"How are things going?" is actually a terrible question to ask someone in an interview, if that's literally how you ask it. It is saying to them, in so many words, "tell me how you think you are doing, performance-wise, so far?"
Horrible, and about the direct opposite of a question that will put someone at ease. Questions that will put someone at ease are ones that have nothing that can be construed as something you are assessing their answers to, like asking them about their visit to the area or if they enjoyed lunch or something like that. Break the ice, tell them about what you work on, see if they need a break, and then start digging into stuff. I also like to tell the person up-front what we'll be covering in the interview so there are no surprises. Walking in the door and asking them a question they could interpret to mean to reflect on their interactions with the previous interviewers makes me cringe.
Well as I said in the article, the intention of the question is emphatically not a "gotcha" about how they are actually doing. It's intended to find out if there are any problems that need addressing.
Yeah it's a tough one I think to ask well -- maybe you've got the tone and wording down in a way that candidates won't misinterpret, but I've avoided that type of question because I'm not able to do so.
Horrible, and about the direct opposite of a question that will put someone at ease. Questions that will put someone at ease are ones that have nothing that can be construed as something you are assessing their answers to, like asking them about their visit to the area or if they enjoyed lunch or something like that. Break the ice, tell them about what you work on, see if they need a break, and then start digging into stuff. I also like to tell the person up-front what we'll be covering in the interview so there are no surprises. Walking in the door and asking them a question they could interpret to mean to reflect on their interactions with the previous interviewers makes me cringe.