Interview Prep vs Obsidian Bases

Interview Prep

By James Anditis (Journalism)

Research your subject, build custom questions, and plan follow-ups for any interview.

Obsidian Bases

By Steph Ango (Kepano / Obsidian)

Create database views over your Obsidian notes to track projects, tasks, and reading lists.

Interview Prep

• Generates pre-interview research checklists covering background, public records, and topic context
• Provides question frameworks and templates tailored to interview type (profile, expert, investigative, sensitive)
• Explains recording consent laws and provides consent templates for different scenarios
• Offers attribution guidelines (on record, background, deep background, off record) with clarification scripts
• Creates interview logistics checklists including scheduling templates and day-of preparation

Obsidian Bases

• Creates table, card, list, or map views of your notes based on filters you set
• Lets you group and sort notes by any property (status, date, tags, folders)
• Calculates fields automatically like days until deadline or price totals
• Shows summaries like averages, sums, and counts across your filtered notes
• Works with your existing Obsidian notes without changing how you write them

Reach for Interview Prep when…

• You're preparing to interview customers, users, or stakeholders for research
• You need to interview an expert or subject matter specialist for content
• You're conducting user interviews or customer discovery calls
• You want a structured approach to ensure you get the information you need from any conversation

Reach for Obsidian Bases when…

• You're managing projects or tasks in Obsidian and want a cleaner view than scattered notes
• You need to track reading lists, book notes, or research with custom filters and groupings
• You want to see calculated info like "days overdue" or "total budget" without manual updates
• You're organizing lots of notes and need different views (table vs cards) for different contexts