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I'm by no means an expert, but here are some tips I've picked up over the past year or so:

Prep

• Make sure they know how long you plan to interview them for, and stick to that time limit when you do the interview.
• Know the basics of what the person does that you are interviewing. Don't waste time asking basic stuff.
• Have some questions for if the conversation goes dry or to get at specific points, but don't try to structure the whole thing. Plan to go off-track with your interview.

The Interview

• Don't be afraid to wait after your interviewee finished talking. Just a few more seconds might lead to the really interesting bits of what they are thinking about.
• Ask questions you already know the answer to. This can help with getting good quotes and can also lead to unexpected places (because you wound up not actually knowing the answer).
• Don't be afraid to write stuff down (or record if your interviewee doesn't mind). You'll never remember everything interesting that they say and you don't want to kick yourself later while writing.
• Regarding notes, make sure to look at them and summarize them shortly after the interview! They'll make more sense sooner rather than later.

Some other Resources

Longer-Term, the Turnaround is a podcast about interviewers and their techniques.

The chapter about interviews in Zinsser's On Writing Well was helpful for me. If you are pressed for time grab it at your library and just read that chapter, it's short. Amazon Link

> Get people talking. Learn to ask questions that will elicit answers about what is most interesting or vivid in their lives. Nothing so animates writing as someone telling what he thinks or what he does -- in his own words.

Zinsser, On Writing Well