Stakeholder Interview
What is Stakeholder Interview about ?
PRINCIPLES
• Create transparency and trust about the purpose and the process of the interview; establish a personal connection early on.
• Suspend your voice of judgment (VOJ) to see the situation through the eyes of your interviewee. What matters at this point is not whether you agree with what your interviewee is telling you. What matters now is that you to learn to see the situation through the eyes of the stakeholder.
• Access your ignorance (access your open mind): As the conversation unfolds, pay attention to and trust the questions that occur to you, Don’t be afraid to ask simple questions or questions you think may reveal a lack of some basic knowledge.
• Access your appreciative listening (access your open heart): Connect to your interviewee with your mind and heart wide open. Thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the story that you hear unfolding and put yourself in your interviewee’s
shoes.
• Access your listening from the future field (access your open will): Try to focus on the best future possibility for your interviewee that you feel is wanting to emerge. What might that best possible future look like?
• Leverage the power of presence and silence: One of the most effective interventions as an interviewer is to be fully present with the interviewee and the current situation—and not to interrupt a brief moment of silence. Moments of silence can serve as important trigger points for deepening the reflective level of a conversation. More often than not, these opportunities go unused because the
interviewer feels compelled to jump in and ask the next question. Be courageous. Stay with the opening of the NOW.
PURPOSE
The purpose of a stakeholder interview is to see your work from the perspective of your stakeholders. It answers the questions: What do my stakeholders want from me? What do they need me for? Stakeholder Interviews can be used in all phases of the innovation process. The most common use is during the preparation phase of a project.
USES & OUTCOMES
Stakeholder interviews offer:
• Enhanced clarity about how your work matters from the viewpoint of your stakeholders
• An understanding of how your stakeholders assess the value you create for them
• Ideas for quickly improving a situation
• The identification of barriers and roadblocks that need to be removed
• A better and deeper personal relationship with your key stakeholders
Audience
Is participant experience relevant for Stakeholder Interview ?
Requirements
Stakeholder interviews work best face-to-face. If in-person interviews are not possible, conduct them by phone.
Run Through
Identify the stakeholders who are relevant to your current situation or challenge/opportunity. Define/revise questions to adjust to the specific context. Schedule appointments. Decide whether to send the questions to the interviewee in advance.
Before you meet the interviewee, allow for some quiet preparation or silence. For example, take 20-30 minutes prior to an interview to relax and anticipate the conversation with an open mind and heart.
During the interview
Right after the interview
Close the feedback loop
Material for
Use the interview guidelines (questionnaire), but feel free to deviate when necessary. Paper and pen to take notes.
ERASMUS +
Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. Find more information about the program and its goals here: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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