There are four steps that need to be followed to conduct a successful Stakeholder Interview:

1) Plan your interview – Determine what information you would like to obtain from the stakeholders about the organization (e.g., the clientele, employees, technology, etc.) and what level stakeholder will be able to best provide the desired information. During this step, it is also important to delegate responsibilities amongst your team, and ensure that each team member has supplies for their interview (e.g., recording device, paper, pencils etc.). Finally, determine when the interview(s) will be conducted and how much time is appropriate to spend to conduct the interview(s).

2) Prepare your field guide – In the guide it is important to include an introduction, the purpose of the interview and some language that encourages the stakeholder to provide candid responses. The guide should also contain a broad range of questions; some general and some more related to the topic about which you determined earlier.

3) Conduct the interview – To start the interview, it is important to (re)introduce yourself and the reason for the interview. It is advisable to start with a broad question before jumping into the more detailed ones, as it might take a while for the stakeholder to begin to open up and provide more content-rich responses. Conclude the interview by asking about the stakeholders aspirations for the change program and projected results.

4) Document the findings – Create transcripts of the interview to be shared with the entire team and refer back to it as the change program is implemented. It is in one’s best interest to also keep the original audio files, back-up typed documents and take photos of any handwritten notes.

Stakeholder Interview guides and transcripts are often developed as documents and then shared through presentations. It is important to conduct interviews with individuals across the organization in order to identify key impacts, issues and success factors to manage during the change process. Interviews help you understand your stakeholders’ concerns so that you can develop change management strategies to address them, and ensure your program can be implemented successfully. 

Praxie’s online Stakeholder Interview collaboration tools allow any team or organization to instantly begin working with our web templates and input forms. Use our template to identify key stakeholders to interview, to manage and track the interview process, and to capture interview questions and key insights from each interview. Get started with our Stakeholder Interviews template. 

How to use it: 

1. Insert the interviewee and the corresponding contact information. 
2. Assign a priority level along with interview status, dates and location. 
3. List key questions and findings.  
4. Provide any links to recordings or notes. 

Our digital platform goes far beyond other software tools by including progress dashboards, data integration from existing documents or other SaaS software, elegant intuitive designs, and full access on any desktop or mobile device.