Stakeholders are typically senior managers and executives who have a direct responsibility for, or influence on the product. Stakeholders include product managers, who manage the planning and day-to-day activities associated with their product, and have a direct decision-making authority over its development. In strategic projects, it is not uncommon for the executive leadership from the chief-executive down, to be among the stakeholders.
The purpose of stakeholder interviews is to gather and understand the perspectives of individual stakeholders, and align the perspectives of all stakeholders around a unified vision regarding the scope, purpose, outcomes, opportunities, and obstacles involved in undertaking a new product development project. Gaps among stakeholders on fundamental project objectives and priorities will lead to serious trouble down the road. It is best to surface such deviations as early as possible, and help stakeholders reach a productive alignment.
The purpose of subject-matter experts (SMEs) interviews is to balance the strategic high-level thinking provided by stakeholders, with detailed insights from experienced employees, who are recognized for their deep domain expertise. Sales, customer service, and technical support employees have a wealth of operational knowledge of products and customers, which makes them invaluable when analyzing current processes and challenges.
Prior to the interviews, the experience strategist prepares an interview guide. The purpose of the guide is to ensure that:
- All stakeholders respond to the same questions
- All research topics are covered if interviews are conducted by different interviewers
- Interviews make the best use of stakeholders' valuable time
Some of the questions in the guide are general and directed at all participants, others are more specific and focus on the stakeholders' specific areas of responsibility. Similar guides are developed for SME interviews.
In-person interviews are the best, because they take place at the onset of the project and provide a good opportunity to build rapport and trust between designer and interviewee.
After a formal introduction regarding the purpose of the interview, and general questions regarding the person's role and professional experience, the person is asked for their personal assessment and opinions on various topics. Here is a sample of different topics:
- Objectives and obstacles
- Prioritized goals for the project
- What does success look like?
- What kind of obstacles the project is facing, and suggestions to overcome them
- Competition
- Who are your top competitors?
- Strength and weaknesses relative to the competition
- Product features and functionality
- Which features are missing?
- Differentiating features
- Features to avoid
The interviews are designed to last no more than an hour and are documented with notes and audio recordings, if possible. The answers are compiled and analyzed in a report which points out consensus areas, gaps in vision and priorities, and other risks. The report is one of the inputs that feeds into the development of an overall product experience strategy.