Interview Preparation Tips

Preparation Is Where the Interview Happens

The interview itself is mostly listening. Preparation is where you make the decisions that determine how well that listening goes -- what you'll ask, what context you'll carry into the room, how you'll stay oriented when the conversation wanders.

InterviewCue is built around this reality. Your questions, background notes, and reference links aren't just organizational tools -- they become your live interface during recording, your timeline structure, and your post-production starting point. The better your preparation, the less work everything downstream requires.

Start in a Shared Document

The recommended workflow begins outside InterviewCue -- in Google Docs, Notion, or anywhere you and your guest can write together. Draft your outline there, share it with your guest so they can add context and flag what they're most excited to discuss, then import it into InterviewCue.

The import does the organizational work for you. H2 headings become questions, body text becomes background notes, and links embedded in your text are automatically extracted and attached to the relevant question. Doing the writing in a shared document first means you arrive in InterviewCue with a well-shaped interview rather than building it from scratch.

Write Questions as Chapter Titles

The most important mindset shift: write your questions as chapter titles, not conversation prompts.

Your guest never sees your question list as a script -- they're having a conversation. But your listeners will see these questions as chapter markers in their podcast app, and they'll appear as sections in your show notes. Every time you advance to a new question in Live Mode, InterviewCue records a timestamp that becomes a chapter in your produced MP3, a row in your CUE sheet, and a heading in your Markdown export.

Vague question text makes vague chapters:

  • ❌ "Tell me about that" → useless in a chapter list
  • ❌ "Interesting!" → means nothing six weeks later

Clear question text makes useful chapters:

  • ✅ "From grad school to first startup" → listeners know exactly what this chapter covers
  • ✅ "The pivot to enterprise customers" → tells the story before they even press play

Write for the person skimming chapters in their podcast app, not just for the guest across from you.

Background Notes That Work During a Conversation

Background notes have a very different quality bar than research notes. Research lives in your documents and can be as long and thorough as you like. Background notes are read mid-interview -- in a two-second glance while you're listening, maintaining eye contact, and shaping your next question.

The test: if you wouldn't glance at it during a live conversation, cut it. What earns a place:

  • Pronunciation guides -- nothing disrupts rapport like mispronouncing a guest's name or company
  • Specific follow-up reminders -- "ask about the acquisition if she doesn't bring it up"
  • Facts you might misremember -- a year, a statistic, a reference that needs to be right
  • Flags for sensitive areas -- a quiet reminder to approach something carefully

Dense paragraphs don't survive the cut. You already know your research. The note is a cue, not a briefing.

One additional consideration: in Collaborative Mode, your guest can see your background notes. Keep them professional and worth sharing.

Clean Up Your Links Before the Interview

After importing, your reference links may include noise -- social media boilerplate, sponsor URLs, newsletter links that appear in every episode. Use the Exclude Permanently feature on anything that won't be useful during this interview. What should remain is only what you'd actually open mid-conversation or include in show notes: guest profiles, specific articles, product pages, demos.

If you're planning to use the Link Opener to navigate your interview through browser tabs -- especially for video podcasts -- do a quick check that the links open to what you expect. A 404 mid-conversation interrupts everything.

One Run-Through Before You Record

Practice Mode is your final check. It runs the full live interface with your questions and notes but saves nothing. In five minutes you can:

  • Read through your questions in the order you'll see them during the interview
  • Spot anything that looks off, too long, or unclear before it matters
  • Practice the hotkeys until they're automatic
  • Confirm the screen position is comfortable for quick glances mid-conversation

The goal isn't memorization -- it's eliminating uncertainty. By the time you click Start Interview for real, you should have zero doubt about where anything is or how anything works. That mental space goes directly into being present with your guest.

What's Next?

Preparing Questions - The full guide to questions, background notes, and structuring your interview
Reference Links - Organizing and using links before and during recording
Practice Mode - Rehearse without saving anything
Live Interview Mode - What the recording experience actually looks like