Transcript

Hello and welcome to product nuggets. My name is Thomas  and the topic I want to talk to you about today is one I think often gets overlooked, but is really powerful in forming a strong foundation to build any project on. And that is stakeholder interviews. I know I wasn't the greatest fan of them in the first place, myself.

[00:00:31] They kind of seem a little bit like a chore if you've never done them before, but over the years I've really come to appreciate them as one of the most important things to invest on early on in any project that just keeps paying dividends for the entire duration of that project. And even beyond that, it's also one of those topics.

[00:00:53] That's a little bit. And more comprehensive. And that's why I'm [00:01:00] going to, I think, anyway, I'm going to make two episodes out of the material that I've gathered and what I want to cover. Isn't really all the straightforward stuff, but you'll find, just Googling something really quickly. I really just want to focus on the things that stood out to me personally, over the years.

[00:01:19] And that I just kind of wrote down for myself because I didn't really see them talk about that much elsewhere. So, because this is such a huge topic and everyone's experience with it is completely different. I have to say right now that I know I'm not going to cover everything. There's going to be a lot of things that you might already be aware of when you think, hold on a second, you missed this really important point and yeah, it sure did.

[00:01:46] And if that happens, please let me know about it until then there are a few areas I want to cover in my podcast. In this episode, I'll be looking at why are stakeholder interviews important? What do I get out of them? And [00:02:00] also how do I go about planning them and structuring them? And then in the next episode, I'll go into a little bit more detail again, to the granular detail or what are some really good questions.

[00:02:11] That one can ask and why do they work? So with that, let's dive in.

[00:02:25] As I said, my first experience with stakeholder interviews was very early on. I was working at an agency. And I was just asked to do them to drive up to a client North of the country and see the people down in a project. And I kind of, I didn't really understand why a thought, surely if we're starting a project with this client, all of these important meetings would have already happened.

[00:02:53] Everybody would have been aligned. And, uh, everybody would be aware of what [00:03:00] we were here to do, but of course that was a very naive view and the reality couldn't have been further from the truth. And I conducted those interviews and it was just for two days at the client site. And on the way back on the train, I was just frantically writing down notes because I had so much good material come from that that I needed to synthesize.

[00:03:25] And it was really, really valuable. And since that experience, I really try to make them part of every single point that I do. But why, why, why is it important? And the thing to me personally, beyond everything that you will read and other blog posts online, like setting up the goals and getting general alignment.

[00:03:49] The first thing I find really valuable, it's the sense of connection with stakeholders. When you interview [00:04:00] people and you involve them, you make them feel involved. No, that's building bridges between you and those folks that you were either working with, or you kind of, you know, interfering in that or organization in one way or another, even if it's a partner in your own organization and every stakeholder is part of that project and you will need their help sooner or later, maybe to mobilize others for a workshop or to provide you with data or to be a champion of the project in their organization.

[00:04:33] You can never have too many such people that kind of have your back and that, you know, you have already have a strong connection with, regardless of what's being discovered during the stakeholder interviews, just by having those conversations and by making them feel listened to, you're gonna, you're going to build those connections and they're gonna pay off throughout the project.

[00:04:57] The second thing I get from it is just [00:05:00] motivation. Just listening to people's frustrations and their needs and hopes of what they're trying to change about the role that a business or whatever it is here. I can give you a real cake. If you're conducting, say hello and have use, they chances are that you're where you are because you want to drive change and you want to improve things for, and with those people that you're interviewing.

[00:05:26] They are part of the reason you are here and hearing about their hopes for first hand gives me personally, always a deep sense of energy and purpose. And it really motivates me. And the third point of course, is having one-to-one conversations that feel very personal and are also set up to be anonymous.

[00:05:51] It provides you with insights that otherwise would be extremely hard or impossible to obtain. [00:06:00] What are the constraints and the limitations of a project or what, what are real problems at every level of the enterprise? Who can help you with, what, what does everyone hope to achieve? Why are you doing this project in the first place?

[00:06:14] And the thing is to all of these questions, there is not one singular right answer. Everybody involved will have the different take on it and have a different kind of perspective. Having a conversation that's a little bit wider, like that really gives you a lot of context for. Um, what else you should be considering about this project?

[00:06:36] I always talk about unknown unknowns. So just having like an open-ended conversation, uh, or questions, you know, targeted questions, but, but still sort of focusing on discovery, you know, tell me what I don't know that I should be hearing about. And then you can also get more insights about who else needs involving [00:07:00] often projects kick off with the core sort of team or maybe executives or managers who are driving the project itself.

[00:07:13] But the success of it is dependent on a whole range of other people. And these interviews help you discover that as well. So the three points for, for why doing stakeholder interviews. I find personally most exciting are building connections with people being motivated by the outlook of, of solving their problems for them and the unique insights that those conversations.

[00:08:00] [00:08:05] All right now, let's look into how to set up stakeholder interviews and. For that upfront. I would just say, if you follow my advice of carrying them out very early in the project, you don't actually have to prepare a ton for them. The way I kind of approached this is with what I call respectful ignorance.

[00:08:31] So what I mean by that is I try to prepare such that. My conversation partner will feel like the conversation is important to me. You know, just getting the basics right. Of knowing who am I talking to? Um, what is the kind of information they can provide me with with what is the information that only they can provide me with?

[00:08:54] And, you know, that's not something that I could have easily just looked up online or in [00:09:00] documents that had already been shared. And just being clear about what I want to learn from them. And just if you're doing this for a first time, also thinking specifically about just how to have a good involvement, open conversation that makes everybody involved feel good.

[00:09:23] The ignorance part is. That I try to kind of almost, not really pretend, but have, have a mindset of just not knowing, you know, I'm talking to the stakeholder because they are the expert. And that's how I frame the conversation as well. I want to hear from them how they feel about the project or about their role in it, or, you know, the general experience in their organization.

[00:09:54] So. One of the things I often lead with is, you know, just assume that I [00:10:00] know nothing which more often than not, will be accurate compared to what the conversation will surface. So in terms of general preparation, I'll think about that respectful ignorance. The way I structure these conversations is typically in four parts.

[00:10:22] I'll have an introduction where I obviously introduce myself and why I'm here and then make it really clear what the rules of the conversation are. For example, assuring the. Interviewee that everything that is talked about it will be treated confidentially. And also that there are no right or wrong answers.

[00:10:48] It's inherently often very just opinion-based. And I'm just there to hear my interviews opinions and [00:11:00] saying those sorts of things out loud at the very beginning of a conversation can really make them feel at ease and. Kind of open up to you. The second part is sort of open-ended introduction for your interview partner.

[00:11:17] Obviously you should know who they are and you know, at least broad strokes, but I find that this is a very good sort of warmup where you can demonstrate your qualities of just being a good listener and make them. Feel good about opening up to you and, you know, you let them explain in their words what it is they do what and who they are responsible for, and just aim to get a sense of what their fundamental motivations and anxieties are.

[00:11:48] And the third part, I focus on the project itself. This is where I can learn about the more practical aspects of a project and understand what [00:12:00] my interview partner wants to get out of it. How they feel about it and what relevant dynamics look like and what, what might be possible block us to the project.

[00:12:12] So to give you an example, I once conducted a set of interviews. At the same day in the same building with executives of different departments who opened up to me directly about how they were kind of at loggerheads with each other and how they were aware that what's good for one of them will likely be bad for the, for the other one.

[00:12:36] That was obviously incredibly important to discover because throughout the project, you could then a find, try and focus on finding solutions that would work for both, but also make everyone in your team aware that that is a relationship that, that might need some more management. And that is a huge risk.

[00:12:54] If you work in a project where some office stakeholders actively work against you, that is pretty much [00:13:00] one of the worst situations that you can be in. And by discovering that early in a neutral or even familiar sort of setting, I could kind of get ahead of that and, and work out strategies on that.

[00:13:11] Sometimes to outsiders, it might really feel like you're, you're going off topic by framing questions too wide like this. But when you let them sit there for a little bit and your conversation partners will naturally come to the things that that are actually on their mind. All right. And then at the end of the conversation, I typically block out some time for follow-ups and wrap up.

[00:13:37] We'll follow up. I mean that throughout the conversation, I will be careful not to interrupt, um, the person that I'm talking to unless they, you know, really go and go off on a tangent. But instead, if there is something I want to follow up on something interesting that they said, I will note it down in my notepad and.

[00:13:59] Follow up [00:14:00] with a question. And at the end of the conversation, when it seems like all other avenues have either sort of dried up or we covered everything important that I had planned, and those followups often include those sorts of open-ended questions that I asked earlier that I can't really anticipate the answer to.

[00:14:20] And this is also where you can reiterate and capture any actions that come out of the conversation. Sometimes that might be, you know, promises to follow up from either side of you. I might say let's set up another conversation in a couple of weeks time, or if they have offered to let's say, provide any kind of data or documents or a referral to somebody else, then I'll reiterate that at this point as well.

[00:14:48] And just make sure that that is captured as next steps. All right. These are my stakeholder interviews in broad strokes. The reasons why I think they're [00:15:00] important and the kind of broad structure, hopefully that already helps you plant them a little bit. And as a said, if you are interested in. In some really specific questions and why I think they work junior.

[00:15:13] And again, next time when I'll be talking about exactly that,

[00:15:24] by the way, every week, I get emails about people who really enjoy reading my newsletter, seven things. And I think if you are listening to this episode, you might really enjoy it too. You can sign up to it on my website on Thomas sl.com as always. If you've enjoyed this episode, please do me a huge favor and give it a nice rating on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to this show, product nuggets is produced by myself.

[00:15:52] Thomas Sol. And the theme song is Aeronaut by blue dot sessions. You can get in touch with me via Twitter at [00:16:00] Thomas underscore SL or on my website at Thomas sr com. And your opinions expressed are my own until next time. Goodbye.