Title of Paper: The 30-Minute Interview Methods Guide: Lessons From Over 100 Interviews in the Health Policy Domain
Institution: Digital Society Initiative, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Federica Zavattaro, and I am an Italian researcher based in Zurich, Switzerland. With a background in Health Policy, I am currently completing a PhD in Digital and Mobile Health at the University of Zurich, where I research trust and digital transformation. Throughout my doctoral journey, I have conducted qualitative studies involving interviews with more than 100 health policymakers and digital health stakeholders across various European contexts.
Why this research topic? What inspired it?
The main inspiration behind this research stems from my willingness to contribute meaningfully to the digitalisation process in healthcare, where trust plays a crucial role. In my PhD, I interviewed health policymakers and digital health stakeholders across European Union institutions, as well as in Italy, France, and Switzerland, to map the role of trust throughout the health data-sharing policy process. In recruiting interviewees for my studies, I identified a significant and underexplored methodological challenge in qualitative research: How to conduct high-quality qualitative research when interviewees have extremely limited time? This practical challenge led me to develop and refine the 30-minute interview format, which I have now used in over 100 interviews across four studies in health policy and digital public health.
What were your major findings and Key Takeaways?
This paper proposes a 30-minute interview format as a qualitative research method capable of generating meaningful and high-quality data while accommodating professionals’ limited availability. The key takeaway is that shorter interviews, when properly structured and thoughtfully designed, can be a valuable alternative to longer ones, offering a pragmatic solution for qualitative researchers, without compromising data quality or research rigour.
Were there any unexpected findings?
This paper is a methodological guide rather than an empirical study, so there were no unexpected empirical findings in the traditional sense. It was encouraging to see how responsive and engaged participants were with the 30-minute interview format. Many professionals were willing to commit to a 30-minute interview after declining a request for a 60-minute one, and the quality of the insights they shared was consistently high. This reinforced my belief that respecting participants’ time constraints does not mean sacrificing research quality. On the contrary, it can enhance participation rates and lead to more focused and productive conversations.
What are the major policy and research gaps filled by this work?
Researchers often struggle to balance the need for in-depth qualitative data with the limited availability of key interviewees, particularly in policy. By providing a structured guide based on extensive practical experience and lessons learned from over 100 interviews, this work helps researchers using the 30-minute interview method and avoid spending excessive time refining their interview design through trial and error.
What were the main challenges and opportunities associated with this work?
In methodological work, there is always a balance to strike between offering enough detail to be genuinely useful and avoiding being too prescriptive for contexts or research questions that differ. I therefore had to carefully balance how much to share from my own experience, while recognising that every research setting is different and may require adaptation.
What are your next steps in this area of research?
Future research should assess the broader applicability of the proposed 30-minute interview method beyond highly qualified professionals. It would be interesting exploring whether this format works well with diverse participant groups such as patients, caregivers, especially in sensitive contexts where time plays a crucial role in establishing trust and enabling the collection of data. There is also a need for comparison between short and longer interview formats by examining differences in data richness, thematic saturation, and participant experience. This comparative work would help validate the 30-minute interview method as a robust alternative to longer interviews for time-constrained interviewees and provide clearer guidance on when each format is most appropriate for different research questions and participant groups.
Any advice for emerging researchers working in this area of research?
I would encourage early-career researchers to share their experiences openly, including what didn’t work in their research. This can help others avoid the same pitfalls and work more efficiently. Learning from each other’s practical challenges and solutions really strengthens research quality and impact. I would also say do not underestimate the value of documenting and sharing methodological insights alongside empirical finding: the research community needs both the what and the how. These insights can save other researchers countless hours and help raise the overall quality of qualitative research in the field
About Federica Zavattaro
Federica Zavattaro is a PhD candidate in Digital and Mobile Health at the University of Zurich, where she is affiliated with both the Digital Society Initiative and the Institute for Implementation Science in Health Care. Her doctoral research, which began in September 2022, focuses on the operationalisation of trust in digital health policies in Europe.
Her research portfolio includes publications examining trust-building principles in health data-sharing legislation, tracing the evolution of sociopolitical discourse surrounding health data sharing in Switzerland, and developing canvases to guide students in conducting trust analyses, as well as self-assessment tools for policymakers seeking to foster trust in their practice. Her work has been published in leading journals including Health Policy, The Milbank Quarterly, and the International Journal of Qualitative Methods.
Federica has participated in major European public health and health policy events, including being a fellow at the European Public Health Conference and a Young Gasteiner at the European Health Forum Gastein in 2025.
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