The First 90 Seconds: Setting the Stage for Authentic Responses

Avoid corporate scripts and get participants to tell you genuine stories

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The Zoom notification pops up - someone is in the waiting room.

You take a breath. You've prepared your questions, tested your recording software and read their company's latest reports. You're ready to run this interview.

You click "Admit." They appear on screen, adjusting their camera and unmuting. "Hi, thanks for making the time to speak today."

What happens in the next 90 seconds will determine whether you get their press release or their truth.

Why Opening Moments Matter More Than You Think

Research in psychology tells us that first impressions form within milliseconds and are stubbornly persistent. When you are running interviews, those opening moments shape how participants perceive you and fundamentally shape what version of themselves they choose to present.

Think of it this way: Every interviewee walks in wearing invisible armour. Some wear the "company representative" suit. Others sport the "I don't trust researchers" shield. A few clutch the "tell them what they want to hear" spear.

Your opening determines whether they keep up these defences or genuinely engage.

Breaking The Corporate Script

Here's something that often happens in interviews:

Interviewer: "Thank you for joining me today. As you know, we're conducting research on digital transformation in your industry. Could you start by telling me about yourself and your role?"

Executive: [Activates LinkedIn profile mode] "I'm the Chief Digital Officer at Company X, where I lead our enterprise-wide digital transformation initiative, focusing on leveraging cutting-edge technologies to drive operational excellence and enhance customer experience..."

And just like that, you've lost them to the script.

In my experience, the best way to generate honest and genuine responses is to be genuine in the first place. Here are some strategies to achieve that:

The Personal Touch

Instead of launching into your research objectives, let your eyes wander for a few seconds. That marathon medal on their bookshelf, the succulent collection taking over their windowsill, the vintage concert poster barely visible in the corner… These aren't just decorations. They're conversation starters!

"Is that from Boston? I've been trying to qualify for three years."

What happens next is alchemy. Their shoulders drop. The corporate mask slips. Suddenly they're telling you about how they almost didn't finish, or how their daughter surprised them at the finish line. For two minutes, you're not researcher and subject. You're two people who understand what it means to run 26 miles.

This works virtually too, sometimes even better. That blur of book spines behind them? "I've just noticed on your shelf… is that the entire Murakami collection?"

The key: People put objects in their spaces that matter to them. When you notice these objects (genuinely notice, not in a calculated way), you're seeing the participant as more than their job title. You're acknowledging the runner, the reader, the plant parent, the music lover. This isn't small talk. Small talk is weather and traffic: safe, universal, forgettable. This is specific recognition: you're saying, "I see something about who you are beyond this interview."

Sometimes the most interesting reactions come from the unexpected objects. If you ask an executive about a child's drawing taped to their monitor, they might light up and tell you about their granddaughter's art phase.

What happens next: The transition back to your topic happens naturally. After they've told you about qualifying for Boston or keeping their succulents alive during a brutal winter, shifting to "So, tell me about the digital transformation project..." feels like a continuation of your conversation, not the start of an interrogation.

The Shared Experience

This approach creates instant connection by acknowledging you're both humans who just navigated the same small challenge or moment. It works because it's not about them or their expertise, it's about something you legitimately share (or shared).

Discussing a shared experience immediately positions you as equals rather than researcher/subject. You're two people who just dealt with the same annoying building security, confusing parking situation, or glitchy technology.

Here are some examples:

• Virtual: "Did Zoom make you update right before this too? I swear it knows when you're in a hurry." (laugh) "Technology, right?"

• In-person: "I just had the most confusing conversation with building security about which elevator bank to use. Please tell me I'm not the only one who finds this place maze-like?"

• Weather/timing: "I can't believe it's already November. Feels like we just started the year. How's the end-of-year crunch treating you?"

The key: It’s important for these hooks to be genuine, because you can’t really manufacture a shared experience. The magic is in the brief moment of mutual recognition: "Oh right, we're both just people dealing with life." Some of these topics might sound like small talk, but they’re not - as long as it’s an experience that you have in common with your interviewee. One thing is talking in general terms about how wet the past few weeks have been (‘the weather’). A completely different thing is to chat about how you both got caught up into a storm on your way into the building (a shared experience).

What happens next: They usually laugh, agree or share their own micro-frustration. This tiny moment of commiseration breaks the formal interview frame. When you transition to actual questions, they're already in conversation mode, not presentation mode.

The Unexpected Gratitude

It is common to thank a participant for joining the interview when they pop up on screen or greet you in their office, but generic thank-yous are likely to lead to generic interactions. Tailoring your expression of gratitude to the interviewee shows you've done your homework and see them as an individual (and a key informant), not just another participant.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

• Role-specific: "I really appreciate you making time. I know product launches are brutal on CPO schedules - is this your first breath in weeks?"

• Background-specific: "Thanks for agreeing to this. When I saw you'd transitioned from consulting to in-house, I immediately wanted to talk to you. That perspective shift is exactly what I'm curious about."

• Timing-specific: "I know earnings calls are next week, so I really appreciate you squeezing this in. I’ll do my very best to keep things brief."

This sort of messaging demonstrates investment and respect as well as subtly communicating what attracted you to speaking with them specifically, priming the participant to share the experiences you're most interested in.

The key: The specificity must connect to something that actually matters to the interviewee. You are not just trying to prove you have seen their LinkedIn profile: you need to show you understand their world enough to know why their time is valuable.

For example, knowing your participant is a Chief Product Officer is the bare minimum. Understanding that CPOs during launch season are juggling customer escalations, engineering pushback and board presentations while probably surviving on coffee and adrenaline? That's the kind of recognition that makes someone think, "Oh, this person actually gets it." The goal is to make them feel seen as an expert with hard-won, specific knowledge, not just another data point in your research.

What happens next: In most cases, participants will expand on what you have noticed, explaining just how crazy the product launch has been or reflecting on that career transition. You've given them permission to be real about their context, which carries into their answers. When people feel their expertise is genuinely valued, they will share the stories that matter, not the sanitised versions they think you want to hear.

Beyond the Opening: Your First Real Questions

So you've made a human connection in those first 90 seconds. They've told you about their marathon training or admitted their Zoom fatigue. Now what?

This is where many interviewers stumble. They've broken the ice but then immediately plunge into formal questioning: "So, can you describe your digital transformation strategy?" The warmth evaporates. The corporate script returns.

The transition from opening moments to substantive questions requires a natural bridge - questions that maintain the conversational tone as you gently steer toward your research focus. These aren't your core research questions yet. They're the questions that keep participants in that open, reflective state while moving closer to what you need to know.

Think of it as a gradual narrowing:

• First 90 seconds —> Human connection

• Next 5 minutes —> Contextual exploration

• After 5 minutes —> Core research territory

The best bridge questions feel like natural curiosity. They show you were listening in the first 90 seconds and create space for stories rather than statements.

I've developed a bank of these bridge questions through years of research - questions that maintain rapport while gathering rich contextual data. They're organised by category (career journey, daily realities, team dynamics, personal perspectives) and designed to feel like natural conversation while serving as powerful data collection tools.

You can find this document below: it's the resource I wish I'd had when I started running interviews.

Your Next Interview

Before your next interview, write down your proposed opening. Then ask yourself:

• Does this sound like something a robot could say?

• Would this make me want to share my real experiences?

• Am I signalling that I want performance or truth?

In interviews, the best sharing happens when you create moments where structure can fade into genuine conversation. And that possibility is won or lost in the first 90 seconds.

The participants who share the most valuable insights aren't necessarily the most talkative or the most senior. They're the ones who, in those first moments, decided you were someone worth being honest with. They made a split-second calculation that being real with you was lower risk and higher value than delivering practiced lines.

Remember that you're not trying to trick anyone into authenticity. You're creating conditions where authentic responses feel safe.

The next time you start an interview, resist the urge to kick off by establishing your research credentials. Nobody cares about your methodology or your sample size in those first moments. Instead, establish your humanity: show up as a curious person, not just a data collector. The rest will follow, and it will be far richer than anything you could extract through formal questioning alone!

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I'm Andrea, a management consultant with over a decade of experience across industry and academia. I work with commercial, non-profit, academic and government organisations worldwide, helping them capture meaningful insights through mixed methods research.

I write about practical frameworks to help you discover what others miss. My main goal is to translate complex concepts into techniques that readers can use immediately.