AfieldIn this article
Rough interview notes are not a transcript. Keep the participant’s words, your paraphrase and your proposed explanation separate before drafting an article.
Classify the notes you actually have
Demo: all notes and names in this example are fictional. They illustrate how to turn a reporting interview into useful content.
| Notebook entry | What it supports | What it does not support |
|---|---|---|
| Friday report combines CRM, billing export and spreadsheet | A paraphrase of the reported process. | A claim that every team uses three systems. |
| “Renewal” means different things in the files | A terminology problem worth clarifying. | A verbatim quote; the note is not a transcript. |
| Maybe automate it? | The interviewer’s idea. | The participant’s requested solution. |
| Time spent: not recorded | A missing measurement. | A savings figure or a claim about hours wasted. |
Confirm the field meanings before drafting
The note that “renewal” means different things does not establish either definition. Ask the participant what each field records and who maintains it before writing the explanation.
Fictional follow-up, paraphrased: the participant confirms that the billing export’s field records the contractual renewal date, maintained by billing. The CRM field records the planned account-discussion date, maintained by the account owner. Save these clarifications as a dated follow-up note, separate from the original notebook entry. If they remain unconfirmed, keep them as open questions instead of describing them as the participant’s process.
A finished passage for the article
The passage below uses those clarified definitions. Its recommendation for handling a missing date is the writer’s proposed procedure; the participant still needs to review that recommendation before publication.
Before combining a renewal report, define what each source means by “renewal.” In this example, the billing export gives the contract renewal date. The CRM records the next renewal discussion. Those are different events, even when both columns are labeled “renewal.”
Rename the fields before comparing them. Keep the contract date with the billing owner and the discussion date with the account owner. If the contract date is missing, flag that row for billing to resolve; copying the discussion date into it would make the report look complete while changing its meaning.
The article can then supply the working table instead of another paragraph about the importance of clean data:
| Report field | Meaning | Owner / source | Missing or conflicting value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract renewal date | Date the current contract renews. | Billing owner / contract record | Ask billing to confirm; leave explicitly unresolved meanwhile. |
| Next renewal discussion | Date planned for the account conversation. | Account owner / CRM activity | Ask the account owner; do not substitute the contract date. |
| Report exception | Which value needs attention before the report is used. | Report preparer | Name the unresolved field, responsible person and next check. |
Get approval for the material you intend to publish
Send the participant the actual passage and table, with three questions: “Does this describe the process accurately?”, “Are these the right field definitions?” and “What needs to be anonymized?” If you want a direct quotation, send its exact wording or verify it against an approved recording. Permission for a paraphrase is not permission to attribute invented words.
Record the approved version, date and permitted attribution. If the participant corrects “weekly” to “monthly,” update the example, caption and any social draft derived from it. For an outcome claim, collect a measured baseline. If the notes are too vague to reconstruct the process, use the incident interview script in a follow-up.