Focusing on the use of the interview in the Procedures for Adopting Educational Innovations (PAEI) Project, this paper reports on the appropriateness of the interview as a research tool in change research and the types of information appropriate to its use. In this project, interviews are used to identify what an individual is doing, has done, or plans to do regarding an innovation. Interviews have been used to determine levels of use (LOU) of the innovation (whether and how the innovation is being used). Results of testing with three different raters demonstrated that reliability of these self-reports is high. Correlation of interview results with ethnographic observations also resulted in a high correlation. In the PAEI Project, interviews also are important for measuring configurations (variations or modification) of an innovation. Because users will be reporting unique ways of using the innovation, the combination of a focused and open-ended interview is necessary. In order to determine which interventions have influenced the successful adoption of an innovation, an additional interview technique that combines the open-ended and the focused interview is being developed. PAEI researchers have concluded that the interview is a valuable research tool that can be an effective means of collecting needed data. (Author/JM)