David Ing let me tag along on a client interview for a Smarter Cities engagement. He and Donald Seymour interviewed the CIO and other staff of a region in Ontario. In the afternoon, David gave us a crash course on Media and Entertainment to help Donald and another consultant take over that area of responsibility. It was fascinating to watch their easy rapport and interviewing style. Here are some of the things I learned:

• Working in pairs makes interviews much easier. When David interviews, he usually asks someone else to lead the conversation. He asks the occasional question and focuses on recording notes, staying as close to the actual words as possible. This frees him from having to think about processing the words. He does this instead of recording the interview because listening to the recording would require lots of additional time.
• Keep the conversation-setting presentation as short as possible, so you can focus on the conversation.
• Don’t plan too much up front. Let the conversation take you to where it needs to go.
• One-slide summaries with the question structures nudge the conversations in the right direction and help you ensure you cover everything of interest.
• Capture notes on your computer to make it easier to share those notes with others.
• Working with one client can be seen as self-serving. Working with several client organizations and bringing them together to learn from each other—that has a lot of value.
• Hollywood is a strange and interesting place.

David, thanks for sharing!