Interviewer practice · intersectional inclusion research
Compass
Rehearse in-depth interviews with AI respondents who answer like real people: in Hindi, by voice, on your phone. Practise before you interview people with marginalised identities, instead of practising on them.
By invitation: your trainer sends you a link.
Why rehearse with AI respondents
Interviewing skills come from practice with feedback. Practising on real respondents isn't ethical, uses up the trust of communities already tired of researchers, and teaches little: a real respondent rarely says what went wrong. Actors with lived experience are the best partners, but there are never enough of them for every topic and every combination of identities.
Two kinds of error
Omission: what an interviewer fails to ask or follow up, so an experience that sits where caste, gender and disability meet never reaches the data. Commission: what an interviewer says or does that harms the respondent or bends the answer. Hidden facts train against the first; the harm check and staged moments train against the second.
How it works
- 1
Choose a study and a respondent
Each study has its own interview guide. Each respondent has their own life, their own way of talking, and experiences they keep back.
- 2
Interview by voice, in Hindi
On your phone, as in the field. Open, patient probing draws the story out. Assumptions, pressing after a no, or a sensitive question when someone walks in shut it down.
- 3
Read your debrief
What you drew out and what you missed (errors of omission), what could have harmed the respondent or bent the answer (errors of commission), and a better line to try.
Works with any study
Compass works with a study's own interview guide: every hidden fact is tied to a question in it, so drawing it out is the same skill the real interview needs. Three illustrative studies show how.
Women in work
What helps women get, keep and grow in paid work, and what programmes and employers could do better.
- Easy
Lalmuni Devi · Gaya
Warm, talkative, fond of her goats
- Medium
Komal · Tonk
Quick and funny, opens up at her own pace
- Medium
Nisha · Gurugram
Quick, funny and busy: a picker in the festive-sale rush
- Hard
Sana · North East Delhi
Sharp and guarded: answers exactly what you ask
- Hard
Ritika · Patna
Quick, polite and guarded until she trusts you
Tribal health
How Adivasi people experience health services, and what would improve outcomes.
- Easy
Sushma Toppo · Gumla
Shy for a few minutes, then chatty and the first to laugh at herself
- Medium
Ramli Ninama · Banswara
Sure of herself and fond of a tease; quick to close up if she feels judged
- Medium
Mangilal · Baran
Plain-spoken and practical, careful with anyone carrying a form
- Medium
Budhram Sinku · West Singhbhum
Matter-of-fact, a little impatient, with a repair always on the table
- Hard
Phoolbati · Kabirdham
Long pauses, a deadpan wit, and slow to trust anyone who seems official
Farming in a changing climate
How smallholder farmers cope with and adapt to a changing climate, and what support reaches them.
- Easy
Mohammad Jameel · Darbhanga
Jokes a lot and is generous with stories
- Medium
Rinku Devi · Muzaffarpur
Brisk and practical: the short version first, real detail only about one real day
- Medium
Phagni Uikey · Mandla
Busy with the harvest, quick with a dry joke
- Hard
Hiralal · Vidisha
Proud and plain-spoken, and short with anyone who sounds like an officer
- Hard
Rajkumar · Banda
Careful and measured, with an umpire's dry humour
Personas co-designed with lived experience
The personas a team practises with are co-designed with people who share their identities, through Belongg Circle, Belongg's network of intersectional experts. Belongg also runs BelonggAI, which helps teams find intersectional gaps in their research and programme designs.
Illustrative persona. Written with AI to show how Compass works. It has not been written or reviewed by people who share these identities. The personas used for training are co-designed with people from these communities.
- illustrative studies
- 3
- illustrative studies
- guide questions
- 77
- guide questions
- hidden facts
- 147
- hidden facts
Practise with community actors
An actor plays the respondent from a card on their phone and taps each fact as it comes out. Only people a trainer marks as actors can play these personas.
Flag a line
The AI composes every answer live. If a persona says something that sounds like a stereotype, anyone can flag it, and it goes back to the people who review that persona.
Private by design
No real respondent data. Hidden facts never reach your phone, recordings are never stored, and you choose whether trainers see your name.