I've been doing interviews with aspiring members of the Australian & New Zealand AIS community recently (about 35 so far) and I've arrived at the following set of questions (steps 1 - 3) as being pretty effective for understanding their challenges (and then turning into insights for program ideation). Steps 4 and 5 are speculative (I've not actually asked them but they are what I'd ask if I had more time with each interviewee).

You're unlikely to get to Step 3 if you only have 1 hour with the interviewee. So I recommend asking them in order (i.e. start with background, then go into their pain points, then what they perceive as the pain points of other people, then solutions etc).

HMU on yannikyriacos@gmail.com if you have any in depth questions about this.

Step 1: interviewee overview

• Give me a quick run down on everything you’ve done in AI Safety so far (education, networking and jobs)
• Give me a quick overview of what your plans are moving forward. 
  • What is your plan A?
  • What is your plan B?
  • What is your plan C?
  • What is your plan D?
• What have been the single biggest pain points for you personally in attempting to have an impact in AI Safety?
  • What is the second biggest?
  • What is the third biggest?

Step 2: what are their pain points (education, networking, jobs)?

• What have been the biggest pain points for you personally in attempting to find relevant education in AI Safety? 
• What have been the biggest pain points for you personally in attempting to create relevant networks in AI Safety?
• What have been the biggest pain points for you personally in attempting to find relevant work in AI Safety?

Step 3: what do they see as others’ paint points (education, networking, jobs)?

• What do you believe are significant pain points for other aspiring AI people when attempting to find relevant education? (i.e. not you)
• What do you believe are significant pain points for other aspiring AI people trying to create relevant networks/do networking? (i.e. not you)
• What do you believe are significant pain points for aspiring AI people when it comes to them finding relevant jobs? (i.e. not you)

Step 4: what do they see as the most promising programs  (education, networking, jobs)?

• What do you believe are promising movement building programs when it comes to helping aspiring AI folk find useful education? 
• What do you believe are promising movement building programs for aspiring safety folk looking to create useful networks/do networking? 
• What do you believe are promising movement building programs for aspiring AI folk looking for jobs?

Step 5: what do they see as the biggest gaps in the ecosystem? 

• In your experience, what are the biggest knowledge gaps aspiring AI professionals face? 
  • Are there specific areas where the current educational resources and training programs fall short? 
• In your experience, what are the biggest skill gaps aspiring AI professionals face
  • Are there specific areas where the current educational resources and training programs fall short? 
• In your experience, what are the biggest networking gaps aspiring AI professionals face?
  • Are there specific areas where the current networking opportunities fall short?