection.
- Teams who need to collect the same complete information from everyone without writing code or paying for a custom build.
- Anyone replacing chasing missing details over email with one structured record per enquiry.
- Respondents are the people you send it to — the form asks them 16 questions across 4 screens.
Why this form is useful
It removes the cost of chasing missing details over email and turns each submission into a record your team can act on immediately.
- 7 questions are required, so submissions arrive complete instead of needing a follow-up email.
- It pins the request to a specific date.
- Conditional logic hides 3 questions until they are relevant — shorter forms convert better than long ones.
- Splitting the form across 4 pages keeps each screen short and shows respondents how much is left.
- Every response is stored, searchable and exportable, so nothing depends on one person's inbox.
How to use this template
From copy to live form is a few minutes of work, and every step is reversible.
- 1Press “Use this template” — a fresh copy of Interview Guide Form lands in your workspace, ready to edit.
- 2Rename or delete any question, and change what is required. Nothing here is fixed.
- 3Open Notifications and add the email addresses that should be alerted on each submission; add an auto-reply to the respondent if the form collects an email address.
- 4Publish it, then either share the link directly or paste the embed snippet into your site — the embedded form resizes to fit and loads no marketing or advertising trackers.
- 5Watch responses land in Submissions, where you can filter, label and export them to CSV or PDF.
Logic and conditions blueprint
Exactly how this form behaves as it is answered — 3 conditional rules ship with it.
- Features conditional hiding: if “Did the participant consent to being recorded?” is No, “Recording file name or reference” is removed from the form and is never submitted.
- Features advanced show logic: if “Is any follow-up needed after this session?” is Yes, the form dynamically exposes “What follow-up is needed?”. Otherwise that question never appears.
- Features conditional validation: if “Is any follow-up needed after this session?” is Yes, “What follow-up is needed?” becomes mandatory before the form can be sent.
- All 3 rules are editable in the Logic tab, and the built-in checker warns about rules that contradict each other.
About this template
A semi-structured interview needs a guide, not a script: the same opening, the same core topics and the same closing question for every participant, with room to follow whatever the participant actually says. This form is written for the interviewer rather than the participant. It opens with the administrative facts that make a transcript usable months later — participant code, date, setting, whether the session was remote or in person — then records consent to take part and the separate, explicitly distinct consent to record. Each core topic gets a prompt and a notes box, with a reminder of the probe to use when an answer stalls, so a nervous interviewer has something to fall back on without reading the page aloud. A rapport question sits first because the first two minutes decide the tone of the next forty. At the end there is space for the interviewer's own impressions, kept deliberately separate from what the participant said, plus a flag for anything that needs following up. Because it is a form rather than a document, every interview lands in the same structure and can be filtered, exported and compared later.
What this form asks
Every question is editable — rename it, make it optional, or delete it entirely.
Page 1 — Session details
- Participant coderequired
- Interviewer namerequired
- Date of interviewrequired
- Start time
- Settingrequired
Page 2 — Consent
- Did the participant consent to take part?required
- Did the participant consent to being recorded?required
- Recording file name or reference
Page 3 — Topics
- Warm-up — tell me a bit about your role and a typical week
- Topic 1 — how do you currently handle this task?
- Topic 2 — where does it go wrong?
- Topic 3 — what have you tried instead?
- Closing — what have I not asked about that matters?
Page 4 — Interviewer notes
- Interviewer impressions
- Is any follow-up needed after this session?required
- What follow-up is needed?
16 questions in total.
How the form changes as it's filled in
This template ships with 3 conditional rules, grouped into 3 behaviours driven by 2 questions. Everything below is already set up — edit or delete any rule once the template is in your workspace.
Driven by “Did the participant consent to being recorded?”
- Hides questions
If “Did the participant consent to being recorded?” is No, the form hides “Recording file name or reference”, so nobody answers questions that don't apply.
Driven by “Is any follow-up needed after this session?”
- Reveals questions
If “Is any follow-up needed after this session?” is Yes, the form reveals “What follow-up is needed?”.
- Makes answers required
If “Is any follow-up needed after this session?” is Yes, “What follow-up is needed?” becomes required before the form can be submitted.
Set it up step by step
- 1
Replace the topics
Swap the four topic prompts for your own research questions — keep them open, one idea each.
- 2
Keep the two consents apart
Consent to take part and consent to be recorded are different decisions and must be captured separately.
- 3
Fill it in live
Type into the notes boxes during the session; retrospective notes lose the participant's own words.
- 4
Use participant codes
Record a code rather than a name so the notes stay usable if the file is shared.
- 5
Debrief immediately
Complete the interviewer impressions block before the next session starts.
Mistakes to avoid
- Reading the guide as a script, which turns a semi-structured interview into a spoken survey.
- Writing notes from memory after the session instead of during it.
- Recording before the consent question has actually been answered out loud.
What it pairs with
Most teams don't run this form on its own. These are the forms and systems it sits next to.
What to do with the responses
Export the notes the same day, transcribe the recording if you took one, and code the answers against your themes while the session is still fresh.
Works in this layout
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Frequently asked questions
How is this different from a survey?
A survey collects the same answers from many people. An interview guide keeps the same topics across sessions while letting each conversation go where it needs to — the notes, not the options, carry the data.
Should the participant see this form?
No. This is the interviewer's instrument. Participants get the consent form and, if you use one, the information sheet.
Can I use it for user research as well as academic work?
Yes. The structure — screener facts, consent, topics, impressions — is the same whether you are testing a product or running a study.
How many topics should a guide have?
Four to six for a one-hour session. More than that and you will rush the last ones, which are usually the interesting ones.
Is the Interview Guide Form template free to use?
Yes. You can preview and test Interview Guide Form on this page without an account, and take a copy into your own HelloForms workspace on the free plan. There is nothing to install and no card required to publish it.
What does the Interview Guide Form template ask for?
It asks 16 questions across 4 pages, 7 of which are required. Every question is listed in full further down this page, and each one can be renamed, reordered, made optional or deleted after you copy the template.
Can I edit the Interview Guide Form form after copying it?
Yes — the copy is entirely yours. Change wording, add or remove questions, switch between the classic layout, restyle it to match your brand, and set who gets notified on each submission.
How does the conditional logic in this research & data collection form work?
3 conditional rules ship with the template: Features conditional hiding: if “Did the participant consent to being recorded?” is No, “Recording file name or reference” is removed from the form and is never submitted. Features advanced show logic: if “Is any follow-up needed after this session?” is Yes, the form dynamically exposes “What follow-up is needed?”. Otherwise that question never appears. Features conditional validation: if “Is any follow-up needed after this session?” is Yes, “What follow-up is needed?” becomes mandatory before the form can be sent. All rules are editable in the Logic tab.
Where do responses to the Interview Guide Form form go?
Submissions land in your workspace under Submissions, where you can search, filter, label and export them to CSV or PDF. You can also email a notification to your team on every submission and send the respondent an auto-reply.
Can I embed the Interview Guide Form form on my own website?
Yes. Publish the form and paste the embed snippet into any page or share the direct link. The embedded form resizes to fit its container and loads no advertising or marketing trackers inside the iframe.
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