Stakeholder Interviewing Method
Someone is a stakeholder when they care about the outcome of your project. They may be accountable for its success or failure. They may contribute to the care and maintenance of the product. Interviewing stakeholders helps us better understand not just what we’re designing, but how we’ll need to design it.
Different stakeholders influence the process differently, and you can’t plan for those vectors if you’re not aware of them. As a designer, understanding and acknowledging these factors, influences, and inputs can help put you on the right path toward a project’s goals.
Steps
- Establish goals. What you want to find out from interviewees?
- Identify stakeholders. The number and role of stakeholders will vary depending on the organization. In smaller companies, you may talk to the founder or CEO. In large organizations, department heads (or their proxies) may be who you need.
- Prepare questions. Keep them open ended and as a guide to the conversation.
- Document and analyze responses. Try organizing your research findings into categories: Business, Users, Problems, Fears, Motives, Competitive advantages, Solutions, Alternatives, and Unique value propositions.
Outcomes
Stakeholder Interviewing typically produces insight and solutions focused on these areas:
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Business Goals
A proposed course of action or approach intended to address an identified problem or opportunity.
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Content Quality Standard
Criteria used to judge the level of content quality.
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Success Metrics
Clearly defined measures of success for a project or product.
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User Profile
A high level description of the target user of a product or service. To be most effective, profiles should be informed by user research.
Resources
Next Steps
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Persona Creation
Development of research-informed representations of target user goals, behaviors, and pain points
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Card Sorting
Card sorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site
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Task Analysis
Observe users in action to understand how they perform tasks to achieve goals
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Category Design
Creating structures and schemes that make the location and use of content clear.
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Journey Mapping
Explore and communicate a user’s experience with a service or product over time
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Taxonomy Design
Define a system for labeling and classifying content to make it easier to find, understand, and use
References
Stakeholder Interviewing Method details last edited on 2021-02-01